A wasted life

My daughter was part of a small group subjected to an armed mugging on the path along the bay at sunset yesterday. Only one person was relieved of his cellphone and the coward, despite toting a gun, ran off with his female accomplice. My daughter called the neighbourhood watch, an outstanding group of civic-minded residents who devote time to keeping our village safe, despite the influx of extremely undesirable individuals whose only purpose in coming to the village is to opportunistically relieve residents and beachgoers of their possessions. Within minutes the roads outside my house were a hive of activity and in no time the perpetrator was apprehended. He had changed his top to avoid easy identification (the modus operandi and reason for rucksacks), but was still successfully identified, charged and jailed. His accomplice unfortunately hot-footed it home a little further up the road with the cellphone. The gun was recovered in the bushes and turned out to be a toy, which in no way lessens the severity of the crime or the level of trauma suffered, and we can only hope that somehow the law will ensure that he spends many years out of society. This seldom seems to happen and does not inspire confidence in the legal system. One can readily understand how the township residents despair of police intervention and take the law into their own hands.
Society's ills cannot be patched by treating the symptoms. These individuals are victims of a society where the drug dealers have free reign and are ruthless in spreading the reach of their deadly trade. With collusion in the police force and general corruption in all levels of government, where the love of money is all that matters, these youths are an easy target and it may well be that there is no hope of rehabilitation or even any normal life going forward. Until there is a will to tackle this problem from the top, and this will mean those with their fingers in the pie have a change of heart (when pigs will fly), there can be no way to stop this scourge that is robbing people of a future and leaving them without hope.
There is a great deal more I could say in this vein, but as I do not believe in political correctness, as I see it as an excuse for smothering freedom of speech and covering up the inadequacies of individuals, you may think your own thoughts. The solution has to come from a global change in attitude towards our purpose in being here and what it means to be human. We are currently so far removed from the truth of our existence that few are willing to believe it. But our purpose in being here is not to end up trying to steal a cellphone from someone enjoying the beauty of a sunset at the end of a warm summer's day.