Frightening crimes
Has our society become more deranged where people resort to settling scores through might and fire power? Has our society produced too many displaced or marginalised people?
By TK Chua
Just within the first two pages of a news portal, I have read enough of crimes perpetrated in the country to make me puke. Headlines shout: Random shooting at a food outlet in Kota Bahru, teenage girl believed abducted in Taman Lembah Keramat, baby with umbilical cord intact found outside an apartment, loan shark pesters a father for payment after son dies, Bill Kayong’s murder mastermind located in Australia, and jealousy could be the cause of five-year-old’s killing.
I am not even talking of snatch thieves, burglaries and other small time robberies here and there.
I do not have national statistics on crimes and criminals with me, but a cursory observation would suggest that the country has become more unsafe, despite private security services now so widely deployed. Just ask who among us has not experienced a crime situation. Most probably, I think, everyone would answer yes.
Of course, many of us have heard of shootings and killings in broad daylight in earlier years but there are much more these days.
We have been told to be appreciative of the police force for they are doing the best they can to contain the situation. Crimes, after all, are the “sum total” of the society we live in. Police can’t really answer why people are resorting to crimes. At most, they can only help to prevent or solve it.
Has our society become more deranged where people resort to settling scores through might and fire power? Has our society produced too many displaced or marginalised people? Has our moral fibre become weak and feeble despite our endless emphasis on God and religion? These are big questions that the leadership of the country and the society at large must answer.
But I have some simpler and immediate questions for the police.
It would appear that firearms, including hand grenades, are now quite easily accessible by many in the country despite our strict laws governing it? How did this happen?
How many per cent of the crimes committed were actually investigated, solved and punished to the full extent of the law? To me, a high percentage of unsolved crimes could actually embolden the criminals. Why fear the consequences when the likelihood of them getting caught and punished is low.
Is there a better way to enforce and provide police presence? When I was much younger, I used to see police personnel on their rounds on foot. Yes, they “ronda” along “kaki-lima” from street to street. When a burglary happened, the police went to the extent of setting up a trap to nab the culprits.
Maybe times have changed and I have been left behind. Now I don’t see the police doing that anymore. Occasionally, I only see them on motor bikes and air-conditioned patrol cars zooming here and there.
TK Chua is an FMT reader.
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