From the news desk

Parkwood in need of immediate lock-down: CPF

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The continuous shooting and killing of innocent people has become the order of the day for the community of Parkwood Estate and Ottery. According to the Community Policing Forum, the free flow of illegal firearms are to blame for the bloodbath that claimed the lives of four people in Parkwood over the weekend.

Four people were killed after two suspects invaded their home in Castel Way and opened fire. The reasons for the shooting are still unclear but police are investigating the matter.

Grassy Park Community Policing Forum spokesperson Phillip Bam said the crime situation was “dire” at the moment.

“At least once a week someone dies in Parkwood. We have guns floating around in this area. There is no control over the access to illegal guns and also very little to no information on how the guns are brought into the area,” Bam explained.

With immediate intervention needed to control the spate of illegal gun activity in the area, the CPF suggested a total lock-down on the affected areas and have police do door-to-door inspections to ascertain where the source of the gun supply is coming from.

“We want to search every house, person, car to have some control over the gun problem in the area,” Bam continued.

However, the lack of support from residents in reporting incidents to police is of high concern, says Bam and could play an integral role in identifying culprits involved in circulating the illegal guns.

“When I speak to people and ask why they don’t go to the police, they say they have very little trust in the police. The community also fear for the safety of their families. They live in fear of the gangsters and the police who they claim report the whistle-blowers to the said gangsters,” Bam added.

“People are not making full use of the law. I know and the police also know that there are very little resources for them to take on this problem. You can see that the violence is not stopping and the reason for this is because police are not equipped to deal with it and as a result, the youth face the often fatal consequences by succumbing to the lure of the drug and gun trade among gangsters.”

The gang crisis on the cape flats requires “extraordinary measures” to stop this illegal activity that is killing the next generation, Bam concluded. VOC (Ra’eesah Isaacs)


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