International

Continued from page 2

Maseko had taken a case to court against King Mswati III, Africa’s last absolute monarch, over his decision to rename the country Eswatini by decree.

Hours before Maseko was murdered, Mswati criticized activists pushing for reform, saying, “People should not shed tears and complain about mercenaries killing them.”

A longtime critic of Mswati,

Police Murder

Continued from page 12

Maseko knew his work was risky but persisted for many years. He described his situation as “caught between hope and fear.”

He wrote to President Obama from prison. Quoting Martin Luther King, Jr., he asked for help from the U.S. government and generated unwelcome international media coverage for Mswati.

“As one of the founding members of the Johannesburg-based SouthernDefenders, Maseko made an immense contribution to the advancement of justice and human and low income. It was designed to be that way.

We must stop the hiring of only slightly qualified people, just because they are part of a legacy in the agency. We must end the practice of training new officers to be warriors instead of guardians. We must ensure that if supervisors do not properly instruct their subordinates, they lose their authority. And we must change the way we manage and the policies we set forth.

We must insist that our nation’s leadership enact concrete legislation that calls for the total and complete disenfranchisement of those who engage in the unbridled use of excessive force. Once detected, they must

THE rights not only in Eswatini but throughout the Southern Africa region,” wrote the Geneva-based World Organization Against Torture, formerly headed by Kofi Annan. never be allowed to carry a badge and gun, or act with any level of law enforcement authority. Qualified immunity must become a thing of the past, instead of a constant reminder that there are few ways to hold law enforcement fully accountable. We can ill afford the continued creation and fostering of an atmosphere of racially hostile attitudes and behaviors on the part of officers who continue to place us all at risk because of their ignorance and callousminded behaviors.

He carried out several fact-finding missions to Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Malawi where he reported on the deterioration of civic space in the region.

“Eswatini has lost a powerful voice for nonviolence and respect for human rights,” said Ned Price, a spokesman for the U.S. State Department, in a statement posted to Twitter.

There must be change. There must be accountability. The carnage must be stopped.

Lieut. Charles P. Wilson (Ret.) is the webmaster and immediate past chair of the National Association of Black Law Enforcement Officers (NABLEO).

“We remain deeply concerned about continuing violence in Eswatini,” he added, “and we continue to urge the government of Eswatini to set a date for an inclusive national dialogue as soon as possible.”

At Saturday’s memorial service, Dessy Choumelova, the European Union ambassador to Eswatini, called Maseko’s killing an assassination. She said the government needed to carry out a transparent investigation to “identify and prosecute those responsible for this cowardly murder.”

City budget

Continued from page 12 three decades concluded that “new police budget growth is likely to do one thing: increase misdemeanor arrests.”

These arrests do little to reduce violent crime. Instead, the authors explained, they lead to more police encounters that result in killings.

Cities that took steps to reduce arrests for petty crimes saw a decrease in police killings, according to data scientist Samuel Sinyangwe, a cofounder of Campaign Zero. He also concluded that crime rates in those cities did not increase.

These issues need not be divisive. None of us should simply accept that police will continue to kill more and more people each year. Making sure our local budgets invest in real safety, not just deadly force, is one place to begin.

The Community Resource Hub has created a powerful internet tool, DefundPolice.org, to help communities put police spending into perspective and re-imagine their city budgets.

The site includes a detailed video tutorial about how to use tools such as a “people’s budget calculator” to advocate for change locally. We all want safer communities. To get them, we have to put our money toward people’s needs, not deadly deeds.

Sonali Kolhatkar is the host of “Rising Up With Sonali,” a television and radio show on Free Speech TV and Pacifica stations. This commentary was produced by the Economy for All project at the Independent Media Institute, adapted for syndication by OtherWords. org and lightly edited for AmNews style.

The