When we see duct-taped corpses thrown in the streets of our neighborhoods almost on a daily basis, its repulsiveness wears off at some point in our consciousness.
These killings everyday have inured us all to its unpleasantness. “It happens!”
Then off we go to where we can nurse our traumas from this violence in our midst.
EJKs or not, the fact is thousands have been killed over the last four months. Even the number of killings that are not reportedly part of police operations still tallies in the thousands.
Indeed, we are in a state of lawlessness!
How are we supposed to deal with all this?
Apparently, with a new category upon which to hook our suspended outrage: “Death Under Investigation.”
DUI—didn’t this use to refer to Driving Under the Influence?
A clear case of oblique deflection, if I see one, to our fears that our country has not yet really attained Singapore-like zone of safety.
It’s like numbing our brains by drinking our problems away. “Don’t worry, these killings are DUI!”
In our justice system the police would generally wait first for complainants to materialize before doing anything about the crime.
The reality is most aggrieved parties and survivors of the victims in these killings don’t approach the police for various reasons, including the fear that the precinct itself had something to do with the murder.
To expect them to go to the police is like asking the rape victim to go back to her rapist for protection. And that would just turn out really well!
“Death Under Investigation” is another way of saying that the crime will never be solved. The police know a murder has been committed but they have no idea how to solve it yet.
This state of affairs is nothing less than a state-sanctioned national trauma. There will be no closure to these killings and we just have to deal with it!
The President has threatened that if things don’t go his way, expect 20 to 30 thousand more killed as a result.
Not sure whether he means the government will do the extra killings, or the killing spree will continue by whoever is committing them now. I’m trying to kick into my creative imagination mode to figure this one out.
The only way I can divine the President’s logic is this: he is threatening that if the killings don’t stop (presumably what he wants), the killings will go on. Brilliant!
Meanwhile, off we go to where we can nurse our traumas from this violence in our midst.
