Apply equal law on tinted cars

On Tuesday, the police announced another crackdown on the tinted cars moving in the streets of Juba and attributed the move to preventing crimes during the Christmas festive season.

The organised forces have been deployed on all the streets to implement the order, according to Maj. Gen. Daniel Justin Police Spokesperson.

Justin urged the public to cooperate with the police in the exercise and report any suspected tinted cars that are being used to commit crimes.

He said any numberless vehicle and those with only a single number plate shall be seized and the owner shall be asked to produce a valid document.

This exercise has come at the right time because people might be tempted to take the advantage of the Christmas holiday to commit crimes thinking that everybody has gone on holiday including law enforcement agencies. Also, it has become a tradition in most towns across the country especially  Juba. Always during December, the rate of crime, particularly in Juba, tend to increase mainly due to high pressure from either the family members or individuals to meet Christmas needs. In this case, some people are tempted to steal from others to meet their demand for Christmas.

While this crackdown on tinted cars came at the right moment, it is not the first time that the police have conducted such an exercise. It could be the third or even a fourth campaign to be done this year. Just recently, in August 2021, the same exercise was conducted where several private cars were seized and the exercise had to be stopped after several complaints from the motorists. If you are lucky, the police would only remove the carbon tint on your car’s windows then you pay for the charges. But in extreme circumstances, cars would be impounded and taken to a central place where owners would pay more charges. 

However, most of the time, ordinary motorists have complained about the unfair treatment and imbalance implementation of the order. The order tends to be so strict on the ordinary persons than the politicians or government officials who equally use tinted cars.

The police mostly focus on the minor vehicles while they turn a blind eye to the V8 cars. They assume that the V8s are only driven by Very Important Persons (VIP) and as such, they ought not to be touched. Nevertheless, even the V8s can be used by criminals to commit crimes if they planned to use the vehicle for executing their mission. It is unwise to believe that all those who drive V8s or any other expensive cars cannot commit crimes. 

Law should apply equally

The authorities need to apply equal law irrespective of the personalities or what kind of car should not be checked. Thus, if there is such order to be applied; it must be uniform without discrimination.

Secondly, not to disturb themselves by doing the same exercise from time to time, police through the directorate of customs must ensure that no tinted cars are imported into the country. They should also ban the importation of carbon window tint instead of doing the same thing over and again.