SECURITY. World leaders negotiate for it.
Religious leaders pray for it. Yet, to the ordinary man in the street, security
seems an elusive dream. Take, for example, Ron, who was walking to work in
South Africa’s largest city, Johannesburg.
“There were five men around me, one with a
knife at my throat and another with one at my back. They went through my
pockets in seconds. I felt like a plucked chicken. People passing by simply
ignored me.” Ron did not resist and escaped unhurt.
For many, walking the streets of any large
city is stressful. ‘How can I avoid being mugged?’ lurks in the back of their
mind. They hurry to complete their shopping so they can return to the security
of home. But how safe is home? “The odds of your experiencing someone invading
the sanctity of your home, seizing part or all of your possessions and
vanishing without a trace are increasing dramatically each year,” states the
book Total Home Security.
As a result, homeowners put up notices
warning intruders that vicious dogs are on the premises or that these are
monitored by an armed patrol. In many neighborhoods householders join forces in
an effort to combat crime. “There are more than 60,000 schemes in Britain
alone, involving 750,000 households,” states the journal Security Focus.
“With crime on the increase, it is a thing of the past for neighbours not to be
on friendly terms,” said an insurance broker in Africa.
Members of neighborhood-watch schemes look
out for one another’s welfare and report any suspicious activity to the police.
But a newsletter explained to a group member whose house was burglarized: “Unfortunately
the scheme is not a guarantee that you will never be burgled again. No security
scheme in existence can make that claim. . . . You must still ensure
that your doors are locked, that you have a burglar alarm and have taken
reasonable security precautions.”
Though neighborhood-watch schemes have had
some effect, it is debatable whether they reduce the overall crime rate. “Claimed
reductions in crime in a small area are only ‘successes’ if there is little or
no ‘displacement’ of that crime to adjoining areas,” explain Shapland and Vagg
in Policing by the Public. Thus, in some cities where neighborhood-watch
groups have reported outstanding success, there has been a phenomenal increase
in crime in other areas of the same cities where it is difficult to organize
such schemes.
“There are some areas where neighborhood
watch is not as effective,” admits the secretary of a countrywide scheme
involving over 20,000 members. She was referring to large sites “out of town
where the neighbors cannot see each other and where patrolling does not work.”
For example, one couple moved from an American city to a 50-acre [20 ha]
site near a small village. Within a few years, their house was broken into
twice. The wife voiced the feelings of many rural dwellers: “I try to be
normal, but I’m afraid. . . . I never feel safe.” In countries
plagued with political conflict, rural dwellers face additional violence and
are often pressured into taking sides.
No wonder many long for ‘the good old days.’ “Around
the beginning of this century,” states the book The Growth of Crime, “there
was . . . a general belief that [crime] would become milder in
quality.” But what happened instead? Authors Sir Leon Radzinowicz and Joan King
explain: “In the first twenty years of the century, even during the first world
war, rates of crime remained fairly level, no more than keeping pace with
population. It was in the post-war depression that a sustained trend became
discernible. Through the years of economic upheaval, unemployment and another
great war, [crime] gathered pace inexorably . . . The one thing that
hits you in the eye when you look at crime on the world scale is a pervasive
and persistent increase everywhere.”
This “increasing of lawlessness,” though
unexpected by many, was actually foretold. The major calamities that have
struck mankind since the start of the first world war in 1914 were indicated
aforetime in the Bible. Jesus predicted that man’s wicked system was drawing to
an end: “Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there
will be food shortages and earthquakes in one place after another. And because
of the increasing of lawlessness the love of the greater number will
cool off.”—Matthew 24:3, 7, 12; see also Luke 21:10, 11.
“As these things start to occur,” Jesus
added, “raise yourselves erect and lift your heads up, because your deliverance
is getting near.” Thus, you have reason for optimism. Man’s quest for
earth-wide security is about to be satisfied.—Luke 21:28-32.
www.jw.org
No comments:
Post a Comment