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Crime

Man Dies After South African Police Tie Him to Van and Drag Him (Warning: Disturbing Video)

Feb. 28, 2013 3:30pm Billy Hallowell

JOHANNESBURG (TheBlaze/AP) — They bound his hands to the rear of a van, and then sped off, dragging the slender taxi driver along the pavement as a crowd of onlookers shouted in dismay. Following the horrific scene, the man was later found dead.

A gut-wrenching video of the scene is all the more disturbing because the men who abused the Mozambican immigrant were uniformed South African police officers and the van was a marked police vehicle.

The graphic scenes of the victim struggling for his life shocked a nation long accustomed to reports of police violence.

“The visuals of the incident are horrific, disturbing and unacceptable. No human being should be treated in that manner,” said South African President Jacob Zuma.

The Daily Sun, a South African newspaper, posted video the footage Thursday and it was quickly picked up by other South African news outlets and carried on the Internet. It sparked immediate outrage about police behavior.

Uniformed South African Police Drag Mido Macia After Attaching Him to Van He Later Dies

In this still frame from TV and courtesy of South African Daily Sun newspaper, showing a South African man with his hands tethered to the back of a police vehicle being dragged behind as police hold his legs up and the vehicle apparently drives off, east of Johannesburg Tuesday Feb. 26, 2013. (AP Photo/The Daily Sun) TV OUT

“They are there for safety, but we as a people fear them more,” said Johannesburg resident Alfonso Adams. “You don’t know who to trust anymore.”

Some of those in the crowd who watched the scene unfold in the Daveyton township east of Johannesburg shouted at the police and warned that it was being videotaped. The police did not seem at all concerned by all the witnesses and the presence of cameras as they tied Mido Macia, a 27-year-old from neighboring Mozambique, to the back of a police vehicle, his hands behind his head. At least three policemen participated in the incident. Macia was found dead in a Daveyton police cell late Tuesday.

“We are going to film this,” several onlookers shouted in Zulu as the police tormented Macia. One bystander can be heard on the videotape shouting in Zulu: `’What has this guy done?”

A murder probe is underway on the evidence that Macia suffered head and upper abdomen injuries, including internal bleeding, the Independent Police Investigative Directorate, the police watchdog agency, said Thursday. The injuries could be from the dragging and he could also have been beaten later in police custody.

“The allegations are that he was dragged behind a vehicle and his head was bent on the police vehicle. There are also allegations of assault,” said the investigative unit’s spokesman Moses Dlamini.

Watch the shocking clip below (caution: disturbing imagery):

The video evidence of the abuse renewed concerns about brutality, corruption and other misconduct by a national police force whose reputation has suffered in recent years amid reports that many officers lack training. Some have been charged with committing the crimes they are supposed to prevent, including rape and murder.

“As horrific as it is, it is not exceptional. Hardly a week goes by without such stories of brutality,” said Jacob van Garderen, national director of Lawyers for Human Rights.

At first, Macia, dressed in jeans and a red T-shirt, is dragged along the road by the vehicle at slow speed, the footage shows. He awkwardly tries to keep step even though he is almost horizontal above the ground. Then the van stops, two policemen pick up the legs of the taxi driver and drop them to the ground as the van picks up speed and drives off, beyond the view of the camera.

The police watchdog agency said the incident started just before 7 p.m. on Tuesday when the cab driver was allegedly obstructing traffic with his vehicle. Then Macia allegedly assaulted a constable and took his weapon before he was overpowered, the police investigative unit said.

Macia was found dead in a cell over two hours later by another policeman, according to the watchdog agency.

National Police Commissioner Riah Phiyega “strongly condemned” what happened. South Africans are “urged to remain vigilant and continue to report all acts of crime irrespective of who is involved,” said Phiyega in a statement.

Phiyega has tried to upgrade the reputation of the South African police since her appointment last year. Last month, Phiyega told a group of police officials the standing of the force `’has been severely but not irreparably tarnished over the past several years.”

The problems, though, are immense for a police force that has expanded from some 120,000 to almost 200,000 over the last decade, “often failing to match the increase in quantity with sufficient quality,” said Johan Burger, who served for 36 years on the force before becoming a senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies.

Several experts contacted by The Associated Press also said that in recent years there has been an increasing willingness to use a shoot-to-kill approach to the crime and violence.

An average of 860 people a year died in police custody or as a result of police action between 2009 and 2010, up from 695 a year from 2003 to 2008, according to Burger of the security studies institute.

Further staining the reputation of the police is the Marikana shootings when, on Aug. 16, 2012, a line of South African police opened fire on a crowd of striking miners, killing 34 at a platinum mine northwest of Johannesburg. A judicial commission is investigating allegations that many were killed in a rocky hill, near the much-filmed initial scene of the attack, shot in the back as they tried to escape.

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Comments (127)

Protech64
Posted on February 28, 2013 at 9:49pm
Can’t believe they drove off without closing the back door. It could have hit someone’s car.

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civilwarcometh
Posted on February 28, 2013 at 9:49pm
MONK sorry i didn’t see your post early’er. Thank You again. I usually don’t go back to often after i link or post stuff. People tend to just ignore me lol. I am not PC at all. And very out spoken..But you guys allready know that hee hee hee..

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PalmettoColdiron
Posted on February 28, 2013 at 9:16pm
The action of the police is terrible. The inaction of the bystanders is unforgiveable.

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DREDGE
Posted on February 28, 2013 at 8:26pm
You know who gives a god damn crap about what those one step out of the tree fools do to one another.
One less yap to feed!!! I still pray for an enormous plague to wipe them all out!!!!!

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V-MindMeld
Posted on February 28, 2013 at 8:19pm
That is a perfect example of why we have a 2nd amendment. there may come a day when we will have to defend ouselves against “corrupt officals” just like in the video. If you dont think it could happen here, think again!

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Lillith66
Posted on February 28, 2013 at 7:40pm
http://www.thetruthaboutsouthafrica.com/p/ancs-black-on-black-killing-spree.html

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- yitty
  Posted on February 28, 2013 at 8:52pm
  This is so incredibly horrific and makes me so extremely angry. People who have not lived in Africa will ever understand how meaningless life is to these people. Again, no outcry but I hope that at least the viewers of the Blaze will take note of these posts. Thanks for sharing this site, it’s time this is exposed .
  
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- Lillith66
  Posted on March 1, 2013 at 4:11am
  I have had three members of my family murdered in SA, I had an attempted highjacking twice, If I was not armed I would be dead. My husbands mother was robbed by an off duty policeman. My cousin’s wife was shot after they killed him while he tried to shelter her. After he was shot to death the pulled his body off her and shot her, luckily she survived. A dear friend and her 12 year old daughter were raped and butchered with pangas (I think you call them machetes) in their bedroom. Another close friend, hijacked, but before the thieves fled in the car they beat him and his wife so badly they had to have extensive reconstructive surgery. My parents, outran two attempted hijackings. My brother, gun to the head outside his home, hijacked. Another time panga to the throat, robbed. An old couple, friends of my parents, the robbers got into their roof into the ceiling, dropped cinder blocks on them as they slept, jumped down and beat them to death with bricks. Ex husbands brother, hijacked in a parking lot, forced to his knees, gun to the head, he jerked out of the way at the last minute, the bullet grazing his temple, they fled, he survived…and I could go on and on and on!
  
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- Lillith66
  Posted on March 1, 2013 at 4:15am
  Oh by the way, I now live down under in the wonderful land of Oz!
  
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- yitty
  Posted on March 1, 2013 at 8:54am
  Wanted to backup my comment with this link:
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ylKgntJcP4s#!
  
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Whiteeagle
Posted on February 28, 2013 at 7:36pm
The ‘black’ version of the ‘murderous’ and shrill muslim cry for ‘blood’ ….

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Lillith66
Posted on February 28, 2013 at 7:36pm
Believe me it’s much worse than you can ever imagine….!

http://www.thetruthaboutsouthafrica.com/p/white-genocide-in-south-africa.html

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noslave
Posted on February 28, 2013 at 6:54pm
like obamas trying to do to america,THIS IS THE RESULTS OF THE MESSIAHS WINNIE&NELSON MANDELLAS RULE??

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Papa Joe
Posted on February 28, 2013 at 6:50pm
Libs are blaming George Bush for driving the paddy wagon!

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Larry E
Posted on February 28, 2013 at 6:41pm
Wow, I wonder if we’ll hear any condemnation of this from Al, Jesse, Calypso Louie, Marxine, or any other “black leaders”? Probably not because it’s black on black, just like most of the murders in Chicago and discussing those is apparently verboten.

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woodyee
Posted on February 28, 2013 at 6:40pm
Gee…

I wonder what’s worse…being dragged to death in South Africa, or burned to death in Big Bear, CA…

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wilbstal
Posted on February 28, 2013 at 6:28pm
soon you will see folks with a 666 tatooed on their foreheads or wrists

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Jake Dog2
Posted on February 28, 2013 at 6:22pm
I see apartheid is really working out great for everyone in South Africa.

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- yitty
  Posted on February 28, 2013 at 8:55pm
  Huh? Apartheid is over……….not sure what you are trying to say
  
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- Jake Dog2
  Posted on March 1, 2013 at 6:04am
  I ment to say tha the end of apartheid is really working out great for everyone in South Africa. My bad
  
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SpeakSoftlyAndCarry
Posted on February 28, 2013 at 6:16pm
Obama has stated he wants a National Police Force as well equipped and trained as the military. But this story is more evidence as to why there should NEVER, EVER be a National Police Force – NO local accountability!

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yitty
Posted on February 28, 2013 at 6:08pm
I am glad to see that at least someone is reporting on the crime in South Africa, however, I would like to see more coverage on what is going on over there. The brutal, violent and sadistic killings going on not only against the whites (especially the farmers and boers – see Dr. Gregory Stanton’s take on Genocide against the whites in South Africa in which they are in stage 6 of the 8 stages of genocide) but also on blacks. The world keeps quiet yet during apartheid the entire world was buzzing about human rights………..where are the human rights advocates now?

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RJJinGadsden
Posted on February 28, 2013 at 6:00pm
DARMOK, Yeah, like Aunt Esther. As Redd Foxx used to tell us weekly.

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Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra
Posted on February 28, 2013 at 5:53pm
Hey RJJ/MONK:
I see Maxine also didn’t let the ugly stick get in her way, I think she went back for seconds.

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spfoam1
Posted on February 28, 2013 at 5:38pm
Before they had cars they used water buffalo , 4 at a time, in 4 different directions. See how far they have evolved?

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RJJinGadsden
Posted on February 28, 2013 at 5:35pm
Hi MONK, Well, Maxine Waters has never been known for letting the truth get in her way.

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Amazingoly
Posted on February 28, 2013 at 5:35pm
Murder charges surely will come, right?

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nomemymine
Posted on February 28, 2013 at 5:14pm
I don’t know if we may judge other ways of managing people in other countries. Our way may not work in other countries.

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thegreatcarnac
Posted on February 28, 2013 at 4:52pm
I have been to South Africa once and it was a long time ago when apartheid was still in place. This lie about whites coming in and pushing out indeginous blacks is common thought…..but wrong. WHen the whites settled South Africa they did it just like we did . They built cities and moved out into the bush in wagon trains. The only tribe in the area were the ZULUS. There were many wars with them. The whites and he Zulus ended up respecting each other and the Zulus had their own nation within South Africa and they were satisfied with it. It was their tribal lands. When the whites and even the Zulus began forging a great nation blacks from northern jungles began pushing in to get jobs. They were told in advance that they could not be citizens and were here only to work. They agreed. They congregated in black immigrant areas and towns. They never had the rights the whites had because they were never citizens. They were separated because they were not citizens, not civilized, and would come into areas and become squatters so they were denied access to white areas. These black towns and areas grew over the years and they began screaming they wanted their rights. THey had none. They were not citizens. Get it. Anyway….in the days of apartheid….SA was absolutely beautiful and modern and safe.

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txannie
Posted on February 28, 2013 at 4:46pm
I thought mandela said the people would be safe after the whites were run out of s africa….

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thegreatcarnac
Posted on February 28, 2013 at 4:42pm
Blacks are the same everywhere. Go to any country where there are blacks or clusters of blacks. Most will live in slums and ghettos. Most will be involved in crime. In Africa, most of the “nice” (for want of a better word) areas of their cities were built by white people from European countries that owned the place as a colony. When most black nations got ther independence they suddenly did not know what to do. THey ran out the whites and when they did their nations ceased to work. All machinery broke down and could not be fixed. The only thing that keeps South Africa limping along is that there are still whites living there. Eventually…when they leave….that beautiful nation will die. Most blacks are killers of civilization. They are killing this country too.

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