What Is Human Security And National Security?

In order to understand human security, it is essential to first look at the orthodox approach to security. The orthodox approach or westphalian concept of security, has its roots in the rise of the modern nation state in seventeenth century Europe. The first and perhaps the most significant factor shaping the behaviour of states was the idea that the international system was fundamentally anarchic with no overall governing authority to enforce rules, norms, laws, or more widely, some conception of international justice.

In such a self-help system, no state could be sure that its security would be guaranteed by any other body no matter how firm an alliance might appear at any given time. The supposed universal rationality of state actors meant that they would, by and large, converge around similar international policies and aspire to similar goals in order to render themselves as secure as possible in what was a perpetually insecure system. Most important to this assumption was a military framework that served to act as a minimum deterrent to external aggressors who could threaten the sovereignty of the state, embodied in its territory, boundaries, political institutions, and the general population’s right to self-determination.

What was therefore important for orthodox security on the basis of these assumptions was that in the international realm states pursued policies that were above the demands of any single group in society. The state society relationship, therefore, was separated from international relations, and this separation was necessary for security in the domestic realm. The interest of national security were said to be above and beyond those of any single group in domestic politics simply because if a state was not externally secure, there could be little hope of the goals of domestic politics (the good life for example) ever being realised. Thus, the state was the neutral arena within which the complexities of domestic political and social life could be played out.

However, dissatisfaction started growing with the orthodox or westphalian concept of security, one which reified the state and sanctioned the use of military power in defence against threats to territorial autonomy and domestic political order. This tradition was blind to the polymorphous nature of social power-gender, class, ethnicity, religion and age-and its development within and across territorial boundaries. The inter-sections between the various power bases created complex matrices of human rights abuse within the domestic jurisdiction of many nation-states. These abuses either remained invisible or were purposely concealed in the name of national security and social and/or cultural order. In addition, new non-military security issues with human rights implications emerged and acquired trans-national characteristics in conjunction with the intensification of global economic integration.

The dissatisfaction thus witnessed a fundamental departure from the traditional or orthodox realists thinking of security, which views the state as the exclusive primary referent object. Instead, human beings and their complex social and economic relations have now been given primacy with or over states, in line with the neoliberalist view of security.

Therefore, in today’s world ‘when we think about security we need to think beyond battalions and borders. We need to think about human security, about winning a different war, the fight against poverty.’ The UNDP notes that ‘For too long, the concept of security has been shaped by the potential for conflict between states. For too long, security has been equated with threats to a country’s borders. For too long, nations have sought arms to protect their security. For most people today, a feeling of insecurity arises more from worries about daily life than from the dread of a cataclysmic world event. Job security, health security, environmental security, security from crime, these are the emerging concerns of human security all over the world’.

Thus, human security, sometimes defined as 'Freedom from fear' and 'freedom from want' has now become the catch phrase of an approach to security in the post cold war era. Often referred to as 'people-centred security' or 'security with a human face', human security emphasizes the complex relationships and often-ignored linkages between human dignity, human rights, human poverty and development. Today all security discussions demand incorporation of the human dimension.

But for some scholars, human security is both about ‘the ability to protect people as well as to safeguard states’, whilst in some human security formulations such as that of former Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy, human needs rather than states needs are paramount. Axworthy believes this to be so in the aftermath of the cold war as intrastate conflicts have become more prevalent than interstate conflicts.
Human security is in essence an effort to construct a society where the safety of the individual is at the centre of the priorities..,; where human rights standards and the rule of law are advanced and woven into a coherent web protecting the individual...’’. The United Nations Commission on Human Security, defines human security as ‘the protection of the vital core of all human lives in ways that enhance human freedoms and human fulfilment, which stresses the importance of opportunities and choices to all human life”.

It is also important to note that all proponents of ‘human security’ agree that its primary goal is the protection of individuals. But consensus breaks down over what threats individuals should be protected from. Proponents of a narrow concept of human security, focus on violent threats to individuals, while proponents of a wider concept of human security argue that the threat agenda should be broadened to include hunger, disease and natural disasters because these kill far more people than war, genocide and terrorism combined.

In this light, National Security is not just about the security of the state. It is about the security of the state and also the security of the individuals within the state. It is basically about the protection of the individuals within the state whiles upholding the state. It is about protecting the individuals against violence as well as from hunger, disease, disaster etc. If lots of people are unemployed, then they are hungry and therefore it is a national security issue. If farmers’ crops are being destroyed by Fulani herdsmen and they go hungry, then it is a national security threat. In brief, National Security is both about the ability to protect individuals within a state as well as safeguard the state.

Credit: Justin Bayor


NB: Is the boy (Larry Gbevlo-Lartey) in mind and at heart though he is advanced in age aware of this?

“Let me congratulate you…. You’ve been asked to RETURN BACK to your job” - Tony Lithur goofs

The saying is “show me your friend and I will tell you your character”. It is also said that “birds of the same feathers congregate together”. When we were in school, anytime a teacher makes a grammatical error, one of the students will shout, “bullet” and another will respond “take cover” and everyone will pretend to run away from the unseen enemy.

On Tuesday, 23^rd April, 2013, the President’s lawyer, Tony Lithur took us back to the days of D.C.Kwakye when in congratulating Dr. Bawumia on his new appointment with the African Development Bank (ADB), he made this unpardonable grammatical slip, “You have been asked to RETURN BACK to your job”. 

On sober reflection, I asked myself what legacy the NDC wants to leave for our children. You will recall that a few months ago, the Women’s Organizer of the Nefarious Destructive Cancer, Anita de Souza had made the same grammatical slip. I wrote a piece on that and received hefty blows left and right from core members of the NDC.  Yesterday, it was Anita de Souza; today it is Tony Lithur. Tomorrow, it might even be the …….

Is “return back” the legacy the NDC wants to leave for the youth of this country? Knowing the way the NDC operates, it will not be a surprise to see “RETURN BACK” creep into our dictionary, albeit through the back door. After all, one of the Deputy Ministers is on record of having said that if you see a goat, say you have seen a cow and if you hear the sound of a mosquito, say you have heard the sound of a helicopter.

Yes, this reminds me of another thing. It is the consistency with which Counsels for both the Ist Respondent and the Second attribute the “defects” in the Pink Sheets to either “administrative” or “clerical” errors. Is return back an administrative error?

Afari Djan should be committed to prison: The Supreme Court made an order to all parties in the on-going petition to make their presentation in the form of sworn affidavit. The petitioners have responded but the EC and the First Respondent have not attached any document to the petitioners.

Readers should recall that the EC had filed a writ before the start of hearing to allow it to provide the documents after the NPP has closed its case. That was rejected by the Court. Is this another way of achieving this nefarious plan which it couldn’t get in the open through the back door?

Comments by Asiedu Nketiah and “Sir John: I see everything wrong with attempts to gag the General Secretaries of the two litigating parties from commenting on proceedings of the Supreme Court at the end of sittings. The people love those comments and any attempt by whatever power will not do the public any good.  The repetition of questions and answers make the proceedings very boring and the people need some form of fun to let out their pent up feelings. In fact the two characters usually cut a comical picture of themselves when they are interviewed. They sort of serve as comic relief. Yes, they do for the duo present different dimensions to an otherwise boring session. They view the proceedings from their own fast diminishing prospective. So whatever they say is not based on the reality on the ground but what they want to hear and see. They are entertainers and they have been living up to their assigned roles. I give kudos to the duo of Asiedu Nketiah and Sir John to continue doing what they know best.

Failure of Presiding Officers to sign Pink Sheets: Yes, a Presiding Officer can determine the outcome of an election if he/she does not sign the declaration paper. The fact that an agent signs or doesn’t sign the Pink Sheet will not invalidate the result of the election. But if a Presiding Officer goes on that tandem, the results will be annulled. 

What gives legitimacy to an election is to have it gazetted by the Returning Officer. The Law makes it mandatory for the Presiding/Returning Officer to write his name and then sign/append his/her signature in the appropriate columns. If they are not important, why are the columns provided?

Can you write an application without your name and signature?  How can they identify the applicant? Again, can a Presidential Directive announcing the reshuffle of his Cabinet be enforced if there is no signature of the President or the person mandated to issue the directive? Can an appointment of a person be validated if it does not have the signature of the employer or the officer designated to sign the appointed letter?

Is it possible to withdraw a colossal sum of money from the State Coffers without the signature of the Accountant General? How can a Judgment be enforced if it does not have the signature of the Justice who gave the verdict? If a contract does not have the signatures of the various parties entering into the agreement, it is unenforceable.

So if a Presiding/Returning Officer does not sign the blue sheet or declaration sheet, it renders the results invalid. This is as simple as ABC.

At Polling Florensa Hotel A and B Polling Stations near Alhaji, the Polling Station Officers and the Police on duty drove away the Polling Agents of the various political parties while they filled in particulars which had to be entered into the respective columns before the start of polls. They were only allowed to go to their observers’ posts just before election started. Under such circumstances, how do you expect the agents to know what was written on the pink sheets?  

We should also not overlook the fact that in some of the polling stations, counting and recounting took much time to complete. Some of the stations finished the counting and recounting after 10pm. The agents of various political parties were very tired and just signed the declaration forms without bothering to find out if the writings in the various columns conform to statutory regulations.

Will a transcript sent from an Institution to another be accepted if it does not bear the signature of the Registrar or the person designated to do so? Again, how will you categorize a Certificate, Diploma or Degree which does not have the signature of the awarding institution? If such Degree/Diploma were to be presented to the office of the President, would it be accepted?

Appointment of Dr. Bawumia : Mischief was the prevalent motif on the mind of the Editorial Board of the “Ghanaian Times” when it came out with its lead story that the Running Mate of the Presidential Candidate of the NPP in the December, 2013 Presidential Election has been offered appointment by the ADB. There couldn’t have been any other reason apart for the one enumerated above.

 In the first place the timing was wrong. Since when did the Ghanaian Times get the information of Dr. Bawumia’s appointment? Why did the paper announce the appointment when Dr Bawumia was giving his testimony at the Supreme Court? By that publication, the paper sought to create the impression that Dr Bawumia has realised the hopelessness of the NPP’s petition before the Supreme Court and wants to jump ship midstream. 

True to type, papers in the NDC’s stable took up the cue and gave their own connotation to the appointment. For example, Kwadwo Adu Asare, the “deposed” MP for Adenta was on air to allude to the fact that it was Dr Bawumia himself who applied for the position. This is a blatant lie, and I dare Kwadwo Adu Asare and members of the Ghanaian Times Editorial Board to come out with concrete evidence if they are men and women of conscience.

What these hatchet men and women deliberately refused to state was the fact that Dr. Bawumia, being a golden fish has no hiding place. The meritorious service rendered by the Running Mate to the NPP Candidate in the December 2012 Presidential Election is verifiable and indelible. That could not have been overlooked. The good work done by this whiz kid to revitalize the economy of Zimbabwe was what has opened a new chapter of opportunity for him. He is being sent to achieve similar feat in Uganda whose economy is in the doldrums as a result of a civil war in the country.

I t must be made abundantly clear to the Nefarious Destructive Cancer and its hired press that Dr. Bawumia did not apply for the position which has been offered him by the ADB. “If a child washes his hands well, he eats with kings”. It is also said that it is the way a child stretches his hands that meat is given to him/her. Dr Bawumia has dined with angels and the latter are appreciating him with this appointment. He is yet to make his position on the appointment known.  The PHD syndrome must stop so that sanity prevails.

Orchestrated attempts to manipulate the December 2012 Elections: The so-called “administrative” and “clerical” errors” in the 2012 Presidential Election are nothing but calculated and well-rehearsed collusion between the NDC and the Electoral Commission to manipulate the results in favour of the former.

The first attempts aimed at cheating occurred when the EC, supported by some misguided officials at the Ghana Education Service decided to do away with the service of teachers during the Registration Exercise. All members of the NDC who spoke on the issue supported the stance.

I had earlier on warned our party, the NPP of the NDC’s attempt to cheat in the election by recruiting and training some people to be used to manipulate the 2012 Elections.  That move was co-ordinated by Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa and a man I initially referred to as “wofa” but whom I later came to know as Yaw Boateng Gyan, National Organizer of the Nefarious Destructive Cancer. I had verbal exchanges with some members of the NPP who did not believe me. But the facts are there and cannot be hidden.

I shudder to think of how the same “administrative” and clerical mistakes could be committed by EC’s officials especially Presiding Officers at different polling stations in the country. In an examination if a group of students make the same mistakes, it gives room for the examiner to suspect foul play. The officials were purposely trained to leave those columns blank so that they would have room to manipulate the results. If they were caught they would attribute it to “administrative lapses” as are being alluded to by Counsels for both the President and the Electoral Commission.

How can the EC talk of genuine mistakes when it did away with the services of teachers who have since the beginning of the Fourth Republic been used for both the Registration and voting exercise in the country? That argument is not tenable and could only be made by a leader of the blind. And I wonder if Afari Djan is physically blind. He could have been at first but now he is not. He does not wear his glasses in court nowadays. I thank God that the scales have fallen off his eyes and he has seen the light. But he has to do penance by telling the truth the way it is.

What was on the EC’S mind when it did away with the services of experienced teachers and replaced them with novices? Does the EC have any reason to talk about inefficient and untrained staff at this time? I do not think so.

Let me ask Afari Djan and Quarshie Idun this simple question. If they are able to answer it satisfactorily, I will be satisfied. In the respondent filing and submission of the affidavit, did it include the signature of the respondent or his accredited representative? 

In announcing John Dramani Mahama as President-Elect, did the declaration sheet have the signature of Dr. Kwadwo Afari Djan? If it did not have the signature, on what basis will the EC fault the evidence presented by the petitioners?

But before I end this piece, will somebody tell me whose error is administrative and whose own is clerical? From the available evidence adduce before the court of public opinion, Tony Lithur, President Mahama’s lead Counsel and husband of President Mahama’s Minister of Discrimination made the “Administrative” errors whilst Anita de Souza’s own can be described as “clerical”.  You want to contradict me?

I shall be back. Stay tuned.

Credit: Knocking Them Cold with Uncle Dan (DAYBREAK newspaper)

THE MASQUERADE IS REMOVED

It is often said that each bubble in a cooking pot of soup fights hard for supremacy that none listens to the cry of the pot itself, so when the pot burns, all the bubbles perish. If we don’t eat yam for the sake of palm oil, we eat the palm oil for the sake of the yam.

I had never envisaged a situation where the ‘All powerful’ Afari Djan would be brought down to the level of ordinary mortals to enable him have a taste of life at the other side of the great divide. Here was a man who started life as an ordinary man, but has mutated to become a snarling snake and a ravening marauding beast. He arrogated to himself powers he did not legally possess and felt like a powerful deity who has soared above the reach of ordinary mortals. Afari Djan forgot that he had started life as a proletariat. He has now become a bourgeoisie and is acting and talking like one of them.

When Ghana ushered in the Fourth Republic after more than a decade of military dictatorship, he was appointed a member of the INEC (The Board which oversaw the electoral process in the country). The demise of Nana Oduro Nimapau paved the way for our now discredited Dr Kwadwo Afari Djan to be catapulted to the exalted position of Chairman of the Electoral Commission. 

Once he attained the pinnacle of his career as head of the Electoral Body, he put in measures to ensure that everybody, from the highest papacy to the lowest clergyman became subservient to him. He became the Lord and Master of all that he surveyed. He raved, shouted, intimidated, insulted, kicked and even cursed ordinary Ghanaians whom he despised very much. He became arrogant and had no patience with the ordinary man on the streets. He radiated and gravitated towards the rich and the powerful. For money he has it in abundance. His buildings are uncountable. He has an uncompleted building at Ayigbe Junction, Israel, near Alhaji. Work on the project had been in abeyance until the last two years, giving credence to the rumours that he might have compromised his position as an impartial referee in the December, 2012 Elections. Ghana Must Go Bags might have done the deed. 

He had absolute power which corrupted him absolutely to bring him down from the top of his supposedly mount Olympus abode. 

Afari Djan tested the pulse of the nation and came to the conclusion that we are ‘pliable’ because we did not complain about his dictatorial tendencies. He became emboldened and started stretching his tentacles until he felt he had got almost everybody at his beck and call. 

Who could stop him? Who could cage him? None, he thought. 

His cheerleaders goaded him on, and they were many, all ready to do his biddings for their own “noko fio”. All kinds of accolades were heaped on him.  Some even went to the ridiculous extent by describing him as the best thing that ever happened in the country and on the continent. Whilst some advised caution, those who did not have the interest of the nation at heart suggested that he, Afari Djan must be given a blank cheque to embark on his chosen route to Golgotha. 

But the worst was yet to come. In accordance with the adage which states that “those that the gods want to destroy, they first make mad”, 2012 began the eventual fall of “Almighty” Afari Djan from grace to grass. This man of great controversy allowed the praises being heaped on him to becloud his sense of reasoning. He saw himself as a demigod with the rest of us as his devotees and acolytes.

Like Rehoboam in the Holy Bible, Afari Djan, surrounded by praise singers, threw caution to the winds and courted mischief for himself and the country. Those who offered constructive criticisms were tagged saboteurs and enemies of state. Under such circumstances, one could only keep quiet and wait for the propitious moment when fate would smile on us with the disgrace of “almighty” Afari Djan. And it was not long in coming.

It was Afari Djan who, against all intent and purposes decided to create 45 New Constituencies with less than Four Weeks to the December 2012  Elections. Genuine concerns were expressed by Civil Society, The Clergy, Professional Bodies and other individuals about the “foolishness” of such action.  But in a move which could only be construed as having disdain for opponents of the move, Afari Djan went ahead and created the so-called 45 Constituencies. He dared his opponents to go to court if they had “balls”.

“Almighty” Afari Djan had stated in clear and unmistakable terms that if it came to issues involving Elections in the country, he (Afari Djan) was that EC personified. He exhibited his “one man show” posture during the submission of nomination forms by Presidential Candidates of various political parties and their representatives.

He showed disdain for lesser mortals when he raved and shouted and cursed some of them. He even tore the forms of others with the explanation that they had submitted them. No amount of explanation would placate him. Those who were aggrieved with his fatwa could go to court, so said “almighty” Afari Djan.

Thus, many Candidates were prevented from participating in the December 2012 Presidential Elections on very flimsy excuses. This deprived the nation of revenue which might have accrued to the coffers of the EC, if Afari Djan had been a little bit flexible.

But earlier on, the EC under Afari Djan had done the unthinkable when it did away with the services of Teachers during the Registration exercise. Some of us cried foul, but the EC Chairman, cheered on by hired press and crowd countered our arguments with verbal insults.

I am therefore surprised to hear the EC attributing its statutory breaches and violations during the December 2012 Presidential Elections to incompetence and inexperience of its staff.

This admission of incompetence goes to confirm that Afari Djan is gradually coming down to earth to stay with the people who had helped him to the top. But will the people accept him as one of their own? He has to prove to them that he is not the “Saul” we know in the Holy Bible. Saul showed genuine repentance, was baptized and became known as Paul. But has Afari Djan repented? And if he were to be ‘christened’, what would be his new name? I think Jammed would fit him well.

Almighty Afari jammed had before the December 2012 Elections made certain pronouncements about the conduct of the election. He had said it loud and clear that nobody would be allowed to vote if the person did not go through biometric verification. He had also said that if there was over-voting by even one vote in any polling station, the result of the entire polling station would be annulled.  And these edicts were enforced in some polling stations.

In a polling station in O.B.Amoah’s Constituency (Aburi/Nsawam) there were three extra votes. The contending parties took the case before “Almighty Afari Djan who decreed that the three extra votes be taken away from NPP’s tally.

Again, it came as a shock to hear the EC state in its response to the NPP petition that everybody who voted in the December, 2012 Election had gone through biometric verification. But the NDC has alleged that at the Kibi Magistrate Court’s Polling Station in Akufo-Addo’s background, people had voted without being biometrically verified – a fact which has been corroborated by the NPP. So, what is Afari Djan saying here?

But the “Great” and “Almighty” Afari Djan exhibited his abhorrent for criticism when he refused to listen to the NPP’s appeal to postpone the announcement of the Presidential Election Results by 48 hours to enable it present evidence to back up its claims that there had been statutory violations in the conduct of the Presidential Election. But Afari Djan would have nothing of that.

Listeners will bear me out that the December 7, 2012 Election had been inconclusive on the first day and voting had to be extended to the following day. Therefore Afari Djan’s insistence on announcing the results on Sunday to meet up the 48 hour deadline does not hold water. The Election had ended on Sunday and between Saturday and Sunday makes it 24, not 48 hours.

Afari Djan’s weird logic here could only mean one thing. Mad Emperor Nero’s spirit had taken possession of his soul, spirit and body. His intransigence has taken us to where we are today.

So, I wasn’t surprised to hear him exhibiting disdain for ordinary mortals like Fiifi Boafo of Oman FM/Net 2 fame. His vitriolic and unprovoked attack on the presenter exposed him as someone who was possessed by demons and needed some form of exorcism which was provided when he made his appearance at the hearing petition of the NPP before the Supreme Court.

But did you see that miserable man in glasses chewing gum during the hearing? And the cameras did not help matters when they made him the focus of attention. Here was somebody, who about five months ago was the Capo of King-makers in the country. He was the Coach, Match Commissioner, Referee and Linesman at the same time. He determined who to use in a match and the position to be played by each actor. He will remove you from the team if his countenance likes you not. 

The gum chewing began at a slow pace and graduated to a quicker pace. At a time it was if he had not eaten for days and the gum was to assuage his hunger and thirst. A friend called to say that he could hear the audio effect of Afari Djan’s gum chewing on the television.    

But was the man smiling, sneering or talking to himself? That I do not know. But something also caught my attention. His glasses were removed and put on many times during the proceedings. I counted the number of times this was done. They were ten and that reminded me of the last press conference of General Ignatius Kutu Acheampong before he was executed. 

He removed his glasses and put them on Eighteen times before the end of the press conference. I wonder what was going on in the mind of the executed Head of State as he made his press conference. At the thought of that, my usually strong heart melted and I began to have pity on Almighty Kwadwo Afari Djan.

But does he deserve any pity? Does this “troubler of Israel” deserve your pity? I guess not. For here is a man who disregarded all ethics of nature and became “untouchable” “unreachable” and “unstoppable”. But power is not permanent but transient. The masquerade around Afari Djan has been unmasked leaving only the hideous face of Medusa. Who say man no dey? When iron meets iron, one of them will bend. It seems the iron in Afari Djan is about to cave in

Is this the end of the beginning or the beginning of the end of the Great and All Powerful Kwadwo Afari Djan? Only time will tell. But for now Afari Djan has jammed. This is the simple truth.

Credit: Knocking them cold with Uncle Dan, DAYBREAK newspaper (every Tuesday) 

GENERAL BEATS UP JUNIOR

The image of Ghana’s Armed Forces, which previously had an international shine when it came to peace keeping missions around the world, is in tatters today owing to an act of buffoonery perpetrated by one top soldier currently heading a Ghana peace keeping contingent in the DR Congo. 

Enter Brigadier-General EMK Yeboah, a Sector Commander appointed by the Ghana Armed Forces for the noble duties of assisting other peace keeping nationals at his level to design strategies to bring an enduring peace to the crisis-hit nation. It has emerged that, rather than work to keep the peace and hold high the flag of Ghana among his peers at the Command Level on the turf, the Brigadier-General revealed the stuff he was made off when he ignored all sense of military finesse, diplomacy and protocol and punched to pulp a junior rank (name withheld).

It is not clear the cause of the physical attack on the junior, but reports reaching DAYBREAK indicates that it was “nasty.” 

The victim did not reply but attempted only to parry the punches as the uniformed-by-accident Brigadier-General sent out a flurry of punches. 

When he had gotten drunk himself from the brutish act, the General after hoping in vain that the punch-drunk soldier would regain consciousness, reluctantly caused him to be moved to a first level barracks medical treatment. 

Information reaching DAYBREAK from DR Congo and the diplomatic community including files from Abuja on the incident revealed that when that also failed, the victim was taken by the UN Mission to a second level modern medical facility on account of the gravity of his condition.

That failed to work either. As we do this piece, the venomous punches of the Brigadier-General who proved he has little piece himself to offer, has ultimately landed the victim in an expensive South African facility. Diplomatic sources in DR Congo confirmed that the victim was sent to “Level 3 in South Africa after UN doctors in DR Congo (level 2) could not take care of the soldier”

Back home in Ghana, at the Armed Forces Command HQ, the matter is being swept under the carpet. When DAYBREAK called the Public Relations Directorate for a comment, however, the Director, Colonel M’Bawine Atintande, declined a comment. “I will not comment on it,” he stated.

Brigadier-General EMK Yeboah’s conduct contravenes Section 25 of the Armed Forces Regulations on quarrels and disturbances. Offenders, according to the Code, face imprisonment, after court-martial proceedings – even if the incident involved provocative words or gestures.

Source: DAYBREAK