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Rabat – Morocco’s Directorate of National Security (DGSN) announced on Monday that a group of police officers discharged their firearms to subdue a repeat offender allegedly under the influence of drugs and threatening the safety of citizens with a bladed weapon. The incident occurred Sunday in the Sidi Ayoub neighborhood of Marrakech.
According to the DGSN, “The criminal attempted to react violently to the intervention of police by stabbing one of the officers, leading the latter to fire two warning shots into the air. A third bullet struck the criminal in his leg.”
In continuing remarks, the DGSN also said, “The criminal has been referred to Ibn Tofail University Hospital to receive the necessary medical treatments,” noting that the “Marrakech’s public prosecutor has opened an investigation to hear eyewitness evidence.”
This is not the first time the police have used their firearms in similar situations. In fact, earlier this month they fatally shot a repeat offender in Salé and a 20-year-old young man who threatened citizens in a public place in the outskirts of Beni Mellal.
Following this unprecedented increase in crime, Moroccans have found themselves facing a dilemma. Should they support the decision of the police to shoot criminals who threaten the safety of citizens in public places with any type of weapon? Or, should they instead call for officials to apply rigid sentences against the criminals as deterrents?
This increase in criminal behaviour has spurred social media users to launch a campaign with the slogan “Zero Grissage,” or in English, “Zero Assault,” last July. The campaign acknowledged King Mohammed VI as the supreme authority in Morocco and implored him to intervene to find resolutions to the phenomenon of criminal attacks and call for the security department to be more effective.
