{"id":463923,"date":"2011-07-19T10:33:33","date_gmt":"2011-07-19T10:33:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/07\/19\/brutish-enforcement\/"},"modified":"2011-07-19T10:33:33","modified_gmt":"2011-07-19T10:33:33","slug":"brutish-enforcement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/19\/brutish-enforcement\/","title":{"rendered":"Brutish Enforcement"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Alfred Vanderpuije, AMA Boss<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Operatives of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) engaged in the decongestion of the nation\u2019s capital have assumed a certain aura of fear about them.<\/p>\n

Street hawkers who take to their heels at their sight are justifiable in doing so, given the various instances of some of them losing ears and others brutalized in other forms at the hands of these men.<\/p>\n

They have maimed a number of hawkers with nothing really happening to them.<\/p>\n

The latest story about one such hawker brutalized beyond acceptable level made disturbing reading a couple of days ago.<\/p>\n

We are horrified by these developments because if the men put on these operations are not given a certain degree of schooling on how to manage the assignments given them, they would one day kill a hawker and the repercussions could spread to other areas of the city.<\/p>\n

Since such a situation is avoidable, the need to take another look at this challenge should not be overlooked.<\/p>\n

We are not by this commentary delving into the merits of the exercise because we do not consider that the ideal thing to do at the moment. Suffice it to note, however, that since these hawkers are our compatriots, there is the urgent need to manage the exercise with some finesse devoid of the insults which now characterizes these operations. It is common to hear these operatives heaping ethnic-laced abuses on the hawkers.<\/p>\n

There is dearth of employment and some of these hawkers are breadwinners who are compelled to meet their families\u2019 needs.<\/p>\n

Ensuring orderliness in the nation\u2019s capital, in our estimation, is good and we long to see the day when the pavements and the streets would be devoid of hawkers whose presence mostly makes movement of pedestrians cumbersome.<\/p>\n

We are equally longing for the day when such hawkers would find alternative occupations that would take them away from these parts of the city.<\/p>\n

Perhaps, the worst development to occur in the AMA decongestion so far was enacted yesterday when the police opened fire to disperse some irate hawkers in Accra. It sounds ridiculous that this happened when perhaps other options could have been employed.<\/p>\n

It was a frightening piece of news. Such use of firearms when dealing with unarmed hawkers in a crowded part of the city can be dangerous, given the possibility of stray bullets hitting innocent persons.<\/p>\n

We would have preferred a situation where live bullets were not used to disperse hawkers for the reason stated above.<\/p>\n

Alfred Vanderpuye has a Herculean task of decongesting the city of Accra but considering the energy he has exerted in the exercise so far, we are beginning to wonder whether the ideal situation where the streets would be completely ridded of hawkers would ever come.<\/p>\n

Another module would have to be determined in tackling the challenge because the current cannot yield the desired result.<\/p>\n

Any attempt at descending upon recalcitrant hawkers without a human face can lead to unpleasant consequences which bullets cannot manage.<\/p>\n

It is for this reason that we are pleading with the AMA to reconsider the use of force in the decongestion exercise so that the resort to live bullets does not come in at all.<\/p>\n

The bullets which were used yesterday have distanced the hawkers from the AMA and in an exercise which can only succeed through the winning of the hearts and minds of the people, the cat-and-mouse engagement between the two would be a long one.<\/p>\n

With such guts, the Accra Mayor should direct his attention and energies towards ridding the city of filth which is threatening a capital which represents the image of the country.<\/p>\n

Accra has had its fair share of cholera this year and with the rainy season still with us, we are still not out of the woods.<\/p>\n

The information about the non-availability of landfill sites to receive the city\u2019s garbage is worrying and this, alongside the increased volume of domestic and other wastes, is the most immediate challenge facing the Mayor and Accra residents, not the maiming of hawkers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Go here to read the rest:
\nBrutish Enforcement<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alfred Vanderpuije, AMA Boss Operatives of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) engaged in the decongestion of the nation\u2019s capital have assumed a certain aura of fear about them. Street hawkers who take to their heels at their sight are justifiable in doing so, given the various instances of some of them losing ears and others brutalized in other forms at the hands of these men<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-463923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\nBrutish Enforcement - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/19\/brutish-enforcement\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Brutish Enforcement - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Alfred Vanderpuije, AMA Boss Operatives of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) engaged in the decongestion of the nation\u2019s capital have assumed a certain aura of fear about them. Street hawkers who take to their heels at their sight are justifiable in doing so, given the various instances of some of them losing ears and others brutalized in other forms at the hands of these men\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.dailyguideghana.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/alfred_vanderpuije.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/19\/brutish-enforcement\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/19\/brutish-enforcement\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"Brutish Enforcement\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-07-19T10:33:33+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/19\/brutish-enforcement\/\"},\"wordCount\":688,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/19\/brutish-enforcement\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/www.dailyguideghana.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/alfred_vanderpuije.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/19\/brutish-enforcement\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/19\/brutish-enforcement\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/19\/brutish-enforcement\/\",\"name\":\"Brutish Enforcement - Ghanamma.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/19\/brutish-enforcement\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/19\/brutish-enforcement\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/www.dailyguideghana.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/alfred_vanderpuije.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-07-19T10:33:33+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/19\/brutish-enforcement\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/19\/brutish-enforcement\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.dailyguideghana.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/alfred_vanderpuije.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/www.dailyguideghana.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/alfred_vanderpuije.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/\",\"name\":\"Ghanamma.com\",\"description\":\"News In Ghana - Latest Ghana News Headlines\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Brutish Enforcement - Ghanamma.com","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/19\/brutish-enforcement\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"Brutish Enforcement - Ghanamma.com","twitter_description":"Alfred Vanderpuije, AMA Boss Operatives of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) engaged in the decongestion of the nation\u2019s capital have assumed a certain aura of fear about them. 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