Angolan Justice

Courtney Keeton
IGS 233B
4th Blog
Crime
http://us.oneworld.net/external/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fweb.amnesty.org%2Fpages%2Fago-120907-feature-eng
This week I chose to do an article about those who should be enforcing laws but are instead breaking them. This story comes from Angola where the officers entrusted to protect citizens and their rights and abide by the laws are stripping citizens of their human rights.
The officers are obligated, by Angolan law, to follow all orders giving by their superiors, whether the orders are lawful or not. Many citizens have been frivolously arrested, tortured, and unlawfully detained. And for the officers who carry out the orders, few are actually held responsible for their actions. Earlier this year, an mad was beaten to death by officers while in their custody. When questioned about the incident, the response was simply that there was an ongoing investigation. This is usually the response when this happens; this was definitely not the first time.
The Angolan police force is relatively new after the over twenty year civil war. Fortunately, a 10 year plan to improve the force was put into place with human rights training included. Unfortunately though, there are still reports of incidences of police brutality and impunity.
I hope that with the new action plan for improving the force will lower the rates of this brutality and unfairness happening to Angolan citizens. But I know that this will only happen if the laws against perpetrators are stricter and the consequences for these officers are more severe.