South African solution to school violence

G

G-Freeman

New member
Junior police to monitor schools

Business Day (Johannesburg)
December 10, 1999
By Caroline Christierson

Johannesburg - The Congress of SA Students (Cosas) announced its
plans yesterday to initiate the formation of a junior reserve police
force to monitor and prevent violence in schools.

Cosas president Lebogang Maile said the congress will approach
the safety and security ministry to ask for training for students to
become "police informers".

The informers will report any potential criminal behaviour by fellow
students and will operate in secret to avoid harassment.

Maile said an anti-crime meeting will be organised by Cosas at the
beginning of next year to address the issue of violence in schools.

Copyright (c) 1999 Business Day. Distributed via Africa News Online
 
Sounds a little Hitler Youth or what used to occure in the USSR to me.

Secret informers. Brrrrrrrrrr.

------------------
Ne Conjuge Nobiscum
"If there be treachery, let there be jehad!"
 
My first thought was, "Ah, the Junior Anti-Sex League, with a new purpose."

"Don't be stupid, be a smarty! Come and join the Nazi Party!" --Mel Brooks

------------------
"The evils of tyranny are rarely seen but by him who resists it."
-- John Hay, 1872
 
As another thought, I wonder if the members of the secret informers group will resort to "necklaceing" those that are potential trouble makers?

------------------
Ne Conjuge Nobiscum
"If there be treachery, let there be jehad!"
 
You guys want to see Americas future.....South Africa today is America's tomorrow......and I'am not kidding......how do I know....I fought the communist ANC in South Africa.....and still proud to of been part of the SADF!
 
robnoel, SA scares me a little. Have friends there. Business owners. They will leave if guns are banned.

Big Brother comes to the Mother City

The Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg)
December 10, 1999

Johannesburg - Business against Crime has installed another 63 spy cameras in
the city of Cape Town, writes Marianne Merten

Spy cameras on Cape Town's streets from Eastern Boulevard to Roland Road near
Parliament? It may sound like Big Brother is watching, but the people behind the
closed-circuit television cameras are adamant they are just doing their bit to fight
crime.

Business against Crime this week installed another 63 cameras around the city
area, bringing the total to 75. All are linked to a central control room - at a secret
location somewhere in the Mother City - that is staffed around the clock.

Since the start of the 12-camera pilot project a year ago, more than 250 crimes
have been caught on camera leading to 210 arrests for everything from muggings
to traffic offences, drug deals, stabbings, shootings and bomb threats.

"I'm not just a guard," says control room inspector Maurice Hendricks, previously a
security guard at Alexkor diamond mine in the Northern Cape. "You are actively
involved here."

Job requirements include knowledge of street life, willingness to be trained and an
attitude not to regard this job as just any other. Women and the disabled had to be
represented.

Control room inspector Ross Harris has been confined to a wheelchair since he fell
ill. He was previously a DJ and a bouncer, and has inside knowledge of the CBD
club land.

"They call me the experiment," he jokes. "But I worked damn hard at getting here.
And they have realised it can work out."

The monitors are in contact with various police stations, the flying squad, traffic
officers and municipal patrol officers. The response time is between three to five
seconds.

And there is a strict rule: if there is no police officer at the centre, the surveillance
operation shuts down. A police superintendent recently took up his permanent
post at the control room.

A large number of dockets have been opened on the basis of the videotapes, which
are admissible in court.

At the end of January, the cameras were used to track six People against
Gangsterism and Drugs members along Eastern Boulevard after reports of a
suspicious vehicle heading from Sea Point were received. The men are now
awaiting trial for illegally possessing firearms and ammunition.

In another dramatic incident, a car thief was arrested within 64 seconds of breaking
into a vehicle outside the Castle.

Then there are the more mundane victories. Muggings at ATMs and of tourists in
St George's Mall have all been captured on video and, more importantly, the
criminals have also been apprehended.

Business against Crime Western Cape director John Penberthy says one reason
for expanding the network is to ensure that criminals do not simply migrate to
areas that are not covered.

Sites are already being tested in the gangland of Manenberg on the Cape Flats.
Other spots have been identified in the Athlone and Mitchells Plain CBDs. By May,
the beachfront area between Sea Point and Camps Bay should be covered.

It cost about R12-million to set up the centre and about R1-million a month to run
it. The money was raised by business, which will fund the operation through a levy,
and the Cape Town city council.

In the face of the declining numbers of law enforcement officers countrywide from
208 000 in 1995 to about 120 000 and the high absenteeism rate, this technology
becomes a useful tool.

"We are running on a rugby field with only seven men playing," Penberthy says,
"therefore the introduction of technology. Surveillance is the most useful aid."

Although the cameras can zoom in and out, the humans behind the controls must
stay alert.

Three people man each of the six consoles of 12 screens. One operates a single
screen focusing on specifics, another watches all 12 while the third has a break.
They rotate every 45 minutes to prevent eye strain and concentration lapses.

Then there are monitors monitoring the monitors to ensure their fingers do not
manipulate the cameras into the wrong direction, say a scantily clad woman.

The cameras rotate 360 degrees and view up to 2km. The Mail & Guardian
witnessed a simple demonstration this week: camera number seven focuses
clearly on the number plate of a randomly picked car parked on the Grand Parade.
The view inside is obscured because of the windscreen sun protector. From there
the taxi rank on top of the railway station is in plain view.

The videotapes are stored for three months, and, depending on whether the film is
required in court, burned on to a CD to be stored for several years.

Surveillance centre manager Riyaan Parker says it is important to keep the
information in case operators are accused of having invaded someone's privacy.

Parker is also confident that sufficient checks are in place to prevent any of his
footage ending up on the Internet.

Hendricks and Harris are not the inspectors' real names

Copyright (c) 1999 Mail and Guardian. Distributed via Africa News O
 
Welcome to America's future God help us if Al Gore wins!.....the real story about SA had nothing to do with Apartheid......it was all about the Commonwealth.....Rhodes Scholars ring a bell.......the Queen on her first visit to SA last month said when meeting Nelson Mandels..."I am so thankful that your first official action was to return my beloved SA to the Commonwealth".....you think for one moment the Brits have forgotten you guys kicked thier butts.....heres something to think about


TAVISTOCK - THE BEST KEPT SECRET IN AMERICA



TAVISTOCK INSTITUTE .......... 30 Tabernacle Street, London EC2A 4DD. --

Formed in 1947, the Tavistock Institute is an independent not-for-profit organisation which seeks to combine research in the social sciences with professional practice. Problems of institution-building and organisational design and change are being tackled in all sectors - government, industry and commerce, health and welfare, education, etc. - nationally and internationally, and clients range from multinationals to small community groups. A growth area has been the use of a developmental approach to evaluation of new and experimental programmes, particularly in health, education and community development.

This has also produced new training events alongside the regular programme of group relations conferences. The Institute owns and edits the monthly journal Human Relations (published by Plenum Press) which is now in its 48th year, and has recently launched (in conjunction with Sage Publications) a new journal Evaluation.

Three elements combine to make the Institute unusual, if not unique: it has the independence of being entirely self-financing, with no subsidies from the government or other sources; the action research orientation places it between, but not in, the worlds of academia and consultancy; and its range of disciplines include anthropology, economics, organisational behaviour, political science, psychoanalysis, psychology and sociology.
So reads the opening paragraphs of the Tavistock Institute home page at www.tavinstitute.org/index.htm
The ideology of American foundations was created by the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations in London. In 1921, the Duke of Bedford, Marquess of Tavistock, the 11th Duke, gave a building to the Institute to study the effect of shellshock on British soldiers who survived World War I. Its purpose was to establish the "breaking point" of men under stress, under the direction of the British Army Bureau of Psychological Warfare, commanded by Sir John Rawlings-Reese.

http://www.nidlink.com/~bobhard/tavistok.html
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top