When I wrote my article yesterday, entitled 'The police alone cannot prevent crime', I didn't realize that fear was so widespread in every home from the recent crime and violence wave. I received many messages that reflect a remarkable degree of panic among mothers and children from the blood that is shed everyday, making the killer not human and the dead worthless.
Some say an analysis of a killer's behavior is the most important thing to do in order to find ways to confront this problem. Others say society as a whole is experiencing a mutation in its collective behavior, which requires the whole regime to address seriously.
I believe the Egyptian society is in a state of misconduct that began many years ago, when the citizens were completely separated from the regime, whereby each party lost confidence in the other. The regime does not believe the citizens are its partners, and the citizens see that the regime has swallowed all the wealth.
The officials' corruption that made them above the law prompted some people to follow their own laws of violence. It is a matter of misconduct against misconduct. Now society pays the price for the corruption of power and the deviation of some citizens. There is no difference between stealing state-owned land and killing an innocent family for 150 pounds. Both are crimes. The thug who stabs a woman to steal her purse is no different than the corrupt businessman who steals billions with the consent of the officials. How can the police bust thousands of criminals coming out of the slums every night if the police themselves are unable to bust the corrupt officials and businessmen? How can we prevent crime if the report of the Global Anti-Corruption Federation ranks Egypt 110 out of 179 countries and rates its confidence between 2.6 and 3.3 out of 10, after Djibouti, Burkina Faso and Bolivia?
How can we prevent crime if there are a thousand villages in Egypt living under the poverty line, with more than 15 million people with not enough food and 6 million people living in the slums and the cemeteries that are serving as factories surrounding Greater Cairo, producing criminals everyday, let alone the 3 million unemployed as per the optimistic estimates of the government?
How can the police alone control this? Did anyone think of addressing the root of crime? Did we address poverty, illiteracy and the poor environment before the youth turn violent? How can we ask them not to steal or kill if we do the same?
