As part of the video section of this in-depth project Zaheer (my viseo lecture) and I decided it would be a good idea to follow a day in the life of the source that I had found Aboo Mohamed. In case you have not been following my blog, Aboo is a full time dad and husband, he works a 9 to 5 job and in his free time he is part of the Brixton community policing forum and is also a police reservist.
So it was decided that I would go to his house and wow was I made to feel at home it was then discussed that I would join Aboo on one of his patrols.
LOCKED AND LOADED: Warrant officer Kruger helping the SAPS by cleaning a police officers gun at the Brixton police station before he begins his patrol of the area. Photo: Raquel De Canha
PAPER WORK: Warrant officer Aboo Mohamed sorting out the paperwork before patrolling the streets of Mayfair. Photo: Raquel De Canha
I woke up this morning a little apprehensive. “What if nothing interesting happens?” then my shots will be boring, what do I do then I only have one shot at this it was today or never. So the whole day I was hoping for something to happen, like a small robbery, a domestic disturbance maybe some guys caught with drugs anything that would add to my video. I arrived at the police station and walked into the reservist office and got a couple shots of Aboo and his partner Willem Kruger. I really got some stunning shots of Kruger cleaning a gun, and Mohamed getting ready and some shots of the car, then the patrolling began, it was 4pm and I managed to get some nice day shots. 5pm passed 6pm passed, 7 pm passed and nothing had happened. I was beginning to prepare for the worst and getting ready to go home.
LOOKING OUT: Aboo Mohammed, a police reservist , who in his free time offers to patrol the Mayfair and Brixton areas. Photo: Raquel De Canha
At around 9pm Aboo got a tip off on one of the neighbourhood watches WhatsApp groups, there was an unmarked car driving around the Mayfair area with blue lights, Aboo called the plates in to confirm that the car was not an official vehicle so we began chasing the car. At the same time we were informed over the radio that a car had been stolen and was headed in a direction not too far from us. This was great, I was getting awesome shots of the lights and a chase so I was feeling a lot better.
Then we got a call to say that there was a car submerged in a small dam, we rushed to the scene me with my camera in hand not really thinking that the reason the car was in water was because someone drove it into the water.
BLUE LIGHTS: Emergency vehicles at the scene of the accident near Crown Mines in Johannesburg. Photo: Raquel De Canha
We got to the scene and I was overwhelmed by reflective vests, emergency lights and sirens. A group of men managed to attach some chains to the cars chassis and began trying to pull the car out the water. I was concentrating so much on the group pulling the car that I didn’t even notice that a body had floated to the surface of the small dam. It wasn’t until the group started saying “There’s a body.” that I saw a man floating face down in the water. I really did not expect to react the way I did. I guess you only know how you will react once you are put in the situation.
It was weird all of a sudden I was scared and uncomfortable and I felt as if my heart was broken, here is a person who had a family and I knew about this mans’ death before those who care about him most did. What made it worse was that there were so many people surrounding the scene all chatting some even laughing as if nothing had happened. They were all so desensitized to the body, it is so sad that they see this so often that a life is simply a number under a white plastic.
It was assumed that in most cases like these there is more than one person involved so emergency called for divers to come and look for more bodies. We tried to call these divers who were at the time busy with another case at Rhodes Park in Kensington. This case was even more horrific 12 men had attacked two couples, raped one woman and made the women watch as they tied up their husbands and threw them into the dam and to watch them to drown. How barbaric!!! I sincerely cannot understand how people can live with themselves knowing that they are so cruel!!!
Aboo and Willem decided that they would go and see if they needed help at that scene but by then I really couldn’t stomach the thought of seeing those white plastic bags again and decided to call it a night. So here I am 3am in my bed and unable to sleep, feeling bad for having hoped that something/anything would happen
POLICEMAN BY NIGHT: Warrant officers Mohammed and Kruger who have been reservists for almost 20 years at the Brixton police station. Photo: Raquel De Canha
My hat goes off to reporters that are able to cover these types of stories. It takes a person with guts of steal and that is something I just do not have. What I have learnt from this whole night is I am not cut out for this I don’t have it in me.
Raquel De Canha 