Tide of violence against Police must be turned

‘POLICE officers should not be subjected to irrational behaviour of this kind.

This court must send out a clear message that punishment for such behaviour will become progressively heavier until the battle is won and the tide is turned.’This was said by Swakopmund Magistrate Bernhard Tjatjara’s when sentencing Mandume Hoxobeb (20) to two years’ imprisonment on Thursday for violently resisting arrest in July 2010.The incident took place in front of Ekandjo Bar in Mondesa when two Police officers apprehended Hoxobeb as a suspect in a robbery case.’I was asked to climb into the car and I refused,’ he told the magistrate.Determined not to give in to the Police’s orders to get into the car, Hoxobeb admitted breaking a beer bottle that was in his hand to ‘scare’ the officers and so get a chance to escape. The officers were not afraid, which resulted in one of them being stabbed and injured by Hoxobeb.He managed to escape to his house where he changed his bloodstained clothes. He stayed in the house. The following day, however, while he was sleeping, he suddenly found himself in cuffs as the Police arrested him.The reason he gave for resisting arrest was because, according to him, the robbery charge against him was a mistake as he never knew the complainant, nor was he ever at the scene of the robbery.Tjatjara said violence against the Police is ‘disturbingly commonplace, and self-evidently extremely serious’.He called the sentence ‘lenient’ because Hoxobeb was 20 years old when he committed the offence and has already spent five months in custody; and should therefore ‘be treated as a youthful offender’.However, Tjatjara also made it clear that Hoxobeb acted ruthlessly.’He knew well what he was doing. He is a young man seasoned in crime. He has other pending matters in court…’ the magistrate said.