Burn armed robbers, says Guinea crime chief

Guinean citizens should burn any armed robbers they catch to avoid filling the country’s prisons, the military government’s anti-crime chief said Tuesday.

Lawlessness in the capital city Conakry has risen in recent months, with soldiers accused of being among the main culprits of robberies and rapes.

“I’m asking you to burn all armed bandits who are caught red-handed committing an armed robbery,” said Captain Moussa Tiegboro Camara, appointed by the military junta to oversee the fight against drugs and serious crime.

The hyped part of the story, of course, is the fact that a government official is telling citizens to not only take things into their own hands, he’s telling them to mete out punishment. Serious punishment.

But, lost in the wow! factor, is this bit that many will overlook:

with soldiers accused of being among the main culprits of robberies and rapes

So while some are going to laud this humorous and satisfying, if reckless, approach to crime control, what are normal citizens supposed to do against soldiers who are presumably well-armed? Even if a group of justice-minded citizens gangs up on a crime-committing solider, overpowers him, and burns him as directed, isn’t the rest of the guy’s squad going to show up and mete out some punishment of their own?

You cannot successfully defy the bad guys for long if they outgun you.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 25th, 2009 at 8:57 am and is filed under Crime and Violence, International, WTF. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.