I’ve seen a couple of news stories on the local news these past few weeks that disturb me. I can’t help but wonder if this is an indicator of a growing trend in law enforcement across the country. But you be the judge.
The first story I heard several weeks ago. Local law enforcement officials are having a difficult time catching and stopping “taggers", those graffiti artists who leave their calling cards in spray paint on people’s homes, businesses, and other public and private property. In an effort to keep these petty thugs from destroying property and attracting additional less-than-desirable traffic in these neighborhoods, the city of Houston is implementing measures that would fine property owners for not cleaning up their tagged property within 10 days of the incident. The initial reaction would be one of satisfaction that the gang graffiti is being cleaned up. A few moments of contemplation make one realize that this solution does nothing to stop the problem of tagging. Taggers will continue to leave their signatures wherever they want. What it does is penalize home and business owners for having the audacity to have locations that make the perfect canvases for this type of artwork. Decent, law-abiding citizens are treated like criminals for not cleaning up the vandals’ mess. As people are forced to spend money they don’t have to clean up a mess they didn’t make, the true perpetrators of the crime laugh and slap each other on the back, trotting off to select their next target without so much as a backward glance from law enforcement.
The second story came out about a week later. An apartment complex in one area of our city seems to be the site of an excessive number of crimes of all types – murder, domestic violence, drug trafficking, assault. These crimes continue in spite of efforts by the complex to increase security. City officials and local law enforcement have met with the complex owners and have determined the best way to reduce the crime in this complex, and all others in our city as well, is to hold the owners responsible for the activities that occur on their property. Apartment owners can be held criminally and fiscally liable for damage their tenants incur, including loss of life. Fortunately, the idea has been tabled indefinitely while both sides try to determine in which direction the talks need to go. However, again we find that the criminals aren’t the ones that are held responsible for their crimes. It’s someone who isn’t even involved in the incident, the apartment owner, who is blamed for the problem and held liable.
Oh, I’m not stupid. I’ve been hearing for months about how the local police force is understaffed, is unable to bring in enough people to replace those retiring and moving away to other communities. I don’t doubt that a lot of these issues contribute to the inability of law enforcement to resolve the problem. But I have to wonder why local police do nothing to stop these types of crimes. Do they feel that by punishing the victims of crime, the crimes will cease? Or do they think that tactics like these will rally citizens to form their own groups to stop crime?
If you ever grew up with brothers or sisters, you can answer that first question yourself. When a sibling did something wrong and you got punished for it, it certainly stopped the sibling from further wrongdoing, didn’t it? And we all know how the government feels about citizens taking the law into their own hands by forming groups like the Guardian Angels, the Minute Men border patrol, and others. It looks to me that neither solution works, and yet law enforcement doesn’t give us a viable alternative to seeking resolution to our criminal problems and protecting innocent, law-abiding citizens.
These stories brought to mind the horrific tragedy of September 11, 2001, in New York City, at the Pentagon, and in Pennsylvania. Americans around the world watched in shock as events unfolded. We were saddened, then angered as we realized we had been attacked by extremists in another country. All citizens were united as the US declared war on all terrorism and began the process of sending troops to the Middle East to thwart this oppressive new threat to our way of life. Before the first brave soldiers ever touched foot on foreign soil, some in the media were suggesting that the fault for the 9/11 attacks was not because of any insane terrorist leader or his sheeplike followers, but because of the foreign policies of our standing President. Four planes and thousands of lives were lost in one day because some pissant self-appointed religious leader felt it was the only way he could retaliate against the United States for the wrongs done against his poor, innocent people. It wasn’t his fault; it was ours.
I am grateful that our country’s legal system is founded on the premise, “Innocent until proven guilty." If innocence of the alleged criminal is assumed, then it must also be assumed of everyone involved in the incident until facts prove otherwise. Unfortunately, it seems in this country we are so eager to lay fault at someone’s fee that we don’t care if we blame the victim. As long as somebody is held responsible, we can sit back and sigh in self-righteous satisfaction and say, “We did our job."
What is the solution? I have no degree in criminal law, nor am I a police officer or government official. I don’t have a ready answer. But I know where we need to start. Let’s place the blame for crime where it belongs – at the feet of the criminal. Quit punishing the victim for being the victim. Make the criminal accept responsibility for his actions. If he doesn’t want to, that’s tough. Life is already unfair as it is. Don’t tip the balance in favor of the guilty at the expense of the innocent.
