It is clear that police stations are no longer the safe havens that they used to be.
I remember a time when I went on a random road trip without a map, a clue or any significant amount of money.
I would drive until nightfall and then simply park the car at a police station in small dorpies and sleep in the car for the night.
As a child, I grew up believing that the police station was a safe place where you could always go when you were in need of help. But now it seems that cop shops are unsafe for both police officers, as well as community members. And it doesn’t look like anything much is being done about it.
A few months ago, I commented on how armed men held up police officers inside a Northern Cape Police Station, making off with guns, ammunition and other valuables.
A few weeks later, a similar incident happened in Limpopo when the cops were locked up inside a police van, before the 10 men made off with guns from the safe.
And just two weeks ago – shortly after the latest horrifying crime stats were released – more than 40 taxi drivers stormed the Philippi East Police Station, demanding that a taxi driver and his boss be released from custody.
The men were arrested after reportedly admitting to swapping around the taxi’s licence disc and documentation. But despite having been caught breaking the law, the mob attacked police officers in the charge office and marched off with the two suspects.
They were eventually re-arrested and also charged with escaping from lawful custody, but the damage to what little sense of safety the community had felt, has been done.
But like I said last time, acts like these are not just an act against the immediate community, but against broader society.
It should concern us when just one police station is invaded by criminals.
When it happens this frequently, we are looking at a trend that should be ringing crisis alarm bells.
And I say crisis because the problem is a much bigger one.
The day after the Philippi incident, a group of Lotus River residents prevented law enforcement officers from arresting a suspect on drug-related charges.
So I can sort of understand the criminal element involved in invading a police station.
The same criminal element is present when police are attacked and shot in the line of duty.
I even understand last year’s brutal rape of an off-duty police officer in Delft.
These are criminals doing what criminals have always done. But these new incidents are terrifying for very different reasons.
These are what I presume to be law-abiding citizens stepping over the moral boundary to actively defend the criminals that are terrorising their own communities.
Of course the SAPS are not perfect, but it is our last line of defence against total anarchy.
There are enough decent officers with their hearts in the right place, and we shouldn’t break down their resolve, because then we have nothing left.