Thursday, October 16, 2008

Crime and Robbery

My neighbour’s house got broken into. The thieves took money and jewellery.

The police came. They did a good job: they conducted lots of interviews, filled in many forms, and said that all goes on file. But when asked what the chance of getting the things back is, they admitted that the vast majority of stolen items are never found.

It was not the money that breaks my neighbour’s heart; it’s the sentimental value of some of the jewelleries; some given to her by her mother on her deathbed.

What does it say about us?

Police doesn’t have enough budget for proper investigation (why don’t we throw them a billion or so from the bank bailout?) and a great deal of their taxpayer-paid time is spent on non-productive paperwork.

While non-criminal are often fined for minor ‘offenses’, despite the increased crime (including violent crime) the legal system makes any effort to understand the problem of criminals, rather than the law-abiding victims. So even if my neighbours robbers are caught, they are likely to end up with minimal penalty.

We, those who grew up in a generation where good behaviour was respected and crime was heavily punished, may still believe that crime is bad. But what message does the young generation get? That crime is acceptable and excusable?

We are now blaming the greed culture we created for the latest economic crisis. It’s not long before we will be blaming the crime supporting culture we are now creating for not being able to walk in the streets unarmed.

The crime and gang culture is already here, but we still may have a chance to stop it. Tomorrow may be too late.

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