SARS, operational or not, should be seen as a result of this repressive strategy in Africa. People in the West, particularly the U.S., play a crucial role in developing consciousness around this tragedy because much of this repression is contributed to by U.S. tax dollars. . . .
#EndSars
#EndSars: Contextual Primer on the Youth-led Anti-Police Movement in Nigeria
For the past week, Nigerian youth have been hitting the street to demand #EndSARS. The Special Anti-Robbery Squad Policing Unit (SARS) was created in 1992 to “stop crime”, specifically armed robbery and kidnapping which was a growing concern in the 1990s and 2000s. Armed robbery and kidnapping mainly targeted rich and middle-class Nigerians who have seen massive increases in wealth in the last few decades. However, like many policing squads, SARS is a largely unchecked unit that has been targeted young people based on their appearance of tattoos, earrings, iPhones, and cars utilizing that as evidence of fraud, scamming and . . .