I am intrigued and amused by those of us who sit in our homes and happily pronounce that the current State of Emergency is the best thing since slice bread because as it stands all of you were living under self imposed curfews anyway. I am amused because all of you thus far who have expressed that view are the same ones wining low to the ground in many a party and fete, attending many a show well past the hour of nine o'clock if you so chose at any time you so chose. Many of you up to only a month ago were attending band launchings going till what ever god forsaken hour the next morning because that was your right. Yes you exercised caution. We all do when we are going out. I did not hear any of you saying "Let me leave this band launch before nine because crime is just too high"...Not at all, you shook your waist even lower to the ground, continued to sit on that bar stool or enjoyed your poetry, christmas party, conference, reading, recital to your leisure and then left at the end, what ever time that may be.
So step down from your soap box for a tiny moment and let us all assess the major benefits of removing the rights of a nation with over 1 million people to clamp down on crime:
1. More criminals will be off the streets. I find this a major plus and indeed I am heartened by the fact that over eight hundred assumed criminals have been taken off the street. Lest we forget, these people can only be detained for as long as the SoE continues. At the end of this "he who alleges must prove" and if you cannot prove that these assumed criminals are such then where pray tell are they going to end up? I suspect right back on those same streets that you are afraid of treading. Those same streets that you are so afraid to tread that we need a State of Emergency, but oddly enough not so afraid that you are willing to miss Tribe Band Launch for. At this point I have to ask if this means that the real plan is to leave us in a permanent state of emergency to aid and assist in the clamping down on crime. This leads to to ask what is the function of the police service.
During this highly publicised event, I have seen the police and army herding men and women into the back of their vehicles...these "Known assumed criminals" this must mean that they were tipped off about these criminals. Okay so question...couldn't you get the tip off and arrest these persons without a state of emergency? What is that you are saying? You have no proof, just the tip off? So what you are really saying is that you cannot wait to get evidence and proof to arrest persons. What then is the position after the SoE is lifted? Where is the burden of proof? For me, I am all for gathering up the criminals but no, not at the expense of my liberty. What happens when a tipster is merely getting back at an accused person? What happens when a person has a grouse with an army or police officer? If you have no need for the burden of proof, where does the madness end? Why can't we allow the police service to do their job? Clean them up and allow them to do their job.
2. Their will be a significant decrease in criminal activity. Naturally, this is what will happen if you are under a state of emergency for its duration. Currently the curfew hours are between 9:00pm and 5:00am because you say that this is when the bulk of the crime occurs. If that is the case then I must have dreamt up the recent spate of murders and rapes in broad daylight. One young lady was raped at 12:00 noon and her case was not an anomaly. Daylight crime is not an anomaly, how does your SoE solve this? That is all I will say on that one.
3. This will succeed in getting the guns and ammunition off the street. As I write it may very well be that we have collected over twenty (20) guns. You heard me. This is substantially less than one normal raid in 1/2 day and this is what we have to show after nine days of snatching away civil liberties? Where on God's green earth are containers of guns that people say were coming in every day? Your intel cannot be so bad that you have only found under fifty guns in nine days.
For me, this SoE has less to do with political affiliations and more to do with a people willing to give up their civil rights in the name of an initiative that is not clearly defined, poorly planned and horribly executed. I ask which of the over 800 people nabbed could not have been with proper police work and evidence gathering? Which out of all the captured really required a SoE to be launched?
I am baffled by a people so willing to give up all their rights, without fully knowing the desired goal at the end of all this. How long will this be for? What do we expect to see at the end? No we really do not know. Their is no justifiable need for for breaking down my door other than a tipster does not like me or I offended and army or police officer so now they are so inclined.
As I write this I ponder if someone in a high position decided to brand me public enemy number one, would there be any recourse for me. I would be detained until the SoE came to an end, with no necessity for the burden of proof. What then? Who champions my cause?
I ponder if I happen to live in a "hot spot" have no criminal links whatsoever but have the misfortune of having had a tiff with a vengeful neighbour...then who helps me? I ask myself if someone does not like what I write and is sitting in an influential position then can I be informed via a press conference to report to the nearest police station?
As you read this, they can be about to kick down your door, you have no rights currently. None of us do. Why have we assented to people removing investigative works and proper policing to be replaced by an undefined measure? Why are we content to kill all our mosquitoes with bazookas? How is it we are insistent on burning down our house to get rid of the roaches?
