Dear Editor,
Crime and violence continues to be of great concern to us as citizens of our nation. Many citizens, groups and both the prime minister and Opposition leader have mentioned it as a priority matter to be tackled in 2014.
The fact is crime has been a worsening problem for the past 25 years because of real causes. We saw a temporary ease a couple years ago, which I had predicted would not last. Now crime seems worse than before with no signs of serious abating.
I wish I could share the optimism of some and the hope of all, including the police who are charged with direct responsibility. I am an optimist by nature, and firmly believe that our best days as a nation are ahead, hence I believe we can and ultimately will rein in this monster.
However, real faith that gives hope is based on sound principles of truth. So I must pour cold water on the hope of our leaders and police for reduction in crime. We cannot hope for reduction in the present scenario, because as I have been saying for years, the strategies being used can never produce the desired results.
A slight variation to a song by Dusty Springfield eloquently defines our crime-solving approach for the past 25 years. "This is a brand new coat and my brand new shoes, but I was the same old me with the same old blues." We have dressed the same failed diagnosis and strategies in different garb under different names, yet with no improvement. All the present stated plans are based on the same futile principles.
Misdirected legislation, oppressive annihilation of perceived crime leaders, harassment of poor communities, more personnel and money and more political rhetoric with little political will and acceptance of the real problem, coupled with self and public deception that things are getting better.
I contend that these approaches attack the fruit, not the root of our crime problem.
If the philosophical principle applied to crime fighting is flawed, then the resulting praxis will be wrong. Our crime treatment year after year, government after government has been naturally flawed because our diagnosis and underlying philosophies have been flawed. So rather than improve the problem, we have multiplied it.
Successive governments have not 'belled this cat' or trumpeted the correct cause. We have a dilemma.
We need new personnel at all leadership levels (political and administrative) or new and different thinking from our current personnel, to drive new and different philosophies to support new and different crime prevention and suppression strategies.
Our crime problem is not as difficult as it appears. Everything is easy when you know how, but difficult when ignorance reigns.
I suggest that we all as stakeholders sit again and examine our crime problem.
Our problem is not really a crime problem, it is an injustice problem. All crime is injustice done to someone. The direction toward the solution must be applying more of the equal and opposite force to overcome it. This is the reason we do not fight fire with fire. Deadly or oppressive force, coupled with injustice, multiplies the problem, whereas controlled necessary force, with justice, curtails and becomes a deterrent to the problem.
Teach justice; give justice to all and we will reduce crime, the fruit of injustice.
Deal with the contributors to crime which some erroneously call causes, such as, poverty, poor education, unemployment, among others. These are justice issues that produce injustice which results in crime.
May our leaders ask for help and be willing to accept it.
Al Miller
Pastor
Treat the root cause of crime -- injustice
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Crime and violence continues to be of great concern to us as citizens of our nation. Many citizens, groups and both the prime minister and Opposition leader have mentioned it as a priority matter to be tackled in 2014.
The fact is crime has been a worsening problem for the past 25 years because of real causes. We saw a temporary ease a couple years ago, which I had predicted would not last. Now crime seems worse than before with no signs of serious abating.
I wish I could share the optimism of some and the hope of all, including the police who are charged with direct responsibility. I am an optimist by nature, and firmly believe that our best days as a nation are ahead, hence I believe we can and ultimately will rein in this monster.
However, real faith that gives hope is based on sound principles of truth. So I must pour cold water on the hope of our leaders and police for reduction in crime. We cannot hope for reduction in the present scenario, because as I have been saying for years, the strategies being used can never produce the desired results.
A slight variation to a song by Dusty Springfield eloquently defines our crime-solving approach for the past 25 years. "This is a brand new coat and my brand new shoes, but I was the same old me with the same old blues." We have dressed the same failed diagnosis and strategies in different garb under different names, yet with no improvement. All the present stated plans are based on the same futile principles.
Misdirected legislation, oppressive annihilation of perceived crime leaders, harassment of poor communities, more personnel and money and more political rhetoric with little political will and acceptance of the real problem, coupled with self and public deception that things are getting better.
I contend that these approaches attack the fruit, not the root of our crime problem.
If the philosophical principle applied to crime fighting is flawed, then the resulting praxis will be wrong. Our crime treatment year after year, government after government has been naturally flawed because our diagnosis and underlying philosophies have been flawed. So rather than improve the problem, we have multiplied it.
Successive governments have not 'belled this cat' or trumpeted the correct cause. We have a dilemma.
We need new personnel at all leadership levels (political and administrative) or new and different thinking from our current personnel, to drive new and different philosophies to support new and different crime prevention and suppression strategies.
Our crime problem is not as difficult as it appears. Everything is easy when you know how, but difficult when ignorance reigns.
I suggest that we all as stakeholders sit again and examine our crime problem.
Our problem is not really a crime problem, it is an injustice problem. All crime is injustice done to someone. The direction toward the solution must be applying more of the equal and opposite force to overcome it. This is the reason we do not fight fire with fire. Deadly or oppressive force, coupled with injustice, multiplies the problem, whereas controlled necessary force, with justice, curtails and becomes a deterrent to the problem.
Teach justice; give justice to all and we will reduce crime, the fruit of injustice.
Deal with the contributors to crime which some erroneously call causes, such as, poverty, poor education, unemployment, among others. These are justice issues that produce injustice which results in crime.
May our leaders ask for help and be willing to accept it.
Al Miller
Pastor
Treat the root cause of crime -- injustice
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