Indignant vs. Crime

Peace-loving and law-abiding citizens have every reason to be indignant now-a-days against the escalating crime incidents in their midst. Heinous crimes, especially, should not only cause anxiety, anger and an indignant citizenry, but also move them into action, not necessarily taking the law into their own hands, but to do something drastic, calling on their leaders and public officials, the law enforcing authorities to move their ass and run after the perpetrators, whoever they are, arrest them and make their life miserable by paying for their debts to society.

Indeed, when killings and mayhem escalate, the vigilant citizens must not just remain observers or bystanders. They should react, condemn and cry to high heavens, not for revenge but a call for justice to prevail and a resort to righteous indignation.

Recent cases of rape-killings, merciless at that, victimizing some of our most promising and innocent young girls barely in their teens, are examples of barbaric assaults on the tender age of unsuspecting victims who were not in a position to defend themselves in the hands of lunatics, drug-crazed criminals who deserve nothing less than the guillotine for their inexcusable, nay, unforgivable and highly condemnable acts of treachery against the virtue of virginity and innocence.

Unfortunately, we barely hear or witness a chorus of condemnation or contempt even from concerned groups and watchdogs of feminine virtues, guardians of morality and self-styled protectors of the weak and downtrodden in our society. Sad, but that should not deter us from getting callous ourselves, by just dismissing all these criminal assaults upon the lives and limbs of the helpless and the weak among our people, as a sign of a growing society.

Instead, these animalistic violations of human virtue should embolden many of our well-meaning civic-minded Negrenses and Bacoleños to come up with what is truly necessary and a must, so that appropriate action can be resorted to, in the name of justice for the unfortunate victims and just punishment for the perpetrators, harsh that these may be, let the wheels of justice grind slowly but effectively.

What happens when crimes dominate our community, as if these are part of daily living, hazards that we must accept and let the victims fend for themselves? When callousness and indifference become the order of the day, what then? Aren’t we contributing to the moral decay and deterioration of human dignity, where the lawless run roughshod in our midst while the peace-loving and law-abiding cower in fear, afraid of their own shadow?

This is not the society that we aspire to be part of, rather, this is hell on earth, and unless we join hands now to denounce, to condemn and to obliterate from the face of this community of the just and well-meaning people, then our future may not be as promising for our children and the next generation. Heaven forbid. We must be indignant and feel scandalized. Let us not allow the lawless and criminal elements rule over us. We must stand up and defeat the forces of evil in our midst. Or perish altogether.*