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THE violence, or apparent violence in Murehwa, recorded on video which was then spread across social media, stresses the need for people to report crime promptly and for everyone to help catch the criminals.
For a start, no one told the police that a group of elderly people were assaulted in the Murehwa area.
Police heard about a potential crime of violence when they saw, or had their attention drawn to the video recording circulating on social media.
That sort of reverse reporting is what can raise suspicion of an acted incident or a stage-managed incident.
The police are moving differently and have reacted to what appears on video to be a crime of serious violence, with three people so far arrested as being involved in the recorded assault, or at least looking a lot like those recorded, and investigations are continuing to round up everyone who could be involved and put together the required evidence, which needs to be a bit better than a video recording from a phone, to ensure convictions of any who are guilty.
The investigation, in one sense, needs only to prove that an assault took place and that the people who committed the assault are the same as those who will appear in the dock on trial for assault or assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm if the more severe charge seems justified.
This is normal police work. Motive, and any deep-seated theories, can emerge at the sentencing stage.
But regardless of what people might want to imply or what they might think, a crime is committed by individuals and it is as individual accused that those arrested are tried, and if convicted are sentenced.
Those circulating the video were trying to draw political implications from the alleged assault, and are apparently trying to manipulate the coverage.
Perhaps there are, perhaps not, but there certainly seems to be political implications in how the information was handled and how it came to the attention of the police.
If those assaulted, and those who took the video, had immediately gone to the police and made a report and a complaint, the police would have been able to start their investigation sooner and be considerably further advanced.
Evidence would have been fresher, including the medical reports that can normally nail those guilty of assault. Fresh medical evidence in everything from a slap upwards always helps police and prosecutors make a case and win a case.
Everyone in authority, from the President and Chief Justice down, has been appealing for a law-abiding and violence-free election.
One of the easiest and best ways of ensuring that those who do not listen are made to listen is to involve the police at the earliest possible moment if there is any violence, anything from a drunk misbehaving at a meeting upwards, and then wheel them into court promptly.
The Zanu PF information chief, Cde Christopher Mutsvangwa, was plain on this point, report any violence promptly. He was dismissive of any party involvement, and wondered if the incident was stage managed considering the way the information was handled.
The Zanu PF Mashonaland East leadership, while doubting that anyone from their party, and certainly not from a position of leadership, is involved, has made it clear in a vivid statement that any party supporter who could be involved in any act of violence must “carry their own cross”, that they will get no support.
The police are dealing with the matter professionally, starting with evidence of a potential assault and hunting down the people involved.
Motive may be a factor, and certainly will be a factor in the sentencing upon conviction, but the trial magistrate will first want to be convinced that people were assaulted, will want to know how severely and will be particularly keen to have proof beyond reasonable doubt that those who committed the assault are those standing in front of the court.
The immediate assumption in some circles that this was political violence ordered or allowed by a political party is not helpful, either in the immediate investigation or in the subsequent prosecution.
If there are political aspects, from whatever quarter, then these are much better uncovered by neutral investigators, such as the police and the courts.
We have seen a tendency by some in opposition politics to assume almost any crime has a political angle.
We saw this in that dreadful murder in Nyatsime last year, when an off-duty municipal security guard was grabbed by an abusive ex-boyfriend and, from evidence gathered so far, murdered and the body mutilated within hours.
Some of the witnesses were not that prompt in coming forward early, which is a pity since even if it was non-fatal domestic violence it was still, at the beginning, domestic violence.
More worrisome was a build up of a different story, that it was a political hit, and that ended in political violence.
Whether the actions of two Parliamentarians contributed to that distortion is still to be decided in court, but certainly while local MPs should have been calling for an investigation into a probable domestic-violence kidnapping at an early stage, they should also have been calling on supporters to withhold judgment until someone was in court facing charges of violence and instead pass any relevant information to the police.
In the nature of things there will be the occasional politically-motivated brawl, but just low level drunken brawling we hope.
When a few drunks brawl over politics after a few beers, just like they might brawl over football or women or some other motive, we need to accept that this is unlikely to be an inter-party clash sanctioned at leadership levels.
The Zanu PF attitude of condemning any violence whatsoever, and getting the police involved as soon as possible if anything violent occurs, appears to be the starting point for everyone else.
We neither want nor need violence, regardless of motive, and the sooner those guilty are caught and tried the better. And police and prosecutors welcome good evidence.
There are a growing number of criminals now in jail after starring in CCTV footage, or on some witness’s video recording made with a phone.
But those examining the CCTV, or taking the video footage, were not jumping to conclusions, just recording a crime and urging the police to find the criminals.
Elsewhere on these pages, we publish an article in which the opposition CCC is reported to have taken the victims of the Murehwa violence, who are witnesses to the crime, from their homes to Harare even before the police have taken down their statements.
This is unusual and smacks of a massive effort to either cover up a crime or coach witnesses into a certain line of thinking.
We find it bizarre and hypocritical that the CCC is preventing journalists (especially those who are sympathetic to them) and law enforcement agents from accessing the victims of a gruesome crime.
What are they keen to hide? The police need to do their job and get to the bottom of this matter. The actions of the CCC, which border on obstruction of justice, are not only regrettable but are an affront on the rule of law which they are always pontificating about.
Online Reporter