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'We need protection against the people show are supposed to protect us,' 'The protocol is not legislation,' 'Nonsense like this has little chance of working.' Wheels24 readers respond to the 'blue light protocol' saga.
The Justice Project South Africa and the Road Traffic Management Corporation have come up with a 'blue light protocol' in a bid to fight bad cops and criminals, and to save the public's lives. Wheels24 shared the views of many of readers and didn't agree with the protocol. JPSA's Howard Dembovsky hit back responded to our "Screw the blue light protocol" article.
Wheels24 reader MICASA CLAY had a different point of view:
The JPSA and RTMC will not appear in court with you with their protocol to defend you when you are charged for failing to stop when required to by genuine police, thats if you are not shot and killed.
'SHOOT AND KILL'
The hands signs suggested by Howard Dembrovsky on Carte Blanche (November 3 2013) to indicate to police to follow you to a filling station or police station is ridiculous as police are not by law obliged to do so. But you on the other hand are obliged to stop for them, not drive slower, as suggested by this protocol.
In any event, you can be charged for your body protruding and for this Howard will not reimburse you. Howard assumes fuel and police stations are just around the corner, or that these incidents only happen in metros and not in the rural areas or national routes outside of town.
If it's bogus police and you drive away, at the suggested speed of at 40km/h by Howard, I doubt whether they will simply back off and drive away. They will most probably shoot and kill you, after all what do they have to lose? The protocol is not legislation and police are not obliged to respect it.
Where does this guy find all these crazy ideas he alone will know and for the RTMC to buy into this, is equally ridiculous.
The solution is don't contravene any law official or else genuine police will have no reason to pull you off, and in that way you would be able to tell the difference between the good and bad guys.
If you have a passenger get him or her to video record everything covertly on the cell phone. At least there will be some credible evidence in praise of good work by good officers and court action against crooks.
Despite Howard Dembovsky and reader David Vigilant's responses at Wheels24's opinions, here's what other readers, the concerned public, had to say:
HENNING PANTKE: Howard, I think the BIG point is missed by everyone including you! Why is it that we are in such a bad state that a protocol has to be written to teach people to run a background check against the police who is trying to pull them over?
Why are we in such a pathetic state that we need protection against the people who have taken an oath to protect us? So whether people like or don't like the protocol is not the point anymore, the point is this country needs a wake-up call!
JAMES SMYTHE: The protocol sounds like a good idea but only If the police actually hear about it, understand it and abide by it. This is unlikely to happen for all sorts of reasons however!
There seems to be an erroneous way of thinking here in categorising 'the police' and the 'bad guys' - both with blue lights of course. The problem is that there are so many real police - at least that is what they are employed as - who are also the 'bad guys' in as much as they actually do crime whenever things look propitious for such activity.
It is like something I heard many years ago. A squad-leader in the US Army was briefing his platoon of "new guys" in Vietnam saying that there are 33 kinds of snakes in the country and 32 of them are deadly. One trooper piped up: "How do we tell them apart Sergeant?"
The Sergeant answered: "Well with odds like that, son, I reckon you can make a sweeping generalisation and just kill them all!"
No Howard, I respect you and your organisation and the efforts you make, but the answer is not to footle about with nonsense like this which has little chance of working - it is to work hard to remove the ANC, the root cause of all problems such as this, from power - and asap!
Email us and we'll publish your thoughts or use the Readers' Comments section below...
The Justice Project South Africa and the Road Traffic Management Corporation have come up with a 'blue light protocol' in a bid to fight bad cops and criminals, and to save the public's lives. Wheels24 shared the views of many of readers and didn't agree with the protocol. JPSA's Howard Dembovsky hit back responded to our "Screw the blue light protocol" article.
Wheels24 reader MICASA CLAY had a different point of view:
The JPSA and RTMC will not appear in court with you with their protocol to defend you when you are charged for failing to stop when required to by genuine police, thats if you are not shot and killed.
'SHOOT AND KILL'
The hands signs suggested by Howard Dembrovsky on Carte Blanche (November 3 2013) to indicate to police to follow you to a filling station or police station is ridiculous as police are not by law obliged to do so. But you on the other hand are obliged to stop for them, not drive slower, as suggested by this protocol.
In any event, you can be charged for your body protruding and for this Howard will not reimburse you. Howard assumes fuel and police stations are just around the corner, or that these incidents only happen in metros and not in the rural areas or national routes outside of town.
If it's bogus police and you drive away, at the suggested speed of at 40km/h by Howard, I doubt whether they will simply back off and drive away. They will most probably shoot and kill you, after all what do they have to lose? The protocol is not legislation and police are not obliged to respect it.
Where does this guy find all these crazy ideas he alone will know and for the RTMC to buy into this, is equally ridiculous.
The solution is don't contravene any law official or else genuine police will have no reason to pull you off, and in that way you would be able to tell the difference between the good and bad guys.
If you have a passenger get him or her to video record everything covertly on the cell phone. At least there will be some credible evidence in praise of good work by good officers and court action against crooks.
Despite Howard Dembovsky and reader David Vigilant's responses at Wheels24's opinions, here's what other readers, the concerned public, had to say:
HENNING PANTKE: Howard, I think the BIG point is missed by everyone including you! Why is it that we are in such a bad state that a protocol has to be written to teach people to run a background check against the police who is trying to pull them over?
Why are we in such a pathetic state that we need protection against the people who have taken an oath to protect us? So whether people like or don't like the protocol is not the point anymore, the point is this country needs a wake-up call!
JAMES SMYTHE: The protocol sounds like a good idea but only If the police actually hear about it, understand it and abide by it. This is unlikely to happen for all sorts of reasons however!
There seems to be an erroneous way of thinking here in categorising 'the police' and the 'bad guys' - both with blue lights of course. The problem is that there are so many real police - at least that is what they are employed as - who are also the 'bad guys' in as much as they actually do crime whenever things look propitious for such activity.
It is like something I heard many years ago. A squad-leader in the US Army was briefing his platoon of "new guys" in Vietnam saying that there are 33 kinds of snakes in the country and 32 of them are deadly. One trooper piped up: "How do we tell them apart Sergeant?"
The Sergeant answered: "Well with odds like that, son, I reckon you can make a sweeping generalisation and just kill them all!"
No Howard, I respect you and your organisation and the efforts you make, but the answer is not to footle about with nonsense like this which has little chance of working - it is to work hard to remove the ANC, the root cause of all problems such as this, from power - and asap!
Email us and we'll publish your thoughts or use the Readers' Comments section below...