Jungle Justice

_{Photo by Alex Mccarthy}

The conversation on jungle justice can sometimes be a tricky one because I've come to realize that people say certain things based on how they feel towards that issue at that particular time. By law, jungle Justice isn't something that should be done but tell that to a man who just caught some thieves a few weeks after his son was killed by armed robbers in a bank.

The man obviously would be the first person wielding a weapon, getting ready to send those thieves to their maker. To him, he sees it as the right thing to do, a point of view you probably wouldn't understand because you weren't the one who lost a son. But then one thing about jungle justice is cases where the accused is actually innocent but before he or she could prove that, they get killed.

A good case of what I'm talking about was something that happened today in my street. Apparently a guy was caught trying to steal a phone. I had no idea whose phone it was but before anyone could ask any reasonable questions, some of the youths were already hitting him with all sort of things like wood, machete and other dangerous weapons. Fortunately for him, this weren't the type of youths who were eager to spill human blood, so they made sure to use the flat side of the machete and also to not hit him in a place where it could be deadly.

The whole beating and humiliation lasted for about three hours before we finally realized that the young man in question wasn't actually a thief. His friends came to his rescue and they were all pissed off and that was when the youths started to plead with them.

And now I asked myself, what would have been this young man's fate if this had happened in a community where the youths were heartless and wouldn't hesitate to set him on fire. He probably would have been long dead before his friends would even arrive at the scene and then they will take his remains to his parents.

Losing a son is devastating already, now imagine losing a son for a crime he didn't commit. That would be times two of whatever heartbreak they would be feeling.

At the end of it all, I understand that anger can get the better part of us especially when we've had a personal experience with that thing but we really shouldn't take matters into our own hands and let the law take its course.