Police Brutality in Papua New Guinea

By Percy Petelo & Robert Mor

Contents

• Introduction • Brief definition of Police Brutality• Types of Police Brutality in PNG• Causes of Police Brutality• Effect of Police Brutality in the societies of PNG• Measures in addressing Police Brutality• Conclusion • Reference

Introduction

Papua New Guinea faces violence at every turn, including from the police, who should be protecting them. We don’t need to investigate or look far to confirm brutal and cruel actions done by police officers in our country. The cruel treatment done by police personals are occurring frequently in our country, even if reported to higher authorities, there seem to be no follow up investigations and the case seem to vanish after few days.

Brief Definition of Police Brutality

• Defined as unmerited, excessive and aggressive abuse, police brutality is a phenomenon that causes irreparable harm to its victims.

• Brutal assaults meaning offences such as harmful treatment to a person which as an effect on the persons body and emotional feelings.

Types of Police Brutality in PNG• There are reported cases of a large handful of them engaged in

white collar crime and hide under the pretext of police. Even more are the cases where some of them follow politicians for favour and this was very obvious during the 2012 National Elections.

• Excessive Force – excessive force is probably the most well-known form of police misconduct. Excessive force occurs when and officer uses more force than is necessary to apprehend a suspect.

• False Imprisonment – false imprisonment occurs when an officer retrains the free movement of the victim without probable cause

Causes of Police Brutality in PNG

• There are two major causes of police brutality The jurisdiction where the police officers serve.

In some areas, acts of violence are committed against against law enforcement on a regular basis.

Another cause of police brutality can simply be an abuse of powers –these are more extreme cases and again should be subject to review by department heads.

Effect of Police Brutality in the societies of PNG

• Death The use of excessive physical force often characterizes police brutality and it sometimes result in the death of its victims.• Psychological EffectsVictims of police brutality may suffer from psychological effects and disorders• Court CasesVictims of police brutality may pursue court cases against the city employing their abusers.• Racial Profilingat times, an entire culture or race may feel victimized by police brutally.• Media attentionAs some police-brutality cases higher profile than others are, the victims’ private lives may have sudden exposure to media attention.

Measures in addressing Police Brutality

• There are two ways or approaches to minimise or reduce police brutality in PNG

1. Professional ApproachOne strategy to reduce police brutality is to emphasize professionalism in the police force.2. Bureaucratic Approach Critics of the professionalism strategy contend that it ignores elements of organizational culture within a police department that may foster attitudes that tolerate excessive force by officers

Conclusion

• Police brutality was viewed as a serious problem which eroding the dignity of it’s citizens as a human being.

• The excessive use of force by police personnel on the citizens are not just disturbing but a huge problem that is requesting drastic measures in addressing it.

Referencing

• Retrieved on 03/05/2015 from BusinessDictionary.comhttp://www.pngfacts.com/1/post/2012/08/police-brutality-review-police-force-in-png.html#ixzz3Z0n6xzIH\

• Retrieved on 03/05/2015 from ONE Papua New Guinea http://www.onepng.com/2013/07/police-brutality-is-big-problem-in.html• Retrieved on 03/05/2015 from NoBullying.comhttp://nobullying.com/police-brutality/• Retrieved on 03/05/2015 from causes site

http://www.causesof.org/causes-of-police-brutality.php