Internet users shocked after a video of a policeman assaulted by a man

The video of a policeman in service uniform being attacked in the middle of the street by an individual armed with a bat, caused controversy on social networks. Calls to provide law enforcement officers with more sophisticated devices for their personal defense and to provide them with better physical training to handle this type of situation have multiplied.

The images have been circulating since this weekend on several social networks. We see a crowd surrounding traffic policemen and a man in a state of high fever, attacking one of the officers while another who was struggling to intervene looked on.

The video shot in the evening is not dated and no mention of the location accompanies it, but it seems that it was shot in a seaside resort just off the beach.

The shirtless assailant, dressed in swimming shorts, used the policeman’s bat to threaten and hit him, under the cries of the witnesses. The policeman was trying in vain to seize his device while the other member of the police was reluctant to help him control the attacker.

“Although the traffic policeman was in possession of an official weapon, this heckler had the courage to attack him and remove his safety baton in front of the people who watched him and did not intervene. Moroccan journalist Mohamed Ouamoussi reported in a tweet.

“Imagine what the latter would do when he finds himself alone with a citizen in a place out of sight? “, he wondered after seeing that the attacker did not even respect the security representative.

“The General Directorate of National Security should hurry to equip the police with Taser-type stun guns and give them the green light to (stun) such crowds…in order to preserve the prestige of security in this country,” he said. recommended the journalist.

For his part, the trainer and former DTN of the Royal Moroccan Athletics Federation, Aziz Daouda, went further, calling for the police to be given the possibility of using their service weapon against these attackers, considering that “this delinquency is unbearable”.

“Police officers must have the right to protect themselves and to use their service weapon if they are attacked. This is the case in all major democracies why not here. You have to,” he wrote on Twitter.

Internet users shocked by these manifestations of violence against law enforcement officers were numerous to criticize the police first, indicating that they must be trained to deal with violence first physically, by controlling them on the ground. before stopping them.

Others criticized the fact that the police do not have the necessary physical condition, allowing them to confront these people when it is their duty to maintain order.

If all Internet users are categorical and angry to have seen a police officer being manhandled by an assailant with his bare hands, they raise the problem of the growing lack of civility in Moroccan society, and some have called for the introduction of “forced labor” for these people, believing that prison was not going to teach them a lesson.

This phenomenon of assaults on police officers on the public highway is not new. Similar videos have already made the rounds of social networks a few years ago.

The most striking was filmed in Casablanca and aroused the indignation of the population. We saw a scooter driver dragging a police officer hanging from the vehicle over a long distance, while the latter wanted to prevent him from fleeing.

On July 17, a police employee was killed in Khemisset after being stabbed in the line of duty while trying to protect citizens from the armed assailant.

Despite these infrequent phenomena, a large section of the population believes that officers should not be authorized to use their service weapon at all costs except in extreme cases, fearing for their own safety in the face of the threat of a weapon or unprofessional agents, especially in view of certain cases of police blunders publicized in recent years around the world.

Hammouchi’s call for courtesy

On May 30, the Director General of the DGST-DGSN pole, Abdellatif Hammouchi, sent a note to all his services and directorates calling on the police to show respect, kindness and courtesy towards citizens, foreign residents and tourists. .

He expressly called on them to engage “seriously in the exercise of their functions by the application of the law in a sound and firm manner”, recalling the imperative to be warmer and more respectful towards citizens and strangers.

“Each institution receiving visitors must attach extreme importance to the quality of the reception of citizens and foreigners, by showing respect and courtesy towards them, and by taking the initiative to treat their requests seriously. and efficiency, in full compliance with the laws and regulations in force,” he said.