Country ... South Africa
Violence against striking miners

Video ... Police open fire on South African miners ... Not much evidense that this was purely in 'self-defense'

COMMENTARY
The idea that the police were acting in 'self defense' is preposterous. The police have been able to get away with this sort of mis-information for a very long time, but in an era of video recording, this stories are demonstrably wrong.

The police were acting in an offensive manner rounding up the striker miniers in a clearly planned and orchestrated manner. The killing did not happy in a couple of minutes, but a much longer period ... maybe as much as half an hour. The use of live ammunition, armoured police vehciles and horses suggest a level of pre-meditation that does not fit the 'self-defense' story being circulated by the police.

This is disgusting.

Citizens need to be wary of the police. The purpose of the police to protect the citizenry is fine ... but ther training and their equipment can also be used in a manner that protects the rich and powerful elite at the expense of everyone else. I have been at OccupyWallStreet in New York many times in the fall of 2011 and was amazed at how many police and how much equipment was deployed to defend the 'establishment' from the free speech of ordinary people. The police in New York were quite restrained most of the time, but there were incidents that could easily have gotten out of hand. In Oakland, California the police were brutal ... undedr instruction from the authorities. Eventually the encampments were physically removed by the authorities, but there is deep resentment created by the authorities and their police.

When we connect the dots ... the situation does not look good. Investors have done very well over the past 40 years, but working people and the people at the bottom of the pyramid have remained under-reqarded for their work. This will change ... the big question is whether leadership will get ahead of the wave and do things in a fair and peaceful way, or wqhether there will be violance on a large scale.

This event in South Africa should be looked at like 'the canary in the mine'.
Peter Burgess

Police open fire on South African miners

Police have opened fire on striking miners in South Africa, almost a week after 3000 of them walked off the job. At least 12 people have been injured - with nine seriously wounded. The exact number of casualties can't be confirmed at this stage. Al Jazeera's Tania Page reports from Rustenburg.