Steven Friedman gives the right medicine to the wrong baby in Protecting poor should be SA’s crime priority, for all our sakes (February 21).

We need to defend the citizen against the politician as much as the poor against the rich.

The repeated gang rape of a woman in the supposed care of the police last week proves further how desperately the poor need protection.

But why be concerned that the state will neglect the poor by hearing the rich if, right now, it listens to no one at all?

Forcing this government to do its job takes resources the poor don’t have, but they will reap the benefits.

Yes, that might skew resources, but the issue at hand is not the rich getting special privileges in the future but politicians getting special privileges right now.

Is the problem that FNB could spend R20m on a mail shot or that the president can get a new security wall at R90m?

A healthy society favours the poor over the rich, and a healthy democracy favours citizens over politicians.

If our politicians shared the risks of that poor woman, we would see less crime and corruption. Remove their protection.