The case adds to other related episodes of police violence
A young man ikilled by Angolan police. Screengrab of a video shared by Televisão Pública de Angola.
The Angolan National Police officers shot dead 23-year-old José Teokamba Manuel on 12 July while enforcing confinement measures due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to local media.
Maurício José, 17, who was with Manoel at the time, was shot in the shoulder and taken to hospital by the police themselves. He has already been discharged.
The incident took place in Maianga District, in the capital Luanda. A National Police communiqué said that officers were on patrol when they came across a crowd of young people at an unauthorized time and place, reports newspaper O País.
The National Police spokesman, Nestor Goubel, acknowledged that the shots were fired by officers, according to Observador, and he added that the agents responsible were detained and will be punished.
Manuel’s funeral was marked by protests by local residents. There were barricades on the main road and the police were called to disperse them.
Activist and academic Miguel de Barros, who is from Guinea-Bissau, posted a video of the protests. The video is of the protest in Luanda after José Teokamba Manuel’s death:
Entre abuso do poder e violência desnecessária do estado, impera uma forte cultura de impunidade e desrespeito pela vida sob encobrimento das autoridades. Quando se mata um jovem sem qualquer perigo por não ter máscara protetora é crime e expõe toda violência sofrida. Revoltante! pic.twitter.com/6WcJDKqQzF
— Miguel de Barros (@debarros_miguel) July 14, 2020
Between abuse of power and unnecessary state violence, reigns a strong culture of impunity and disrespect for life under cover of the authorities. When you kill a young man posing no danger because he has no protective mask, it is a crime, and exposes all the violence suffered. Outrageous!
Angola has been witnessing cases of police violence in the capital Luanda since it declared a state of emergency because of the pandemic.
In May, 21-year-old António Domingos Vilola was killed by a gunshot to the head after police approached a group of people on the street without masks, Voice of America (VoA) reported. According to the victim’s relatives, a National Police officer shot Vilola after he said he had no mask. In a statement, the National Police accused the youths of resisting and “moving to attack the forces of law and order.”
In April, a video was shared online of police officers violently assaulting people after they supposedly failed to comply with confinement measures.
The journalist and writer Victor Hugo Mendes shared, on Facebook, a text by Dilson Barros, condemning the incident with José Teokamba Manuel:
Mais uma pessoa morre vítima de violência policial. Fez ontem uma semana que o jovem José Kilamba Rangel, de 23 anos, foi morto no bairro do Prenda supostamente por não estar a usar máscara.
Não é o primeiro, o segundo, nem o terceiro. Já foram vários. A violência policial contra pessoas indefesas está a aumentar aos nossos olhos. Desde a morte da zungueira Juliana Cafrique, já morreram vários inocentes.
As questões que colocamos são as seguintes: 1. Até quando vamos assistir essas mortes? 2. O que estará o Estado a fazer para que não se voltem a registar este tipo de mortes? Não basta deter e julgar os agentes, é preciso traçar um plano com medidas concretas para diminuir a probabilidade deste tipo de actos ocorrer, desde a formação dos agentes ao seu armamento e controle.
Lembro que a polícia deve proteger os cidadãos e ser sinónimo de segurança e não uma causa de mortes de indefesos que, completamente desarmados, não representam ameaça para homens fardados e armados…
Admira-me o silêncio das autoridades no meio de tantas mortes, numa altura em que a violência policial é causa de uma onda de manifestações pelo mundo afora na sequência da morte de George Floyd por um polícia.
Another person dies from police violence. It was a week ago that young José Kilamba Rangel, 23 years old, was killed in the Prenda neighbourhood because he was supposedly not wearing a mask.
Not the first, nor the second, nor even the third. There have been many. Police violence against defenceless people is escalating before our eyes. Since the death of street vendor Juliana Cafrique, several innocent people have died.
The questions we ask are: 1. until when will we see these deaths? 2. what will the state be doing to prevent these types of deaths from happening again? It is not enough to detain and judge the officers, it is necessary to make a plan with concrete measures to reduce the likelihood of this type of event occurring, from the training of officers to their weapons and control.
I remind you that the police should protect citizens and be synonymous with security and not a cause of death for defenceless people who, completely unarmed, pose no threat to uniformed and armed men…
I am surprised at the authorities’ silence in the face of so many deaths, at a time when police violence is the cause of a wave of demonstrations around the world following the death of George Floyd by a policeman.
Journalist Felix Abias wrote that the only thing left to do was to put a photo of the deceased on his profile:
Só me resta colar a foto no meu perfil
Somam e seguem as mortes por conta de agentes da Polícia que parecem não saberem mais nada senão mexer o gatilho, a matar gente pobre, do subúrbio, lá onde o vento faz a curva, além da GASOSA, e no final do mês recebem os seus salários.
Sem nada acontecer de substancial como consequência desses actos perfeitamente evitáveis, como a exoneração de responsáveis de lugares-chave no Ministério do Interior, a exoneração do próprio ministro, por exemplo, é caso para dizer que os POBRES continuam sem porta-voz lá EM CIMA.
É simples. Se no meio tanta gente a morrer estivesse um filho de GENTE GRANDE, que o diabo seja surdo, alguns dirigentes já nem se lembrariam do último cargo. É esta dura realidade que custa admitir.
All I have left to do is paste the photo to my profile
Killings by police officers add up and continue, they seem to know nothing else than pulling the trigger, killing poor people from the suburbs, there where the wind makes a turn, beyond GASOSA, and at the end of the month they receive their salaries.
With nothing substantial happening as a consequence of these perfectly avoidable acts, such as the dismissal of key figures in the Interior Ministry, the dismissal of the minister himself, for example, it goes to show that the POOR remain without a spokesperson there UP ABOVE.
It’s simple. If in the middle of so many people dying there was a child of THE BIG PEOPLE, let the devil be deaf, some leaders would not even remember their last job. It’s this harsh reality that’s hard to face
Activist Nelson Dembo, better known as “Gangsta”, was outraged and called his followers to join a virtual conversation on his Facebook account, where he argued that Teokamba’s murder showed the silence and hypocrisy of Angola’s public figures who, faced with barbarities committed by the state, did not speak out against it:
#Família hoje a partir das 22:00 entrarei em #directo para abordar, a #morte #gratuita do #jovem do #prenda as mãos da #Polícia #Nacional
Polícia está que tem como função a #proteção e a #segurança do povo #Angolano mas que múltiplas vezes atropela a #ética #deontológica da própria #Instituição, regras estás que só aparece no papel mas na prática é a #inversão dos #valores…
Cadê os #Músicos para darem a cara por estas mortes constantes a mão da polícia??? Só precisam do povo Angolano para ir comprar os vossos #CDS na praça de #independência?..
#Family today from 10:00 pm I will be on #direct to address the gratuitous death of the #young man from Prenda at the hands of the #national police
The police has as its function the #protection and #security of the Angolan people, but very often tramples on the #ethics of the #Institution itself, rules only appear on paper but in practice it is the reverse of these #values…
Where are the #Musicians to put a face to these constant killings at the hands of the police??? Do you only need the Angolan people to go buy your #CDS in #independence square?…