Lawlessness taking over

Two men last Monday robbed another outlet of a courier company, making off with more than forty thousand pesos in cash. The robbery came just three days after two men also held up a different outlet of the same company.

It is quite possible that the perpetrators are the same men. Moreover, it is also possible that the robbers are familiar with the company's operations, given the ease with which they seemed to hit the same establishment.

But whether the two robberies involved the same men, or the second was just a copycat of the other, one has to give it to the robbers for their daring and their ability to read clearly the security situation in the metropolis.

And the security situation is this -- there is almost no security. These establishments are not without security guards. But it appears the guards in both instances were helpless, as in almost every other robbery case.

There is also no security when the police, more often than not, is unable to prevent crimes, much less solve them. The recent killing of a prominent lawyer and the gun attacks on several barangay officials are slowly being consigned to forgetfulness, to be remembered simply as mere statistics.

If it is any indication of the state of security, or the lack of it, in the metropolis, the police are giving students who will soon go on vacation at the end of classes bookmarkers printed with the faces of known or wanted criminals.

In other words, the police are letting students help actively in crime prevention and solution. Now, one may consider this in a positive light, that it is a part of anyone's civic duty to help maintain peace and order in their respective communities, that it is one way of instilling responsibility in the youth.

There is no argument with the positive manifestations. But they have a tendency to fall flat in light of the police's own lacklustre performance. The negative take on the whole idea is either the police have become so helpless, or they have become so desperate they have no qualms using children to do the job for them.

It is not that the police are not properly trained and equipped to do their job. It has everything to do with attitude and character. If the heart is not there, then nothing happens, and the worthless elements start to take over. This is what is happening.