>> Soldiers in Nigeria allegedly barricaded and shot protesters who have been demonstrating
against police brutality. And the specific brutality coming from a special anti robbery
unit. This anti robbery unit was created in Nigeria back in 1992. And it's been accused
of horrific crimes by organizations like Amnesty International.
Extortion, rape, incredible instances of brutality and viciousness toward young people in Nigeria,
particularly young men in Nigeria. Protests over a now-disbanded police unit, the Special
Anti-Robbery Squad also known as SARS, have been taking place for two weeks. With demonstrators
using the social media hashtag, #EndSars to rally crowds.
The protesters have been met with extreme brutality, and a number of them have reportedly
been shot dead or wounded by soldiers. Soldiers were seen barricading the protest site in
Lagos, moments before the shooting. Amnesty International Nigeria said it had received
credible but disturbing evidence of excessive use of force causing deaths of protesters
in Lekki toll gate in Lagos.
Now BBC did a pretty good job in covering what the scene was like on the ground. The
next video will show you what the scene looked like as soldiers opened fire against the demonstrators,
take a look. >> That's police using live ammunition against
people demonstrating in Lagos, Nigeria's biggest city.
They've also been using powerful water cannons. Amnesty International says at least ten protesters
have been killed so far. >> Now that special unit that was the initial
purpose of the protests has allegedly been disbanded, but the protesters don't believe
that that's enough. Because there have been other instances where the authority said that
they were gonna disband this special unit and they didn't do it.
Also the demonstrators have made clear that they have more demands, they want more concessions.
Those concessions include the release of detained protesters, justice for deceased victim's
family members. They want an independent body, much like here in the United States, to oversee
investigations of police misconduct. They also want psychological evaluations of members
of this now disbanded SARS unit before they can be redeployed.
Because much like here in the United States where cops are found committing acts of brutality.
They'll get fired from one police department and then hired by another police department.
So in this case, they want assurances that the cops who were part of SARS receive some
sort of psychological evaluation before they're employed again as law enforcement.
And interestingly enough, they're demanding an increase in police salaries, so they can
adequately get compensated for protecting lives and property of citizens. I think that
that probably has something to do with the fact that it would lead to a better quality
of law enforcement. And probably, fewer instances of extortion.
That's something that's also very common with law enforcement in Nigeria. Something that's
been spoken out against by activists on the ground. And I just wanna go to one more video
that gives you a clear picture of what the concerns are. And what the demands are before
protest, feel, I guess appeased by what's being offered to them, take a look.
>> This is footage from 2014 showing a man being hit by armed policemen as they hurl
abuse at him. There are also claims of daily persecution of ordinary Nigerians. Young people
in particular say they're routinely harassed by SARS, and allegedly extorted for money
too. Here are some of the protesters,
>> I am a woman, I come back at night, they will be asking me where did I get money to
buy my vehicle. They will call me prostitute, we cannot do that, I work too hard for my
money man. >> Stop killing our boyfriends, stop killing
our children, stop, mothers are crying, stop killing them.
>> End SARS now. >> So one of the things that common is the
police will extort people within the police stations. There's also extortion happening
when young men are just trying to get around, they'll get stopped and extorted by the cops.
And so it's a real problem and people are rising up and demanding more reforms, and
hopefully they get the reforms that they deserve, Cenk.
>> So this reminds me of two things about America. So when people are protesting police
abuse, what do the police do? They beat the crap out of them, or in this case even worse,
kill them. I think that misses the point to say the least. The second thing it reminds
me of is how cops rob average citizens.
But in that case, America is worse, why? Because like so many other crimes in America, we just
made them legal. Loan sharks used to be illegal, now they're payday lenders. Dealing heroin
used to be illegal now, they're pharmaceutical companies. And I can go on of course. Bribery
used to be illegal, now you just give politicians millions of dollars, and that's called the
campaign contribution.
So in the case of the robberies by the cops. In America, if you don't know what the law
is, that they can go, and if they suspect you of a crime, they could take all of your
property on the spot and never give it back to you. In over 90% of the cases, whether
you're guilty or innocent, they never give you back your property.
Well, that's robbery, and they just made robbery legal. So cops go around robbing people all
the time in America. And that's part of the reason, along with their abuse, why we have
so many protests as our police. But in this case, when they shoot into a crowd, that is
far worse than even what's happened in America.
And I mean, you heard that gunfire that's not rubber bullets, that's I mean, water cannons
is already bad. But it's nothing compared to firing randomly into a crowd. I mean, at
least 12 dead, as you can see there and as we've reported. Now there's another curious
thing here, Trump hasn't said anything.
Now, normally, he must be conflicted, let's put it that way. Everybody is condemning what
the Nigerian government is doing, right, except Trump. So on the one hand, Nigeria is an African
country, something he considers an S-hole country, right? So he would want to condemn
them. They're black from Africa.
I mean look, I'm not making it up, Trump said that African countries or S-hole countries,
right? So they're garbage and so, he naturally wants to talk crap about them, okay? But in
this case, it's the police murdering protesters who're complaining about police abuse. He
loves that. I mean, again, it's literal, he said it many times at his rallies.
Remember the good old days, when if anybody protested, they'd be carried out on a stretcher.
And the police, don't be too easy on them when you're putting them in the cars. And
it has encouraged the police to continue to abuse and violently attack and assault protesters.
So when he sees that, honestly, he might be a little jealous.
Look at that, ooh, they get to murder them. And again, that's not an exaggeration, he
has said about dictators in the past, and far worse dictators, right? So Nigeria is
not that, Nigeria is a interesting situation here, where we've got police abuse. But anyway
about dictators, Trump has said, well then, in North Korea, when Kim Jong Un tells people
to stand up, they stand up and applaud.
I wish we did it like that here. Yeah, that's because he kills them if they don't do that.
So he probably looks at this and goes, if only we could do that, maybe second term.
Maybe, they could do it in the second term. But he hasn't said anything about what the
Nigerian government has said as far as I've seen.
And then, when it comes to Amnesty International, which is fighting back super aggressively
to try to protect the people of Nigeria. Trump has criticized Amnesty International. And
now, their new line of attack against Amnesty International and other human rights groups
are they're all anti semitic, wait, what? No, they say that the Palestinian lines should
also be protected, so that's obviously anti semitic.
So at a moment when groups like Amnesty International are critical in places like Nigeria. The Trump
administration is doing character assassination of them and trying to make sure that they
are less effective. So, as usual, either asleep at the wheel or purposefully malignant, that's
Donald Trump. And by the way, don't get me wrong, the people who have the most blame
here by a landslide is the government
of Nigeria.