War on Drugs

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Gruesome Drug War
The information presented in “Behind the Death Squads of Duterte’s Brutal Drug War (HBO)” by VICE news was new and shocking to me. It is horrifying to learn that the president of a nation encourages assassinations to eliminate drug users in the country. There has been an issue with drugs in the Philippines for years, and President Rodrigo Duterte plans to cast it out by all means possible. Over 2500 drug suspects, 4000 as reported by local media, are killed in police operations and suspected vigilante murders. The police go around looking for drug suspects and shooting them in the process, some of which end up in the killing of many innocent victims (VICE News).
The most significant information about policing from the video was the abuse of human rights by the police. The safety of the public is entrusted to the police, but in the Philippines, the police are a threat to the society especially if suspected of drug usage. Some individuals confessed to having been paid by a cop to kill drug dealers. They report of at least three assassinations a week at a price of $700 for a single hit. Other drug dealers are killed in shootouts by undercover cops (VICE News).
The possibility of a democratic policing in the Philippines is minimal. This is because the primary goal of the police is to maintain social control, the nature and extent of this control are guided by the governing body of any given country (Haberfeld, 15). Haberfeld goes ahead to say that “police forces throughout the history, served to protect the ruler, the king, the politician and never the public.

The safety and security of the public were always secondary to that of the ruler, king or politician” (Haberfeld 16) Therefore in the case of the Philippines the police force prioritize the president’s interests, which is to eliminate drug users, above the interests of the public, to maintain social control and public order. The situation in the Philippines will, therefore, continue for a while because even the president has pledged to proceed with the gruesome drug war until the last drug dealer is dead.
Works Cited
Haberfeld, Maria R. Critical issues in police training. Vol. 22. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, (2002): 13-16.
VICE News. “Behind The Death Squads of Duterte’s Brutal Drug War (HBO).” Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 17 Nov 2016. Web. 15 Jul 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-MjEYs2n4U