When July 26, 2022, a violent incident occurred near the premises of the United States Embassy in Monrovia, it was expected that the Liberia National Police would have promptly gone after those who perpetrated the violence, arrest them, and subsequently forward them to court for prosecution.

But the Police’s disposition on the scene of the incident readily exposed its modus operandi that suggesting to observers that the alleged perpetrators or members of the so-called Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) Council of Patriots (COP) did what it did with the acquiescence of the Liberia National Police.

For instance, the Police arrived on the scene in pickups just seconds after the alleged stone throwers or members of the CDC COP successfully and violently dispersed the peaceful student protestors under the banner of the University of Liberia-based Vanguard Students Unification Party. Officers of the Police also stood by the alleged perpetrators or CDC-COP members as they read their position statement on the same spot that the unprotected anti-government protestors stood, but yet they made no arrest.

In fact, video footages from the scene of the violence were enough or made the Police job easier to have identified the perpetrators for an immediate arrest, but yet, it made no arrest.

Instead, its spokesman, Moses Carter, told the public that because no one had complained to the National Police about what happened on that fateful day, the police had no reason to arrest anyone.

The logic of Mr. Carter’s statement here is, if anyone or group were to wantonly brutalize a group of innocent citizens and even shot them to death just right before the headquarters of the Liberia National Police, the Police wouldn’t arrest the perpetrator or perpetrators if families of the would-be victims did not file an official complaint to the office of the Inspector General of Police, Col. Patrick Sudue.

Paradoxically and contrary to spokesman Carter’s public statement, although the Liberia National Police received no official complaint from anyone or group, it began to arrest or ask alleged masterminds of the Independence Day violence to turn-in themselves following President George Weah’s Monday, August 1, 2022, public statement in which he condemned the violent act and mandated the Police through the Ministry of Justice to arrest and send to court the alleged perpetrators.

As I was penning down these words, some of the alleged perpetrators were on their way to court for the incident that occurred during the celebration of Liberia’s 175th Independence Anniversary.

So, who has complained, Mr. Direct of Police?  Is it the President that many say was compelled to speak on the matter as a result of pressure from the International Community or the public?

Would the Police not have arrested anyone or investigated such a grave incidence had President Weah not spoken in a nationwide address?

Mr. Director, apparently you haven’t understood the constitutional mandate of the Liberia National Police. The Force was established by an act of the National Legislature to protect the lives and properties of all Liberians and residents of Liberia no matter which political party, tribe or religion they belong to.

Besides, the Liberia National Police does not have to wait for a complaint or complaints before it arrests a situation that infringes on the rights of peaceful citizens or poses a threat to their lives and properties. The sycophancy the Police demonstrated in the wake of the July 26, 2022, violent incidence involving students of the UL based Vanguard Students Unification Party and members of the ruling CDC’s COP has further reaffirmed the public notion that the National Police is a regime or partisan police force.  Until the Police plays a neutral role in the exercise of its mandate, this public notion will live on. Let the Independence Day violent incidence be a learning curve for you Mr. Director of Police, after all, the Police has a mandate to protect all citizens and residents, not a particular group of citizens.