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Mauritius: Let's stop crimes and criminals!
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L'Express (Port Louis)
12 July 2007
Posted to the web 12 July 2007
Alain Jeannot
Port Louis
When Janet stopped at the traffic lights another vehicle bumped her car from behind. As soon as she went out to see the damage, the lonely female driver was savagely assaulted and robbed by the occupants of the other car who swiftly drove away thereafter.
Terrified and wounded, Janet took some time to recollect her bearings. She wished she were going through a nightmare but she had to face the plain truth of having been trapped into a vicious "bump and rob" in the broad daylight of a residential area of Sodnac.
Another lady, aged around 60, recently fell into a similar trap at Curepipe. While she was parking her vehicle, a man knocked at her window in search of some information. As soon as she opened the door, she was attacked and dispossessed of all her belongings by the one she wanted to help and his accomplice who seemed to have emerged from nowhere in the meanwhile! It's not because of the timeless existence of violence and crime in society that they should not be decried and fought at all costs, even more so when they forfeit the elementary duty of protecting the weak and vulnerable.
In attacking defenceless ladies these hightech time criminals have transformed themselves into deceitful, cowardly predators unworthy to even live in the middle ages. In fact, in those remote times, basic chivalric values underpinned as a sacred duty the safety of women and children. It is to be asked if the meaning of sacred is still being upheld nowadays when people do not hesitate to break into God's houses in search of money as it happened recently at Saint Sacrament Church in Cassis. Upon my recent visit in Perth, I was shocked by the aggressive "crime stoppers" awareness campaign going on there.
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Numerous blue posters upon which one could read "A vital weapon to fight crime" followed by Crime stoppers telephone number and a picture of a finger pointing at the zero digit of a telephone keyboard, were displayed along the main roads and in the centre of the town. Perth not only acknowledges the risks of crime but also amongst others arms its population with a simple weapon which it wants everyone to be aware of: the Crime stoppers telephone number. Aiming at fighting crime, "Crime Stoppers is a true team effort and team members include the community, the Police Service and the media working together" (1) with that goal in mind. It also runs a reward scheme for successful arrests while fighting apathy by stimulating the involvement of community members.
Anonymous reporting, which eliminates fear of retaliation is an important aspect of the scheme. Since the introduction of Crime stoppers in Western Australia in 1995 up to July 2007 some 286,700 calls have been registered leading to more than 4,000 arrests. It might be interesting to develop a similar program locally. If it does exist, a similar campaign would be desirable.Meanwhile we should exercise preventive measures such as being wary of strangers, keeping a hotline speed-keeping dial number on our mobile phone, informing a person of our whereabouts and time we expect to come back, avoiding unfrequented areas, keeping our car doors locked when we drive and reporting incidents or fishy situations to police and authorities.
The long-term measure of glorifying timeless values is also not to be underestimated. People who hurt vulnerable persons of the society should not escape sentences proportional to their misdeeds, while those who care for the welfare and safety of women and children should be encouraged and praised.
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