SA’s criminal justice system weakened by Implicit Bias – Chuck Stephens

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Chuck Stephens has delved into the reasons for the decline of the criminal justice system before.  Stephens uses the example of a couple in his home town of White River, who were victims of a crime that took place inside the police station while officers looked on, to demonstrate the problem of implicit bias in the justice system. He also relates the story of his own first-hand experience of implicit bias in the justice system, which he says will never regain its strength while corruption in government is swept under the carpet. – Melani Nathan

Implicit bias in our criminal justice system

By Chuck Stephens*

The events at the White River police station on Sunday morning March 28th were both shocking and no surprise. Barend and Delia ran away from an attempted car-jacking and headed at high-speed to the police precinct seeking protection. There was no protection available in the police station, where the criminals entered with impunity and wrestled Barend’s iPhone away from him. They wanted to gain possession of the evidence that he had in his iPhone because he had been filming their brazen attempt to hijack his car near the traffic circle in White River, on the R40. A high-speed chase ensued right to the door of the police station, where the police laughed with the criminals and made no apparent effort to intervene against armed gangsters.

They eventually got his iPhone and smashed it, but Delia was now filming with her phone while screaming loudly at them. The criminals acted with impunity, inside the police precinct.

I have lived in White River for 26 years, longer than in any other town in my 70 years. I can testify that the police precinct is loaded with IMPLICIT BIAS. The same applies to the Magistrates Court, which has the same virus.

What is IMPLICIT BIAS? Well, let’s take the trial of the policeman who killed George Floyd as an example. In the USA, trials are by jury. Also in the USA, only one out of ten citizens is black. So in a jury of ten citizens, jury duty will be demanded from nine whites and one black. It is all but impossible to change the bias of people who have grown up thinking a certain way.

When a black man is on trial for murder in the USA, nine of his ten jurors are whites. What are his prospects of getting a fair trial? This phenomenon is called IMPLICIT BIAS. The lawyers and judge can instruct the jurors as much as they want, the problem is their embedded attitudes.

This is what happened this week in White River. It was a graphic example. I can testify to it because I have experienced it first hand in this same precinct.

Two white citizens run screaming into a police station that is staffed almost entirely by black policewomen and men. The Station Commander is a black woman. They have been escaping an attempted car-jacking and try to seek refuge in a police station. Thank again, Barend and Delia!

The police did not intervene. The criminals in three vehicles with no license plates, carrying firearms and having smashed the victims’ car window in an attempt to retrieve the iPhone (read: tampering with evidence) enter the quadrangle of the precinct, then into its reception and hallway. They forcefully attack Barend to get his iPhone. The police stand by. Then after the iPhone is smashed, they leave and Delia films them out on the street, on the sidewalk, laughing and kibbitzing with one another. Welcome to South Africa. This was IMPLICIT BIAS at its ugliest.

I have bad news for Barend and Delia. They can lay charges, but their case will take YEARS to get to trial. Meanwhile, they will be harassed by the criminal syndicate – with impunity.

I have even had a SAPS bakkie of three policemen with a gangster break the lock on my gate and enter our premises – with impunity, in 2020. I reported this to the Station Commander and nothing was done.

In September 2017, I was unlawfully arrested and detained overnight in the jail – at this same precinct – I have been a pariah. Because I sued the Minister of Police for defamation. The State attorneys keep delaying the trial. I only opened the case AFTER the charges against me were withdrawn by the police. They had no case when it came to court, although we had to appear three times over five months before the police backed off. Only then did we launch our counter-offensive. But when you do that, it’s double jeopardy. Because you are not just a victim of IMPLICIT BIAS now – you also had the audacity to sue their Police Minister!

The last time a burglar broke into my home, the police wouldn’t even send the fingerprint technician to check for prints, because I am now an enemy. Beware Barend and Delia, you file a complaint about police incompetence or IMPLICIT BIAS and you too will feel this double jeopardy! IMPLICIT BIAS reigns in White River’s criminal justice system.

We live in a mafia state, where the police and gangsters laugh and joke together on the street in front of a police precinct, over a traumatic incident of attempted car-jacking. Not to mention the tampering with evidence and the crimen injuria of criminals openly threatening the victims with reprisals – filmed by Delia. Inside the precinct.

Oh, and then the gaslighting starts. To escape the attempted car-jacking, Barend backed up into the third vehicle behind him. The first vehicle was in front of him, slowing him down to a stop. The second was beside him, preventing him from passing the first vehicle. The third vehicle came up behind him to hedge him in. When he was forced to stop, his driver’s window was smashed open by thugs in the second car trying to snatch his iPhone. So he backed up, smashed that third vehicle in the rear, and escaped over the median. That’s when they gave chase, wanting to snafu the evidence from him, in the race that led to the police precinct. But now, guess what? They will lay charges of malicious damage against Barend! More IMPLICIT BIAS.

When Loyiso Jafta testified at the Zondo Commission, he explained how much money was looted from the State Security Agency. One has to wonder if this was really an SSA operation? How could apparent criminals act with such obvious impunity? They seemed to be on friendly terms with the police. The point is that BILLIONS of Rand were looted and one of the main purposes was to weaken the criminal justice system. They can bribe policemen, they can bribe court officials, even judges. They have plenty of money to spend, while the Minister of State Security doesn’t even know who all of the “spooks” are receiving salaries on the SSA payroll every month!

Until criminals like Jacob Zuma and Ace Magashule are brought to trial, convicted and punished, the impunity will run amuck at all levels. We have to connect the dots and see that the ANC gridlock is to blame for the rising crime in our communities.

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