Police in Harper City launch anti-mob violence

The Liberia National Police Maryland detachment has launched an anti-mob violence campaign code-named “Operation stop mob violence” in Harper City.

According to the LNP Maryland detachment community policing head MunahSieh, the police have over the years noticed an increase in mob violence in the county and deem it wise to carry on awareness through sports, among students.

Officer Sieh says often when the police go into the community to meet with residents, only elderly people show up with the youth being left out, and the reason usually provided is they are in school, so this time around, the police are taking the awareness to young people thru sports.

She explains that since mob violence is usually executed by young people in Maryland, it is against this background that the LNP community policing department decided to host such program in schools to get the youth fully involved.

Officer Sieh notes that the two days campaign featured five schools in Harper, including Our Lady of Fatima High, Cape Palmas High, Harper Demonstration, John Hilary Tubman, and A. Dash Wilson High.

She said the program is expected to extend shortly to Pleebo Sodoken District and will target all schools as well as the business community.During the ‘stop mob violence’ campaign just launched in Harper City, the students were told not to take the law in their own hands by lynching suspects, but to rather report them to the police, warning that beating on someone may sometimes lead to death, and the best place to seek justice if they felt offended is to use the rule of law in seeking redress.

Mob violence in Maryland County has been on the increase, particularly in Pleebo Sodoken Statutory District, often resulting to death.Recently, a man identified as John Dennis was mobbed to death in Pleebo Zone 4B community after he was accused of attempting to take away a one-year-seven months’ old baby for suspected ritualistic purpose.

The mother of the baby only identified as Patience, alarmed and angry crowd beat the suspect to death.The two days campaign was graced by local government officials, school authorities, community leaders, local media, and judicial actors in the county.

Speaking in separate interview with this paper in Harper, participants lauded the police for the initiative and called for its continuity.The head of community policing of Pleebo District that is highly rated for mob violence, Princess Baysah, said the program launched in the schools will set a new pace for the stop mob violence campaign in the county.

Officer Baysah disclosed that LNP will make maximum use of community radio stations and closely work with local journalists to halt mob violence.

By George K. Momo in Maryland-Editing by Jonathan Browne