Disturbed By the Relentless Mob Mentality

It was quite unfortunate that the tragic shooting of a biker in a road rage incident has also led to the leveling of false accusations against an innocent person.

When the news came out about the conduction sticker of the alleged killer, social media understandably immediately picked it up and it spread quite quickly.  

I admit I too wanted to share the picture of the car with the conduction sticker but something held me back. Common sense dictated to me that if this guy was the real killer, you think he'd still keep a picture of his car in his social media account?  I don't think so.  A common reaction would be for him to hide any traces of his car in his social media accounts, right?

So I was right then!  Nelson Punzalan definitely was not the guy who shot the poor biker.  I just hope he can recover quickly from this traumatic experience and use this experience to tell people about the dangers of mob mentality.

However, I am also glad that the police already have a positive identification of the REAL killer.  I really hope they catch him soon because I have a feeling he might get desperate and hurt another set of people and use them as a human shield.  Desperate people sometimes do not think straight!

What If They Make A Mistake?

The speedy way that today's law enforcement has been taking care of the country's drug problem has given me some uneasiness, mainly because most of the victims are just shot down or is presumably shot down because they resisted arrest or attacked the arresting officers.

This way of dealing with the country's drug problem has been endorsed by no less than our country's president, a man I also voted last elections, with the hope that he can get things moving in our society - and he does get us moving!

Summary executions of drug fiends and drug lords are something polite society only wishes and never talks about in public. Now that the reality is here, it is a bit jarring to hear the number of deaths that happen everyday.   

Just killing the drug pusher or the drug addict circumvents the the long and often circuitous route that justice takes in this country

When Criminals Have Human Rights

Of course, they have human rights! They are people too! But since our justice system in this country takes so long to resolve cases, the public usually won’t mind a swifter resolution of justice, when they just allow the police to rub out the suspects, instead of giving the suspects the chance to redeem themselves in court. It has happened several times before, and it happened once again last week, when suspected carnapping gang members were summarily wiped out, instead of being hauled into court so they could defend themselves.

On one side, I’m glad the execution of justice was swift. That they had to pay for their lives is a question, since it was found out later in the autopsies that they may not have fought back. But the world will be a much better place without them terrorizing the car-riding public. As for them losing their chance to change, if they were kept alive? Well, you live by the sword, you die by the sword. They made their choices to engage in a dangerous and illegal activity, death as a consequence was just many of the options to go out. And that’s how they deservedly went out.

On the other hand, this way of summary dispatching of suspects may not work if the people involved are just innocent passersby, people who were in the wrong place at the wrong time. It has happened before and it could’ve happened here as well. That’s why police operations like this have to be planned carefully and away from where the public can be used by the suspects as human shields.

Too bad this young gang had to go out this way but they were on a roll the past two weekends, getting cars, here and there, so the police had to act swiftly before it got out of hand. In the end, even if they also have human rights, I think the rights of law-abiding citizens should weigh more in the end, and if justice had to be dealt quickly – then so be it. The truth is, when bullets coming from a desperate criminal are whizzing past your face, it would be your life to give if you don’t offer any resistance or offense.