Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Editorial: Gang wars
IN YESTERDAY'S issue of Sun.Star Davao there was a one column news item on Page 2 about a 17-year-old boy having been shot in the knee with a sumpak, a crudely-made single shot handgun made from a waterpipe.
While the victim would only tell policemen investigating the case that the shooting was accidental, he refused to reveal the name of the youth who wielded the weapon. By invoking omerta, the code of silence adhered to by denizens of criminal organizations, the victim showed how far along he has come in the ways of the city's misguided youth who roam the streets at night and engage in gang wars.
This phenomenon of recent vintage -- gang wars -- consists of teenage boys armed with bladed weapons, clubs and an occasional sumpak (usually one that fires a .38 caliber bullet) roving along dimly-lit city streets at night, usually past midnight, looking for trouble or "defending" their territory against other gangs. Rare is the police blotter that has no record of such juvenile depredations.
And there have been deaths and injuries in the wake of these encounters. But the police have not found a way to prevent gang wars erupting in their areas of responsibility. They can only react to every clash by arresting suspects and filing cases against them. But ridding the city streets of these groups of young punks remains a big problem for local lawmen.
Unless put under control by authorities, these youthful troublemakers will yet graduate into becoming hardened criminals and a genuine menace to society.
Isn't there a city ordinance imposing a curfew on minors? That may be one small step for the authorities to take in the wake of this phenomenon, but it will be a giant leap forward in keeping our unruly youth off the streets in the late hours of the night.
So, why is it not being done?
For Bisaya stories from Davao. Click here. (September 19, 2006 issue)
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