Police pleased with response to violent protest at UNHCR offices
JOHANNESBURG - Police management has lauded the SAPS's tactical response to violent resistance by refugee protesters at the United Nations High Commission for Refugees regional offices in Brooklyn in Pretoria on Friday.
In rounding up the integrated operation emanating from a case of trespassing opened at Brooklyn SAPS on November 14 after a group of about 500 refugees, including women with children, gained access illegally to the premises of the UNHCR regional offices, Gauteng police commissioner Lt-Gen Elias Mawela commended the manner in which police and officers from other law enforcement agencies responded to violent resistance from the alleged trespassers, Brigadier Mathapelo Peters said in a statement...
On Friday morning, police arrived at the regional offices with the intention of effecting arrests as per the trespassing case opened the previous day, she said. "As soon as police gained access to the property, the group started attacking the members while the women in the group were carrying babies on their backs and sides, making it difficult for police to react."
Instead of retaliating, police weighed options in terms of appropriate tactics for crowd management. Water cannons were deployed and police were, during that short space, able to apply tactics that ultimately ensured minimum injuries.
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