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So police in african countries are poorly paid so it's OK for them to just...rob people? Wouldn't it make more sense to just pay the police better? Is it OK for

So police in african countries are poorly paid so it's OK for them to just...rob people? Wouldn't it make more sense to just pay the police better? Is it OK for a waitress or a teacher or a taxi driver to steal your wallet? They're also underpaid... That bit of justification seems absolutely bananas to me.

mothballed 6mo ago
How are you going to tax them for salaries? There's not much formal economy in most of central africa.
- bigfishrunning 6mo ago
  If there's no way to charge the public for policing besides corruption, that's not a police force, it's a gang.
  - mothballed 6mo ago
    Still a gang, yes, though one with aims more accessible to the common man who can bribe them. Instead of purely the ruling class.
pseudohadamard 6mo ago
What are you going to pay them with? The money for their wages has been embezzled by the police chiefs, or the civil administrators, or the politicians. Taxi drivers won't steal your wallet, but they may kill you if you're a tswana and get into (say) a zulu taxi, although more usually they're killing other taxi drivers rather than passengers, and setting fire to trains to cut out the competition.