Submitted by Serenity
Crime and why we will never be able to reduce the most violent manifestations of it.
In today’s paper NATION page 6a the defence for the recently concluded trial of the aggravated burglary of the Nation Newspaper offices in Fontabelle suggested the men be given a fine and that they are willing to pay back the money. Let’s examine the crime they were found guilty of by a jury. The facts which are no longer in dispute is that they planned the robbery a month in advance down to a change of clothes, used a firearm and threatened the persons present in order to steal.
Should the Court see fit to release these individuals it will set the following precedent for all such cases of aggravated burglary involving the use of a firearm. All former persons sentenced to anything but a fine and all future perpetrators of a similar crime could argue persuasively based on the judgement in this case. Therefore the message we are sending is that it is a trivial thing to enter into any building armed with a gun, threaten the lives of the persons present unless they comply and steal anything in the building.
I used to think simple possession of drugs or traffic cases were minor crimes, but it seems to me that if successful, aggravated burglary will join the new list of minor crimes in this country. Therefore expect to be robbed daily and nightly as you commute or walk the streets because robbery would now be like swearing compared to aggravated burglary.
The main drivers which develop a country or regress it is access to education, health and the feeling of security. We know where we stand on health since the cuts, we know where we stand on security according to the courts recent sentencing of violent offenders and we are in the process of limiting access to higher education shortly by barrier of financing. The message of any society to such offenders as these should be that this will not be tolerated whether people were hurt or not.
The recent robberies of several arcades and the rise in aggravated burglaries around the island is a clear indicator that the message is being heard by the perpetrators. The wrong message. It is hardly any wonder why anyone in the police force would even care to respond to such crimes. But we shall continue to sow this seed because our populace is too passive to do anything else.
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