Stop a child from becoming a robber

YESTERDAY morning, another group of men also did what most people do every morning, they got ready for work.

But the nature of their work, armed robbery, put them on the wrong side of the law. Six of them died yesterday in the gun battle with police. A few others were arrested.

On social media, they were cursed and their deaths celebrated. The hatred for them is understandable, to some extent, given the disrespect they showed to others.

But you can also be sure that somebody will mourn their death. A parent. A child. A wife or mistress.

In the coming days, we may even come to know their names. But that’s where it will end.

There will be little attempt to understand their lives. To try to find out what turned them into the people they became.

To understand the role that we, as society, played in who they became.

Our greatest weapon in the war against armed robbers is not the stopping power of a bullet, but our ability to stop a child from growing up to become a robber.

Their natural inclination during play is to be the cop and not the robber.

Admittedly, it is a far more complex problem and that’s perhaps why today, our society will continue pretty much as we did yesterday.

And tomorrow, when another armed robbery takes place, we will be as outraged as before.

And, so will continue the days of our lives.