Good cops' lives worth more than a swimming pool: Cope

30 July 2015 - 13:42 By RDM News Wire

The Congress of the People (Cope) on Thursday added its voice to the chorus of condemnation of the murder of a Cape Town police officer. Warrant officer Petrus Holz was stabbed to death on the side of the N2 while changing a tyre on his car after colliding with debris in the early hours of the morning.“When police officers murder or cause the death of a civilian‚ society should feel outraged. Equally‚ when criminals kill a police officer without provocation‚ the state and communities must express total outrage also‚” said Cope’s Dennis Bloem.“The response of the state‚ in such circumstances‚ must show its resolve never to permit any harm to come to the men and women in blue.“The murder of an innocent policeman in Cape Town‚ changing a flat tyre‚ is a vile and repulsive act requiring the sternest of visible response from the state.”Bloem also took the opportunity to take a swipe at police minister Nathi Nhleko and challenged him “come down from his ivory tower and leave his padded chair” and “to walk the crime-ridden areas with police officers on the ground”.“The time has come for the minister to defend the police and stop expending his time and energy defending the indefensible that is the runaway expenditure at Nkandla.“The lives of our good police officers and of law abiding people are more valuable than a swimming pool purporting to masquerade as a fire pool that it clearly isn’t.”..

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