Tuesday, November 08, 2005
Interestingly enough, the following week was crime central for me and pretty much everyone I know...
- a guy came to my house one morning while I was at work and tricked my maid into letting him in - he said he was from the Electricity Company. He beat her up, tied her up, threw her in a cupboard and stole anything light and valuable from my flat. Luckily nothing irreplaceable, and she has no bones broken.
- a colleague of mine got home to find that would-be robbers had drilled a hole through one of his front-door padlocks. Luckily they had been disturbed before getting through the second padlock.
- two other colleagues had their cellphones stolen while out walking - one at knifepoint, the other at gunpoint
- another colleague's wife was robbed of everthing she was carrying, at knifepoint
- another, newly-arrived colleague went out to a club with her digital camera. Bit stupid I agree. Her handbag was soon relieved of this heavy burden, despite never leaving her shoulder.
- robbers in Nina's neighbourhood (which is clustered around a large Police Station!) came to a house to rob its building materials - the owners were building an extension. They tied up the owners' 13-year-old daughter so tightly that her circulation was cut off. She died before the neighbours could get her to a hospital.
As Nina says "if the police don't do something soon, the population will start killing thieves again" - referring to the fact that up until about 6 years ago, anyone caught stealing in her area was automatically given a tyre-necklace, no questions asked. In fact, the families in her area did try and form an officially-sanctioned neighbourhood watch organization - but it all came to nothing because the Council wouldn't authorise them to carry weapons - the State is TERRIFIED of letting any countervailing power grow up - even if it is not able to prevent the most basic of violent crimes in the capital city.
- a guy came to my house one morning while I was at work and tricked my maid into letting him in - he said he was from the Electricity Company. He beat her up, tied her up, threw her in a cupboard and stole anything light and valuable from my flat. Luckily nothing irreplaceable, and she has no bones broken.
- a colleague of mine got home to find that would-be robbers had drilled a hole through one of his front-door padlocks. Luckily they had been disturbed before getting through the second padlock.
- two other colleagues had their cellphones stolen while out walking - one at knifepoint, the other at gunpoint
- another colleague's wife was robbed of everthing she was carrying, at knifepoint
- another, newly-arrived colleague went out to a club with her digital camera. Bit stupid I agree. Her handbag was soon relieved of this heavy burden, despite never leaving her shoulder.
- robbers in Nina's neighbourhood (which is clustered around a large Police Station!) came to a house to rob its building materials - the owners were building an extension. They tied up the owners' 13-year-old daughter so tightly that her circulation was cut off. She died before the neighbours could get her to a hospital.
As Nina says "if the police don't do something soon, the population will start killing thieves again" - referring to the fact that up until about 6 years ago, anyone caught stealing in her area was automatically given a tyre-necklace, no questions asked. In fact, the families in her area did try and form an officially-sanctioned neighbourhood watch organization - but it all came to nothing because the Council wouldn't authorise them to carry weapons - the State is TERRIFIED of letting any countervailing power grow up - even if it is not able to prevent the most basic of violent crimes in the capital city.
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