South African police refuse to enforce country’s “ham-fisted, schizophrenic” no surfing laws; help surfers zip up their wetsuits!

"It was a wondrous sight."

The police sure are taking one on the chin right now what with protests roiling New York, Los Angeles, Sydney, Paris. Rage. Pure rage boiling over from years, decades, of largely unchecked, brutal behavior. Systemic abuse of vulnerable minority communities, complete lack of accountability, a heretofore impenetrable blue wall of silence.

But change, maybe, real change floats on the fresh summer/autumn breeze with talk of defunding forces getting real traction and/or police being punished, actually punished, for acting inhumanely.

And in South Africa, police acting beautifully all by themselves. Oh, let us hurry to the Cape of Good Hope where “hundreds, if not thousands, of South African surfers went surfing in the bright blue on Monday, 1 June 2020, it remained wrapped in a grey area, a ham-fisted land of schizophrenic interpretation and mind-numbingly incongruous application of Level 3 laws.”

The floodgates opened as more and more surfers paddled out in clean 2-4 lines with perfect light offshore and deep blue skies. You sensed that the police were increasingly reluctant to clash with people brimming with joy. I overhead one jovial law enforcement officer amicably tell a small clump of onlookers that access to the beaches was not allowed, but surfing was. “You do what you have to do. I have to do what I am told.”

A surfer walked up to him and asked the cop to zip up his wetsuit. He obliged without hesitation, then politely watched the surfer walk across the forbidden sands to paddle out. It was a wondrous sight. I felt like going up to him and giving him a hug. Oh wait. Covid-19. What a screwed up world this pandemic has brought.

Wondrous indeed.

Change, maybe real change.