Watch Out Malawians! Our Police Are Shooting On Sight!]

As with most victims of high-speed car chases, the family of Yusuf Abdullah [May His Soul Rest In Piece] never thought it would happen to them. Yet, every day in our country, another family member comes to terms with what the Abdullah family is experiencing now as one of their own was ripped away from their lives, by a coldhearted Police Force that only knows extortion and terror: high-speed police chases kill. 

Although the 997 Police do not want to characterize the incident as a fatal chase, any pursuit expert will agree that as along as the police were actively going after Yusuf Abdullah with live bullets being shot at the truck, then that constitutes a fatal chase.

The question is: would this crash and ultimate fatalities have happened regardless? I think yes. In most cases, victims of hot pursuits like the one in Ntchesi are innocent people who were going about the business of earning an honest living just as Yusuf Abdullah was doing. 

Again, the Police were indulging in the usual terrorist pastime-recklessness and roadblock extortion.  The actions of our heavily politicized Police have lately been largely humiliating in implementation and hostile to the horizon. 

The issue should not be the cause of death only, as it will be determined by the pathologist, but we should also look at why the Police in all honesty thought, they could engage in a Formula 1 car chase, in a heavily populated city like Lilongwe.  

The 997 Police pretty well know that places like Ntchesi are always a beehive of activity so that any high-speed chase would be both suicidal and homicidal.  To conjure that the Police were shooting at the truck in Ntchesi where anything goes at any time, as people and other vehicles are always going in all directions is beyond the fence. 

In a setting like that one the scary probability of innocent people being hit by stray bullets, should be enough to force any responsible police to hold their fire.  Malawi is not Navajo Joe Land.  Likewise, when deadly chases occur in real life, the Police think that they have no business to take responsibility, and even the families just like the public have to rely heavily on doggy law enforcement public relation officials to give them information about the pursuits.  

It is very sad that the trigger-happy and extortionist 997 Police who engaged in the car chase in Lilongwe in, which they killed the driver of the truck Yusuf Abdullah, are refusing to take responsibility of their barbaric actions. This is insane for our Police are renowned for their highhandedness and chronic begging.  

What is ironic about the, 997 Police Officers is that they did not have as part of their practical courses or training, specialized vehicles and simulators designed to replicate the roadway and tactical situations to which they are being exposed now.

Officers should have access to the highest-quality training the Police Force is able to customize.  From their haughty actions one can tell they don’t even know, which vehicles in the Police Department’s “Armada” have been designed and authorized for high-speed crisis vehicle operations, as well as under what surroundings they may be used.

Driving simulators and episodic reminder training should be available, so that Police personnel can continue right through their careers as adept in tracking down pursuits as in using firearms.  Both are high jeopardy, low incidence activities that can affect the Police Force in abundant compliments, especially when tracking downs go out of kilter.  

In addition, because of the brainless actions that abbreviated and fatally terminated the life of Yusuf Abdullah, the Police top dogs must revisit their training programs so that this kind of lunacy does not recur. They may also wish to overhaul their syllabus on Evidence, Ballistics and Forensic Investigations so that to responds to the demands of the modern world.  

The summary dismissal of Yusuf Abdullah’s death by our Police is creating awkward elevator moments to decent Malawians.  Incidentally, this is not the first time that the police have arrogantly shirked, responsibility after they have killed an innocent victim of a high-speed pursuit.

Most of them behave as if they are convalescing from forced sodomy.  They are always sullen and spiteful.  Families of victims of high-speed chases share stories of how the Police harassed them and sometimes ridiculed them with senseless answers.  The Police do this on purpose because they do not want to engage the issues shoulder high. They would rather shoot from the hip like Cowboys from the Wild West.  

Much as at funerals of victims of Police violence, the outpouring of love and support from the public is very comforting. We honestly expect to see Police Officers in numbers, but nothing of that sort happens. No big wigs from the Police show up to commiserate with the bereaved families.  To them it is business as usual.  

In count, they say our Police are reformed.  You heard it right.  

I hear Mutharika has ordered the DPP’s Office to prosecute the shooter in the fatal hot pursuit.  I will hand it to him with grace.  Good Job for waking up on the right side of the stone.