The Ashanti regional town of Krofrom is bleeding with tears from residents mourning the death of a 22-year-old. Osei Tawiah was picked up by armed police men who accused him of being an armed robbery suspect, and without the law finding him guilty, the police men decided to find him guilty. They allegedly hit him with the butts of their guns, beat him up, shocked him with tasers until he died.

Tawiah did not have the opportunity to prove his innocence before the law. The police men were law onto themselves and they dispensed justice in the most ruthless manner.

In Gambia, 2005, some 50 Ghanaians were murdered by ruthless security personnel linked to the Gambian president Yahya Jammeh. There was hue and cry in Ghana, a united call for Jammeh to be sanctioned by the AU, UN or anything with a semblance of power. In the end, the Gambian government was made to pay a compensation to the families of the deceased persons.

Several years down the line, innocent Ghanaians are killed, maimed or beaten in their own land by ruthless, trigger happy Ghanaian police/military men who are later defended and shielded by the same institutions.

In September 2015, military men shot a resident of Kasoa Millenium City at close range, in the head, for demonstrating against a demolition exercise.

In February this year a 22-year-old driver's mate Stephen Kwaku Manu was beaten to death by soldiers in Bekwai for removing a wooden slab the soldiers had used as a speed rump on a road.

In the same month, the police shot and killed a tutor, Francis Gbeneh, 33 and his brother Timothy Gbeneh, 28, who they mistook for armed robbers who attacked the Mampong midwifery.

Later in April this year two soldiers in Tamale tied a 16-year-old to a tree, beat him up all day till he fell unconscious. They resuscitated him by melting a plastic bag to his body and beat him till he became unconscious again. He was alleged to have stolen a Techno phone.

In just a period of 7 months our police and military personnel, in a clear case of institutionalized lawlessness have killed and maimed innocent citizens and not one of them have been held to account.

Our political leaders look on, indifferent, not bothered by the stories of death of the citizens whose interest they claim to protect. Death has become so normal a thing, that unless it comes in tens, hundreds where there is opportunity to campaign, shed crocodile tears and issue meaningless statements in solidarity to the bereaved families, our political elites will remain quiet and go about their business of impoverishing the citizens.

Our security personnel have turned the country into a slaughter house where they beat, maim innocent citizens with glee. They have turned the country into a shooting range, and themselves into range officers with the citizens as targets. They shoot and kill at will for major and minor breaches of the law and get their commanders to defend their actions.

Otherwise how does it make sense for police personnel to accost a 22-year-old beat him to pulp, shock him with tasers and when he dies a Regional Police Commander will make stinking comments targeted at angry residents of Krofrom who are protesting the death of the young man?

An autopsy report which claims the young man died of heart attack has suddenly become the book of life for the police, who have since exonerated the personnel for the inhuman treatment they meted out to the young man.

While i do not have the basis or competence to question the autopsy report, i dare say the report does not in any way nullify the fact that the police beat up the young man and shocked him with tasers.

If DCOP Kofi Boakye has any conscience, which i believe he has, he should deny that his men assaulted the young man. He should say that his men acted professionally.  If he cannot, then he should save us the ridiculous sermon about the outcome of the autopsy report and his empty threats to the angry citizens. By clutching to that report, the respected Police Commander is saying it is right for the police to assault suspects, hit them with the butts of their guns, shock them with tasers but keep them alive or even if the suspects should die, the police men should pray that an autopsy report will declare the deceased persons as dying from natural causes. How heartless and senseless that sounds!

Again DCOP Kofi Boakye should know there is always the element of anomic reaction in every country. That once in a while, citizens will go on to the streets in protest over one thing or another without notifying the police. All they need is a trigger and in this case the heartless men in uniforms provided the fodder for that trigger.

So the Police Commander must rather explore better means of calming tempers of the rampaging citizens and ensuring that his men are brought to book rather than issuing empty threats to the sobbing residents of Krofrom.  After all if all the residents should hit the streets of Krofrom in anger today will Kofi Boakye be man enough to order his men to beat, maim, shoot and kill all of them like they did to the 22-year-old young man? If he thought police power is absolute, he should remember the Arab spring! 

You can't continue pinching a baby and threaten him to stop crying. It is not a sensible thing to do. You cannot, kill, maim, manhandle the same people you have sworn to protect and when they shout in protest you threaten them to shoosh. It is not sound policing. If anything, it is a ruthless show of naked power by primitive men lost in a modern era of enlightenment.

22-year-old man, Osei Tawiah 

DCOP Kofi Boakye should know that if it is illegal for citizens to burst out onto the streets in protest, violent protest against the death of a 22-year-old, it is even more criminal for the police to beat up a 22-year-old defenceless suspect, shock him with tasers and when he dies they dump his body at the morgue, (like what a garbage man would do at the dumpsite,) and later get their boss to go on radio to defend their action, threaten the citizenry in the most shamelessly irresponsible manner.

If we are a country governed by the rule of law, the standard should not be the powerless citizens of the country. The standard should rather be the powerful elites of society, clothed in uniforms, armed with weapons, charged with the responsibility to ensure peace, law and order.

The rulers cannot go about breaking the law with impunity, democratizing violence and when the ruled react they are told to live by the rule of law.