With great power comes great responsibility, or so they say.
While that responsibility is supposed to extend to every aspect of the job, Western Cape traffic officials aren’t practicing it when it comes to handling potential arrestees.
I mean, such treatment is unfortunately nothing new, but this time it was caught on camera.
On Monday, shortly after Zainodien Allie was arrested, News24 reports that traffic officials allegedly told him that:
“…We will put [you] in the cells with the murderers and the rapists and then you will see what happens to you tonight.”
I mean, that’s a bit excessive, no? After all, he didn’t really do anything:
In an interview with News24, Allie said his ordeal started at a petrol station in Belmore Avenue, Cape Town on Monday when his uncle, Yusuf Davids, was pulled over for using his cellphone while driving.
Davids contacted Allie for help and he rushed over to the scene to assist.
According to Allie, the traffic officers wanted Davids’s cellphone and, when Allie arrived, he took the cellphone and removed the sim card and battery, before handing it to the traffic officials.
He thought the ordeal was over but, as he left the scene, the traffic officials stopped him and demanded that he hand over his phone too.
One of them tried to remove his key from the ignition.
“He said I must get out of the vehicle, but I asked him what I did wrong. The second officer pulled my hand through the window and bent it, while the other one took my phone,” he said.
Allie asked the officers if he could call his wife, but the officers refused and told him to put his hands behind his back as they tried to handcuff him.
“They picked me up and threw me on the floor,” he said.
The video below, posted by his daughter, Bashiera Allie, online, shows what the arrest looked – and sounded – like:
According to Allie, the officers arrested him without informing him of his rights and took him to Lansdowne police station:
He asked for water, but Allie said: “They opened the tap and made me drink water like a dog.”
Luckily, Allie didn’t spend the night with the murderers and the rapists. He was released the same day after his family came to rescue him:
Now, Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security JP Smith said an “investigation into the incident was launched and that other officers had a different version”:
Smith said the officers claimed the person they had pulled over refused to co-operate and locked himself in his car.
He then apparently phoned someone and that person took the phone through the window and sped off, Smith said.
“They eventually pulled him over, there was a disagreement and they wanted to arrest him. He resisted arrest and that led to physical confrontation.”
However, Smith did add that violent behaviour from staff members was not tolerated and if they are found guilty, action will be taken.
Does that mean they end up spending a night with the murderers and the rapists? Highly doubt it.
[source:news24]
