You know that a society is sick not only when those who are supposed to uphold the law engage in acts so brazenly transgressive of the very law they are supposed to enforce but also when the citizenry and the press have to do the work that the police is paid to do.

This is how the barbaric acts of some brain damaged policemen caught on video have gone unpunished until…they appeared on social media and the press. Many of you will have watched with disgust the footage of three policemen drunk on the wanton violence and barbaric acts they were inflicting on a suspect (and filming it – to what end, pray tell?), aggravating it all with a Taser – a weapon that was supposed to be banned and whose possession is therefore illegal. Many will not have been able to watch the video until the end because the torture portrayed seems to belong to the infamous Guantanamo or Nazi-era concentration camps. This is not only a national embarrassment but also a source of pure heartbreak.

When all the bits of information gradually emerging have been pieced together and confirmed by the police themselves, you are left with a rather incredible story: the police have been in the presence of the pen drive containing irrefutable documented proof of cops openly breaking the law by illegally beating the living daylights out of suspects who are supposed to be innocent until proven otherwise, since 2020. The former police commissioner concedes that he had received the pen drive but he couldn’t even be bothered to check what it contained! He sent the footage to the police spokesperson, who returned it to the commissioner, who handed it to the head of the CCID, where it predictably died a natural death. To date, no one, it would seem, deemed the content troubling enough to watch it**. Or they did watch it and decided that such acts of unspeakable barbarism are perfectly normal in our society. So the monsters disguised in blue uniforms we are expected to respect, carried on with their job, picking up their salary cheque at the end of the month while citizens out there – innocent or guilty is irrelevant – were licking their wounds from the indelible trauma they wentthrough. No, sorry, one of the cops was suspended, but for another misdemeanour. The torture and Taser are not serious enough offences to warrant dismissal, or even a ticking off.

It was only after everyone and their dog had watched the acts of torture that the police suddenly woke up and decided to act on a video that had been gathering dust in their drawers for nearly two years! And the commissioner of police is still in place! And the minister in charge of law enforcement is still thumping his chest about the great work the police have been doing! 

What has transpired is very serious. These are not mistakes made by some dirty and bent cops. This looks like more widespread police brutality, cruelty, callousness and utter contempt for basic human rights, exacerbated by impunity, maybe political activism and police cover-up, all heavily charged ingredients with the potential of stoking social friction and strife.

It is clear from the videos circulated this week that the police are complicit in the trampling of rights of citizens in a blatantly odious way. What is equally clear is that they have been getting away with it. What is still slightly less clear is the scale of violence, brutality and barbarity permeating the Mauritius Police Force. We may find out, through some promised ‘surprises’, that what we have seen, horrible though it may be, is only the tip of the iceberg.

The police like to underplay the acts of violence and talk of “bad apples”. But when "bad apples” enjoy impunity, conditions are ripe to squeeze out gallons of bitter cider. We are beginning to show all the signs of a poisoned hangover. Enough!