More crimes! More fear!

We are living in a time of some wicked crimes. We are sinking lower and lower every day. Everyone hears and talks about these crimes. As a result fear grows rampant. It is engulfing us, but we try to be strong for we have to go on living.

We are a country that believes in peace and hard work. I do not believe that poverty generates crimes. I believe that greed generates crime. Our fore parents were desperately poor, but they did not kill or rob. Hirouna, land of the blessed, where are you? Why art thou come to this level? Why are your sons attacking mothers? Why this degeneration? Why are people beaten down and burdened with crimes and fear of crimes? So many of us are victims of burglary, theft and robbery.

Our people want to live a quiet life. Why are they exposed to the tyranny of a few who want to live off the backs of others? Is it because they have guns and know how to wield their knives? There was a time when there were no guns and people didn’t have to lock their doors. Criminals are setting up a dangerous life for our people. They are thinking that they cannot be caught and that they are invincible.

We are dependent on tourism, what message are we sending to the world out there to would-be visitors… that we are a land of highway robbers… that its people must always be looking over their shoulders? Must we always live in fear wondering who would be the next victim? This is so unfair to law-abiding citizen. The crime situation grows murkier and murkier every day and no one is spared the effects.

Perpetrators of crime are motivated by the desire to gain at the expense of innocent people. They are not prepared to go through the long process of building up resources. They want quick gains.

They do not understand that those who have more would have undergone a long process of acquiring what they have. They were at the bottom some time in life, or their parents were and they worked their way to their present status. Our fore-parents were slaves. They started off with the clothes on their backs. They worked hard and dug themselves out of the rot. Today, their descendants are much better off and there are prospects for improvements. Why should another say, “I must have your hard earned labour? Give it to me or else!” Seems like no amount of talk can get the criminals to stop. Seems like we are not reaching them. Every generation produces a few who think they are so powerful that they can outsmart the world, who think that they can go undetected, or who feel that justice would never catch up with them. What is it that drives them? They should know that nemesis is powerful, or as it is sometimes called, vengeance or Karma.

A young woman was relieved of her handbag recently. In that handbag was the instrument for mapping location. That crime would have gone down as another unsolved crime were it not for modern technology. Yes, iphone has the capacity, if it is set up, to show you where your lost phone is located. This is how the robber was caught red-handed, as the handbag carried an iphone. So those who think they can steal and get away with it, must know not to take other people’s hard-earned labour!

Ada Johnson is a solicitor and barrister-at-law. E-mail address is: exploringthelaw@yahoo.com