[Blueskies]

"http://africa.reuters.com/top/news/usnBAN650053.html
S.Africa police pay price for violent crime - report
Tue 6 Nov 2007, 13:54 GMT

OHANNESBURG (Reuters) - More South African police officers were killed in the 11 years since the end of apartheid than in the previous period, a new study that highlights one of the world's highest crime rates showed on Tuesday.

The South African Institute of Race Relations said 1,894 police officers were killed between 1995 and 2005, compared to 1,152 between 1983 and 1993, the last years of apartheid, which was marked by political violence and a state of emergency.

"This is a reflection of the violent nature of our society," said Frans Cronje, development director at SAIRR.

"Obviously the police are paying the price of the high crime rates we are facing, they are at the forefront of this crime," Cronje said.

South African police reported in its annual crime statistics in July that murders, carjackings and violent robberies rose in the past year, despite efforts to reduce one of the world's highest crime rates.

The country's murder rate jumped 2.4 percent between April 1, 2006 and March 31, 2007, the South African police report said. There were 19,202 murders during the period.

Cronje said that although in most cases the police are equipped to combat crime, there are questions about their fitness, training and psychological preparedness, given a very high suicide rate among police officers.

But South African police refute suggestions that they are not trained to tackle crime.

"It is unfair to say that officers are not trained to respond to these violent criminals. In some instances, it might have some truth in it, but mostly it is not true because we have had numerous successes," said Superintendent Eugene Opperman, police spokesman for the Guateng province.

"There are criminals out there who have got no respect whatsoever for the law, and police officers come under a lot of armed attack," said Opperman, whose region includes Johannesburg and faces some of the country's worst crime rates."

Please come up with some rationale that would put the above into perspective for South Africans and state it here so that ALL may understand and accept. The 'lassez affaire" approach of your rational in previous posts "kill and rape" and forgive attitude is hard to comprehend.