Editorial: Dignity, rights, and outrage

WE’RE back in the midst of what should prevail as an enraged police and humiliated barangay captain, prodded on by a more enraged vice mayor, go around marking the doors of suspected drug pushers and dealers.

May residents are applauding, the mayor would rather not, just as many would want to applaud but would rather not.

Drug addiction and the predators that run these syndicates are indeed reprehensible to every law-abiding citizen, we fully understand the outrage but the precept of being innocent until proven guilty tugs at our tailcoats.

Should we or should we not allow this is a question that will bug our minds for days to come as we look in trepidation at our children and wondering who they are mingling with when they are not with us; even what resentments they are nurturing that may lead them to rebel.

Very many parents by now know that it’s never easy to understand their children and lucky are the parents indeed, who are able to establish a strong bond of respect and communication with their children. Many more are not as lucky, and even the most pampered child can rebel for this and that reason, which the same child will only shake his or her head in dismay and amusement looking back as an adult, if and only if, he or she survives the rebellious years of one’s youth.

Just as the thought continues to tug at our conscience to ensure justice is served even to the most hardened criminal because that is what a civilized world requires, we all crave for justice to be served fast and hard against them. Sad to say, it doesn’t. Thus, we are caught between not wanting to applaud but would really wish we could.

At the bottom of all these ethical dilemma is our continued distrust over how our justice system works. For as long as trust is fully regained by our justice system, there will be more of us wanting to applaud, more leaders prodding actions with quicker solutions, and more policemen itching to put that “X” on their target, while wishing they were instead using a sniper instead of a paintbrush.