the corner office : South African tales

South African tales

It made it into the news, but I won't mention names.

One of my colleague's dad and brother were in an armed robbery last night, as gunmen held up colleague's dad's shop. The gunmen started getting violent, and colleague's brother who was (thankfully) visiting, and who's an ex-policeman, and was armed, fought back.

Despite being shot in the leg, he shot and killed 2 of the robbers and the third was critically wounded, and will probably die if he hasn't yet.

As South Africans, this kind of stuff always happens to other people, then it happens to people we know, and we pray it never happens to us, but too often it does. On the one hand I'm not a big fan of armed citizenry for a host of reasons, but in a situation like last night we all know that if Brother hadn't fought back, it's very likely things would have gotten much nastier. He saved a number of people's lives.

As it is, our common reaction is to rejoice that 3 criminals are dead and off the streets, because no sane South African believes that prison would actually do much to help, assuming the robbers were ever apprehended, tried, or convicted. As it was, they were caught in the act, and got what they deserved right there and then.

And thankfully our colleague's family got out alive. That's always something to be very grateful for.

{2003.11.18 23:40}

Comments:

1. Ben Poole (2003.11.19 - 23:17) #

Whilst I hope that South African society changes - in that the current levels of violence are reduced - I hope that in some ways it stays the same. You don't want to become overly litigous like America or Britain.

In dumb-arse countries like the UK, people who take up licensed arms to defend themselves tend to end up in jail.

I don't condone violence, nor do I condone any form of corporal / capital punishment. I don't like guns, and would never bear one...

But as far as I'm concerned, if you commit a crime, and come off badly as a result, then it's your own stupid fault, and you should bear the consequences.

I wish your colleague's brother a speedy recovery.

2. Colin (2003.11.20 - 22:20) #

Thanks, Ben. I also don't believe in the death penalty, but yep, I reckon these 3 didn't get the death penalty as much as they got 'Consequences', which suits my ethics just fine. We need more Consequences in this country, fatal or otherwise.

As for the self-defense/legal protection thing, we're not that far from yourselves or the States. Self-defense is difficult to prove, and manslaughter/(attempted) murder charges are a given unless things are absolutely done by the book, and even then there are no guarantees. Police will 'unofficially' advise people to shoot to kill, because criminals will probably press charges against *you* even if they're in the act of burgling your house or hijacking your car and/or shooting at you when you shot at them. Great priorities :-(

(Thankfully in this case, the brother *did* do things by the book, had witnesses to prove it, and no charges are being laid)