There were two of them but for all I may not know, a few others watched from a distance. I was in a hurry to get to my country’s consulate on time (to collect my new international passport). The taller one spoke to me, asked that I must give them some money. For a moment, I thought he was another brother who needed my help. Still in my quick strides, I told him it would have to be another time. He came across me and as he smiled the gold on one his teeth flashed to the brightness of the sun rise. “If you act funny, someone is gonna get hurt” were the words that followed. After some resistance from me, I finally let them have the cash and they walked away. All this while, there were many other pedestrians who just looked and passed by.
For that moment I missed my home country where at the single shout of “Ole” in the public, able-bodied men and women would come to my rescue. And it does not matter whether I am stranger to the team of “standby rescue workers”. I missed when everyone watched out for his neighbour and crime was only in the aloneness of darkness; a thief was not only in the night but he would run to his escape if he heard human movement before his act. I missed the age when there were jungle justice and vigilante groups. Crude as it may have been, one policeman (who oversaw my medical treatment of someone who had been brutally injured by passersby when he attempted to break an ATM) said that it was actually more effective.
The end should never justify the means but present day policing and criminal justice has never been sufficient that in certain circumstances one desires more. I hear there what they call community policing or neighborhood policing; a policing strategy and philosophy based on the notion that community interaction and support can help control crime and reduce fear, with community members helping to identify suspects, detain vandals and bring problems to the attention of police. This needs to be emphasized along with the patrols and check points as security agents can never really be ubiquitous.
The illustration above actually happened to yours sincerely only yesterday. I do not want to think of what may have happened in the full glare of passersby if I did not have some money with me at the time nor if the greed of my attackers went beyond cash. It’s time for community policing. Unlike the biblical Cain, let’s say “I am my brother’s keeper".
Ah! Thats daylight robbery o! Where I live in Lagos several years ago jungle justice was the norm when armed robbers refused to allow us to rest. The result, the robbers disappeared but I tell you it was not a pleasant experience hearing the shrill cry of the robbers begging for their lives or stepping gingerly on the streets trying to avoid stepping on charred remains. The Police as an institution needs to wake up to their responsibility and of course we all need to watch out for each other. Pele gan!
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