Through these cost differences, and the variation between the lowest and highest costs, it is clear
that individual’s capacity to meet the costs of the effects of police brutality is very limited. The
cost of police brutality cannot only be interpreted as the cost of medication because there are
direct and indirect costs incurred by victims, some of which are non-medical.
3.0 Conclusion
The cumulative figure of $12 097.02 for losses incurred by 19 victims over a two month period
may not appear excessive. The sample size of 19, however, represents 8.5% of the 224 victims
comprising the study population, and the study population does not form the entirety of the
population affected by police brutality countrywide. With an average of $636.68 of cumulative
costs for victims of police brutality in one month, this represents a figure way above the average
monthly salary of a civil servant. Individuals have a limited capacity to sustain such costs and
the state itself is failing to provide budgetary support to either the public health system or the
judiciary system. The costs established in the survey are preliminary rather than definitive they exclude direct losses of emergency response services, health and other insurance, fringe
benefits, and non-monetary losses, pain, the deterioration in the quality of life, and the costs
society incurs to prevent future crime.
The state has the obligation to respect, protect and fulfill human rights. State sponsored violence
erodes a government’s legitimacy to govern. State sponsored violence that is systematically
planned, financed and deployed against the country’s citizens, using state resources, violates the
Constitution and contravenes international human rights law. The police, in accordance with
Section 208 of the Constitution, should not violate the fundamental rights of any person. Section
201 of the Constitution provides for an act of Parliament that should create an effective and
independent mechanism for receiving and investigating complaints from members of the public
about misconduct on the part of security services, and remedying any harm caused by such
misconduct.
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