Editorial: Because they can

Sunday, February 19, 2012

SO DABAWENYOS are calling for blood for the killing of a nursing student by one of those growing number of drive-by robbers on motorcycles. Really now…

We’re not putting down the outrage. There is great reason to be outrageous for the death, for the crime, and for the seeming lack of action by authorities on cracking down on these criminals who are getting bolder every minute.

Have something to report? Tell us in text, photos or videos.

All those who know somebody who has been held up by knife and gun wielding robbers riding motorcycles, raise your hand! We bet there are over a hundred readers raising theirs.

By ourselves, we’ve witnessed one and is a good friend of yet another victim. Criminals? They will not stop at just two. They’ve done it and will do it again… and again…

While before they were content with just speeding off when there’s resistance, now they kill.

And what is the reason for this heightened level of criminal activity? Three words: Because they can.

The impunity by which these criminals are now wreaking havoc among the lives of the people is because not one has been caught and not one has been punished. Now people are shouting for blood.

By whom and through what?

The impunity by which the so-called vigilantes killed and sped off is the same impunity by which the robbers are now robbing, killing, and speeding off. Same method. Men riding in tandem swoops on the target – whether robbery victim or vigilante target. No one gets caught, no one is prosecuted; except that this time, the victims are innocent citizens who live in the belief that Davao City is safe from criminals.

Not.

Especially because this is the same city that is in tacit approval of vigilante ways of meting out punishment, refusing to realize that by doing so, we are all stirring the creativity of the criminally inclined to use the means by which we want them erased from this world. As the adage says, “What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.”