Policing and human rights: The meaning of violence and justice in the everyday policing of Johannesburg

摘要

It could hardly have been more apt that I received my review copy of Julia Hornberger's Policing and human rights: the meaning of violence and justice in the everyday policing of Johannesburg while attending a two-day seminar titled 'Human Rights, Policing and Police Killings' hosted by the South African Human Rights Commission in July 2011. Violence and state policing, while constant themes in everyday public (and private) discourse in South Africa, have become particularly topical in 2011 following a number of high-profile incidents involving police abuse of force. Against this background many have called for pause, reflection and intervention, while the South African Police Service (SAPS) has asked the public to understand that it is embroiled in a 'war on crime'.