Mr Speaker, the UDM is deeply concerned about the increasing numbers of reports of police brutality. Incidents of violence and death at the hands of the police are now reported almost daily.
One example is the recent incident in which police shot and killed a fleeing man who had not threatened them or anyone else. On the face of it, that would constitute a cold-blooded assassination. Now the ill-considered shoot-to-kill rhetoric of the hon President, Minister and Police Commissioner is not in step with our democratic values.
Now that we are witnessing police brutality, we ought to be reminded of how the old regime's police acted with impunity. Indeed, we must consider yet again why we put measures in place to prevent arbitrary violence by the police.
We do not dispute that the police face dangerous and armed criminals, but we cannot and should not fall for the deception that indiscriminate police violence would solve our crime problems. We are rapidly descending into a wild-west situation, where the criminals and the police resort to open-fire warfare. It is the citizens who are caught in the crossfire. Having another set of trigger-happy people running around will not make the criminals less violent. Quite to the contrary, they are more likely now to shoot first. Crime requires a holistic and considered policy response, something which the ruling party has failed to do. The one successful instrument, the Scorpions, was dismantled by the ruling party. We are now paying the price for the lack of a constructive crime-fighting policy. [Time expired.]