Editorial: Democracy Hub Demo: Police Deserve Commendation And Not Condemnation

A former Deputy Attorney General, Dr Dominic Ayine, according to myjoyonloine.com, has condemned the recent clashes between protesters and the police, describing the physical altercations as unacceptable and counter-productive.

His comments come after reports surfaced of protesters engaging in fisticuffs with law enforcement officers, during a demonstration organised by Democracy Hub, leading to arrests and subsequent detention.

According to the report, Dr Ayine emphasised that while the right to protest is protected under the constitution, violence should never be a part of such activities.He stressed that peaceful demonstrations are an essential part of democracy, but the actions of some protesters who resorted to violence undermine the cause they are advocating for.

According to him, the news portal continues, such behaviour only escalates tensions and complicates the relationship between citizens and law enforcement agencies. The Chronicle is happy that no mean a person than Dr Ayine, a leading member of the National Democratic Congress, has added his voice to the condemnation of the conducts exhibited by some of the Democracy Hub demonstrators.

We wish to put on record that we are not against the street protests organised by the pressure group against illegal mining in the country. No right thinking person, in our opinion, will support the devastation being caused to our environment in the name of looking for gold. Just last week, JoyNews television, an affiliate of the myjoyonline.com, whose report we are referencing, reported that some community members in the Western Region are having skin rashes, which they have attributed to the polluted water they are drinking.

As others have already argued, it would be wrong for a resident in Accra to think that what is going on the mining areas does not concern him or her. This is because it is the same polluted water they are using to grow the cabbages, water melons, cucumbers and others, which are transported to Accra for the urban dwellers to consume. In a nutshell, should there be any outbreak of diseases as a result of the pollution of our water bodies by illegal miners, those living in the big towns and cities will not be immune.

In view of this danger, if a group decides to demonstration to draw public attention to the danger starring all of us in the face, it should not raise any eyebrow. However, such protests should be conducted with civility. Unfortunately, per the reports that have come out, this is not what happened during the Democracy Hub demonstration. Pictures released by the police and civil society organisations show that some of the demonstrators engaged the police in physical battle.

Apart from the ignition to the police towing truck, which was illegally removed by one of the protesters, others were also seen playing football in the middle of the road and thus obstructing the flow of traffic in such a sensitive area as the 37 Military Hospital. What even exacerbated the situation was the pushing down of the barriers that have been mounted by the police.  In all these provocations, the police did not react in a violent way as witnessed in the past.

Elsewhere, the removal of the ignition key to the police car and running away with it would have attracted gun shots, but this never happened. Neither was the one who pushed down the police barriers arrested immediately, after committing the offence.

This means the police as an institution has completely reformed in line with tenets of democracy. But despite all these modern policing methods adopted by the Inspector General of Police, Dr George Akuffo Dampare and his team, there are others who are still trying to fault their efforts because some of the protesters were arrested.

We remember the case of the late George Perry Floyd Jr., an African American from the US. George was murdered by a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, claiming that he resisted arrest. Apart from this infamous case, there have been several occasions that police in most of these advanced countries have opened fire on people deemed to have offended the law.

Here in Ghana, we also have stories of police officers beating up demonstrators. But as we earlier alluded to, despite all the provocations, peace officers dispatched to police the Democracy Hub demonstration never used maximum force when they came under attack. In our opinion, they used very civil ways in arresting those they deemed to have offended the law.

To us, the way the police handled the demonstrators deserves commendation and not condemnation. We hope this new method of handling crowds will not be a nine days’ wonder, but will continue in years to come for the betterment of our democracy.

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