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Implicit Prejudices Responsible For Security Officers’ Shoot-To-Kill Psyche When On Zongo-Related Operations.

July 05, 2021

By Maxwell Nkansah

According to information countless young Zongo men have been senselessly killed by security officers between 2020 and 2021. Accordingly it has being a result of long standing hidden biases against Zongos that makes officers erroneously think Zongos are violent and the only way to subdue them is to use lethal force.

Seven innocent Zongo men were murdered at Manso Nkwanta. The former Ashanti Regional Police Commander, DCOP Mensah Doku claimed they were armed robbers and added that the same group attacked a commercial sprinter bus and killed an officer and wounded another. It did not end there, the Commander and his men displayed weapons they claimed belonged to them.

Justice has not only been denied, but DCOP Doku has been promoted to COP despite the outcome of a five-member Committee that proved that the Zongo boys were innocent.  Other incidents such as the three killed at Ejura and one thirty-year-old Ibrahim Abass killed at Ablekuma Central are all Zongo boys.

It has come to the uncomfortable realization that Officers do not hesitate pulling the trigger when they go on Zongo-related operations because there is that implicit bias inflamed by perceptions about Zongo people being violent and can only be subdued when matched with deadly force.

This is similar to what is going in other foreign countries. According to research white Officers are more likely to open fire at a black suspect than a white suspect. It is an incontrovertible fact that, due to certain socio-economic and political deficits in our Zongos, these areas become breeding grounds for criminals. We need to fight crime but should not be at such an unwarranted human cost. The government approached to such incident isn’t welcoming in the country.

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