No police officer is above the law

LATELY, there have been many stories in the papers about police brutality but it has to be made clear to the people of PNG that even though our police force continue to abuse the people, the law of this land still stands.
Use the law people!
Even if you’re scared of the police and think everything is against you, use the law because in the end, it will help you.
If you get beaten up by the police, report it!
You have to make a formal complaint no matter how scared you are or how hopeless you feel.
Just make sure that report is made and get a copy of it too.
Not everyone in the police force is bad, it’s only the few that make them look bad and it’s really frustrating when we read stories of police brutality only to find out in the last paragraph of the story that no formal complaint was made against the offending officers.
And it’s not only frustrating for the reader but for the good police officers too.
They can’t help you if you don’t make these formal complaints.
If everyone who is beaten, robbed or abused in some other way by the police makes a formal complaint, it will make a change.
Just make that complaint and sue the police for all their worth and the Government will see how much it is losing.
Then the top brass will do something serious about disciplining their officers.
The media can then come in and report on how many formal complaints and compensation claims have been made against the police in a year alone so we can all see what’s happening.
The average Papua New Guinean must understand that police brutality is wrong.
Even if you are brought in for questioning over a petty crime, if the police officers beat you, that’s wrong and you have the right to make a formal complaint against the officer that beats you up because what they’re doing is just as illegal as the petty crime you’ve committed.

Priscilla Winfrey
via email