Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Wicked Armed Robber
It is not grinding poverty that is your wicked warrant. Your methodical mind and paramilitary planning could have banked you honest money. You are just lecherous, lazy, envious, cruel and, frankly, downright demented. If Poverty is a disease, then I curse your arse with the most virulent form!
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You tell em' NY! Frankly, armed robbers should not be killed but be made to go through the pain and anguish they put others through, over and over again, for the rest of their lives!
ReplyDeleteWhat did they pick from the persona?
ReplyDeleteThe ferocity of your words conveys a sense of a personal loss at the hand of one of those rats.
Amen! If only they would use their cunning and perseverance for good.
ReplyDeleteSay more...may it come to pass. They are just wicked.
ReplyDeleteas for this matter, i guess it's easy to denounce the armed robber based on the pain they inflict on fellow human beings.
ReplyDeletebut i won't bow to such sentiments. i'd rather get a massage for the other kinds of feelings!
for the way the world has come so far, i won't rule out poverty as a cause of this nonsense! this is nonsense begetting nonsense if you want. the world as it is today has enough resources to take care of it's populace so the question is how come there is poverty? the answer has so many different dimensions. some very wicked!
it's a hard fact that some have had to suffer poverty out of the wickedness of others! the case of the oil powers in Ogoni land is a classic example. the case of the looting public official is a classic example.
so for me it's as much a complicated matter as it could be.
Not all poor people become armed robbers. So yes it is complicated, but those who become are everything that Nana wrote. Plus they are sociopaths, beyond help.
ReplyDelete@Novisi, i hate to say this but i do not care about Ogoni land sorry,there is no justification for someone with a Ak47 breaking into a house shooting a young man in both legs and all they wanted a Cell and a dvd player?.And that young man is my kid brother a very hard working man was born with no silver spoon..Dude get real...peace.
ReplyDeleteCowards!
ReplyDeleteBut mostly lazy and envious.
Cynthia,
ReplyDeleteFor robberies that end in people getting killed, I regret (yes, I, a lawyer, am saying it) that we are no longer carrying out capital punishment.
Yes, Posekyere, vermin they are! So far, God has protected me from them. But they have hit many people really close to me.
ReplyDeleteExactly, Sankofa.
ReplyDeleteNY, well said! I completely share your sentiments on this one. Novisi, I couldn't disagree with you more. Poverty is neither the cause nor a valid excuse for armed robbery.
ReplyDeletePatrick, my heart goes out to your brother and your family. My family was lucky to only suffer psychological trauma from our recent experience with armed robbers. I can only imagine the hell your brother and your family have been through. God damn all those robbers to hell!
Boatemaa26
I will find another forum to say more.
ReplyDeleteNo, Novisi, I vehemently disagree with you. There is nothing that can justify robbery. Not even vile corruption in high places.
ReplyDeleteYes, Kwame M-B, you're right, it is complicated. And you're right that complication is still no excuse for vile crime.
ReplyDeleteMy heart goes out to your brother, Patrick. I might go against my plan, and be a judge one day. I will put them away for a long, unpleasant time. I promise you!
ReplyDeleteRaine, they are lazy, envious and demented!
ReplyDeleteBoatemaa26, I agree with you too.
ReplyDeleteWow! So much intensity on this one. You can just tell how sensitive this issue is to everyone. I have been favoured by God not to have suffered such an experience so allow me first to sympathize deeply with those who have been victims.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, let me say that not any human is born evil.
So, let's take all the armed robbers in Ghana and throw them in jail, even reinstate the death penalty to punish the most vicious of them for good measure. Then let's all go to bed safe and sound tonight. But what happens when we wake up tomorrow? Is tomorrow night going to be safe also? So we keep rounding up the robbers and throwing them in the slammer?
Ok, here's my thought from all that convoluted rambling. Something happened to make that person a vicious, ruthless, murdering theif. And it happened enough times to create him a friend and add to that an army of accomplices.
What went amiss in more lives than one? Given all these people are not just inherently psychopaths, what's the common denominator? Even if they are psychopaths, how can we deal with this?
We should look at the bigger picture, no? Tackle the issue from the grass roots?
Novisi, you might yet have a point my man...
Therapy with a side of milk and cookies for all armed robbers then, because clearly, punishment in the form of jail time is a waste of time and effort.
ReplyDeleteLets leave them unpunished, because "something" happened to make them that way. If the therapists are unable to figure out what that "something" is, they can always use the default cause of this unacceptable behavior as poverty.
Armed robbers (those who choose to go that route), dont know that forcefully taking what isnt yours is NOT okay.
no amount of poverty can make it right or okay to take away, with force in one day what it took another years to acquire. they deserve much worse, i speak as a recent victim of theft and the daughter of a woman that had her head bashed in when she refused to allow these "victims of poverty" to rape her daughter after ridding her of her worldly possessions. its not just the loss of things, its the fear and sense of violation u feel afterwards, its not something u get over...
ReplyDeleteYou go, Nana Yaw. I can only imagine how traumatized my neighbors' nephew and niece were after being attacked by armed robbers, the second night they visited Ghana from the UK. We heard gun shots and the next day, the true horror of cynical armed robbers came out. Knowing a family member living abroad was visiting the house, they saw their chance. Not talking poverty, only evil.
ReplyDeleteThe one that grieves me most are those that deliberately unleash mayhem, rape, assault and even murder. Fie on them all.
ReplyDeleteNo matter who we are, or whether or not we were born good or evil, we all know what is right and what is wrong. Something may have happened to make an armed robber, but the same something happened to my father, but he didn't become a robber. He was born in poverty, and raised his children in poverty, only always telling us that education was our way out. He worked and toiled whily government officials stole money from the nation. If he can live in those circumstances and not become an armed robber, why can't they? Circumstances are no excuse. And if you need to steal to live - why don't you come in when no one is at home, and steal food from the fridge, and maybe and old shirt or two to wear? Why come in when they're at home to demand money, to rape and pillage. And WHY steal from other struggling people like you? It wasn't us who made the system. If the system has made you this way - why not steal from the politicians houses? They are the ones stealing the money. Instead they steal from us, who are just as poor and helpless as they are. Nah - there is no reason for robbery. System or no system, Circumstances or no circumstances, right is right and wrong is wrong.
ReplyDelete@patrick,
ReplyDeletethis issue is definitely a tough one. i appreciate your sentiments! it's painful!
but the pain aside - and it's not easy to just wish pain away - but pain aside, we must be able to see the complications about this issue.
something must just give. and a critical look definitely would not rule out poverty! and like i said earlier there could be different causes of the poverty itself too that could be leading to this situation. so ripple-effect kind of thing. i'm very much convinced about this.
poverty has lead men to murder their kids for spiritual rituals for money! it may be stupid, but when a man takes a decision like that with the 'sincere' hope (however horrible) that he would defeat poverty then then one can hardly wish it away!
poverty has lead married women to infidelity! so they could take care of their kids' school fees and sometimes so they could take care of their husbands (secretly a lot of the time).
poverty has lead people to; in an attempt to overcome it become drug lords.
i don't mean that all armed robberies are caused by poverty. i just mean that in looking for causes, it is definitely one of them. indeed i'm aware about those who have made it their profession! and i know some too is born out of envy. some too is due to the desire for recognition in society. and then some are as a result of some fantasies that elude my comprehension.
i believe that a reduction in poverty coupled with other factors like the deliberate focus on creating and maintaining an atmosphere where opportunities abound would definitely lead to the reduction in poverty.
@NY, i feel the force of your 'vehemently...' but i'm sure Selali has done a better job than i did and if you agree with him/her then we might just have a common ground somewhere there.
cheers to all.
Well, Selali, you seem to argue both sides somewhat,and your reasonableness is seductive. But I note that in your first paragraph you mention the blessing of never having been attacked by these vicious 'dogs'. It is all right to look at the 'root' causes of armed robbery. The argument I sought to start was much narrower than that. It was simply that you cannot do armed robbery and say I did it because I WAS poor. Why didn't you become a beggar? Why didn't you just steal quietly without raping and slashing poor people. Nay! Armed Robbery has no excuses whatsoever! one!
ReplyDeleteAnon, I say if people take up arms to attack innocent citizens, and if they are caught in the act, they should be tried and (if convicted) put to death. Call me crude or uncivilized. I don't feel that I am wrong. So, Anon, I agree with you.
ReplyDeleteI remember that one, Ms Understood. I support your views. I have been to court and heard several armed robbery cases. A judge even once attempted to force me to defend one. I am telling you that most robbers come from working/middle class backgrounds AND NOT THE REALLY INDIGENT CLASS. The thing is they see the beginnings of a good future, do not quite attain that (through ill luck, death of parents/guardians, poor grades, truancy, etc) and then having tasted/seen just a whiff of the promised land, they decide to go there by any means necessary.
ReplyDeleteYngvild for President. She reduced the argument into a beautiful slogan. NOT TALKING POVERTY, ONLY EVIL. NOT TALKING POVERTY, ONLY EVIL. NOT TALKING POVERTY, ONLY EVIL.
ReplyDeleteSpot on, Myne!
ReplyDeleteThat which you've said, Darian, just about settles the argument as strongly as possible in my mind. Thank you for the comment.
ReplyDeleteNovisi, I truly and totally respect Selali's view. But I strongly disagree with the general import of it.
ReplyDeleteI more often than not think about what i'll do do a robber who slacks and enters my home. Of course i haven't been held at gun point before so i dunno what i'm talking about. But if i had the power... Hmmm. Personally i think they should be chained to ploughs, with huge metal rings in their noses like oxen, and made to plough the earth for the rest of their lives. That way they'll learn hard work, only it won't pay in their case. But who cares
ReplyDeleteLol, Urban. They just gotta learn the hard way!
ReplyDelete@NY,
ReplyDeletei take cue from your response to Selali and i understand you point more.
so i was rather looking at the issue too broadly perhaps. i have a weakness there i can't help and won't help because of my general convictions. but i can manage to 'narrow' it down to 'excuse' and push the 'generality' which presents a much more complex picture to the background for now.
so i agree that it's no EXCUSE! and indeed my point was not to make a case for 'excuse' so if that's how it came across then i did not intend it that way!
i was only looking at causes (the 'triggers'!) generally. just so! without weighing those causes as good or bad. dispassionately! (but you know i have feelings right?)
so again, i agree no excuse for the 'animalistic' behaviour. general causes can wait for another day!
and oh, isn't it beautiful the way the pieces of communication could make a good focus on the issues? i've learnt a lot from this.
My sentiments exactly. However which way you look at it, this one is unjustifiable; if you are smart enough to plot crime so detailed and malicious then you're smart enough to make a living in a just as smart, upright way. True, sometimes its a trickle down effect from corruption in high places, but that's still not a valid enough reason to be a gun-toting thieving idiot. I love the way you captured the truth of the situation so aptly and effectively.
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ReplyDeleteAnother flurry of passionate responses! You all must forgive my 'outsider' perspective on this issue, it is obviously much closer and 'real' for you than it is me.
ReplyDeleteAt the risk of sounding defensive, I feel the need to clarify that I am not at all advocating for leniency for criminals. I would not be toting a picket sign should you all feel that an appropriate punishment would be to burn these ppl at stake and should the Law acquiesce.
My argument is more from the point of prevention being the ultimate cure. Consider for just a second if you will, that perhaps the heart-wrenching experiences you all have recounted could have been made "un-existing". Then consider if this is a not solution or a possibility of a solution you might want to take another look at?
Perhaps the middle ground as Novisi put it would be a narrowing of viewpoint in that we all agree crime should not go unpunished and poverty is no plausible excuse.
Nana Yaw, huge commendations on inspiring this excellent exchange!
Nana Yaw, why is the death penalty no longer being carried out. Heard a story last week abt some robbers who tracked a father and his returnee guest for hours b4 attacking them @ East Legon and then killing the host. Why? Because he had no money in the house! Such people SHOULD NOT LIVE! Or shd. they Lawyer?
ReplyDeletei was drivin home from work one evenin wen someone barged into my car 'n made away wit my bag which had everythin -fons,camera, id's, cash 'n all my sentimentals i carry everywhere -felt lyk rape! there's no justification for any social vice -armed robbery, prostitution(i insist! dont 'no why we lyk to give xcuses wen it comes to prostitution!) ... there are always oda choices for everyone!
ReplyDelete