most cops love to arrest on a friday, so that you have no access to a court or lawyer till monday....

i wish timeslive would follow this story, and see how many of the 590 actually end up in jail...

i'd guess around 30

590 arrested, big deal.
How many for what crimes ?
Of course police don't say -- they can but they never do.
This is because the majority are always for minor crimes, something they don't want people to know.
These people will simply clog up the clogged up courts even more.
We've had this nonsense for the last 20 years and it just makes the situation worse.
More murderers will just walk away scot-free.

Another Mthethwa propaganda ecercise?

ecercise = exercise

"Police arrest 590 suspects in crime blitz"

...merely scratching the surface ...and all an eye-blinder for the World Cup!

'Comrades' are partners in crime and will always cover each other, whether you're an SAPS member or a baby-rapist ...and crime is the common denominator!

Who's fooling who...?

It's not the quantity of arrests -- it's the quality of arrests.

OPERATION CLEAN UP AT THE HIGHEST LEVELS!!!!!!!! but they are doing it too soon before the games begin. best to wait until one month before the games so that they wont clog up the jails and the court system

The police haviving a blitz now and then is not going to solve the crime rate in SA.
What would help far more is to jail Selebi for a long time to encourage the police to be less corrupt and do the job they were employed to do.

They have these "blitzes" nearly every weekend.
It's nothing new.

They arrest lots of people for ridiculous things like drinking in public. (majority arrests).
It's been going on for the last 20 years and if it was so effective then there would almost be no crime now.

It's not the quantity of arrests - it's the quality of arrests.
Thats why the murder conviction rate is only 13%.

As many point out here - many of the criems will be minor.... but after a weekend/night in jail some miinor criminals will become violent criminals after being raped and mugged in the police cells.