When patience wears thin

But this is a sensible strategy only if the attacker or attackers prefer not to maim and kill. Nowadays however, it appears that the criminals are not content merely to take away their victims’ possessions.

Nicholas Ramsaroop, who along with a woman was snatched by bandits on Friday night, died from being beaten by his two abductors. The woman was not only raped, but beaten with even more violence than is inherent in such an act.

The murder of Police Constable Casrajh Mansingh, which occurred exactly a week before, had a similar viciousness, his attacker not content just to shoot, but standing over the fallen officer and emptying his gun into Mansingh’s chest.

Unless there was some personal enmity between victims and attackers, this unnecessarily murderous attitude makes no sense — or, rather, they make no sense that ordinary citizens can understand. It is rarely true to say, however, that the act of killing does not have specific motives. The only situation where this is so is in the case of psychopaths such as serial killers, who murder because they are mentally ill. But the typical murderer kills for personal or pragmatic reasons — family conflicts, especially between spouses, or for gain. Most of the murders that have been plaguing our country appear to be connected to gang wars and drugs and, perhaps, URP monies. In that context, the cycle of murder and revenge is understandable, if not acceptable.

But what we have now are apparently typical robberies where the bandits are going out of their way to murder. Clearly, within the criminal sub-culture, it is no longer enough to "put down a wuk" in order to attain status. Now a bandit has to be violent as well in order to be respected by his peers.

Nothing can be done about this in the short-term. Changing such murderous mindsets is a goal that can only be attained in the next generation, and the Government has begun putting specific long-term measures in place, ranging from child-care centres to re-designing high-crime neighbourhoods in such a way that the environment itself deters anti-social behaviour.

In the meantime, however, what can ordinary citizens do? If they resist, they are liable to be killed; if they do not resist, they are liable to be killed.

Obtaining their own firearms illegally, which some citizens have already begun to do, is no answer. It is the exception, not the rule, that possession of these weapons helps prevent attacks. Moreover, widespread possession of guns, as the case of the United States demonstrates, just increases killings, since ordinary disputes all too often escalate to the point of no return. So all ordinary people can do is exercise caution and make it as difficult as possible for bandits to target them. But the past weekend, with its seven deaths and the murder toll now past the 350 mark, means that citizens’ already worn patience is wearing tissue-thin.