Doing Evil To Obtain Good May Seem Like An Appropriate Approach And Thought, But It Is Neither Fair Nor Effective - Mob Justice And Lynching.(WARNING! Some Graphic Images, Viewers Discretion Is Advised).

Justice mobbing has become the order of the day as multitude have taken law into their own hands. Some say this is as a result of corrupt and deflected administration of criminal justice. There are justification to this act by the citizens, and while some may accept and say yes to it some still are not okay with it. The fact is that doing evil to obtain good may seem like an appropriate thing to do but it is neither fair nor effective.

Ochlocracy/ mob justice is a government where the authority is in the hands of the multitude; it is the abuse of a democracy.

Ochlocracy which is the legal name for mob justice . It is the rule of government by mob or a mass of people, or, the intimidation of legitimate authorities. As a pejorative for majoritarianism, it is akin to the Latin phrase mobile vulgus meaning "the fickle crowd", from which the English term "mob" originally was derived in the 1680s. Ochlocracy is synonymous in meaning and usage to the modern, informal term "mobocracy", which arose in the 18th century as a colloquial neologism.

More than 500 die annually.In 2011, the Kenyan police for the first time included "lynching" in its crime statistics. The officials recorded 543 victims. In Uganda, 582 people died as a result of lynching in 2014. That is 1.6 cases per day on average. According to the United Nations, mobs have brutally killed 16 people in Malawi in recent months.

People have taken law into their hands, petty thieves are stoned, burglars are beaten to death or lynched. This might be as a result of citizens having little faith in the police and trusting them less. In South Africa and including Nigeria it is called "necklacing". Angry citizens round up the alleged wrongdoer, after being tied up, they force a tire that has been doused in gasoline onto the neck of the suspect, and then burn him alive. This act is indeed inhumane as some these angry mobs might not even know what the suspect did wrong but because it has already been triggered multitude has to join in to beat and finally kill the suspect.

necklacing being carried out on a suspected criminal

Eric Ponda a Kenyan thought he was going to die. Last year, while driving back home after working on a report, a pedestrian suddenly crossed his way, to avoid him, Ponda had to quickly steer his car off the road but while doing so, he caught the left foot of the pedestrian but only mildly. Ponda stopped his car and then all hell broke loose.

"They [people] stormed out of their houses and they really wanted to burn the car, they pushed me out of the car and started beating me up," Ponda recalled. The mob went on to steal all his equipment which he had in the car.

Luckily a police car passed by. "That was my salvation. If the police had not passed by, they would have burnt me alive or set my car on fire," Eric ponda said. "You can not prove who did it," He added that In and around Mombasa, kenya, mob justice happens very often.

The range of alleged offences for which mobs have exerted punishment in Nigeria is wide. On one end of the spectrum are violent criminal offences such as murder, assault, armed robbery, rape, kidnapping, on the other are offences against property- theft, fraud and misappropriation. Other classes of offences for which mobs have punished suspects are: accusations of witchcraft, magical theft of genitals, blasphemy and violating religious texts, violation local customs and taboos and non-observance of religious and cult rites among others.

The responsible or leader of The community of sant'edigio in Nigeria where am a member represented the community on a press briefing on the call against death penalty, lynching and extra-judicial killings in Nigeria which took place on Thursday in Abuja, he was able to stress that citizens taking laws into their hands as mob justice is barbaric and dehumanizing.

It is the duty of every good citizen not to encourage guilt of mob-riotous proceedings
-Sir John Hay Athole Macdonald

How does mob justice and lynching start?

This horrible act though seem right to the mob who are usually bystanders who witness the
a perceived violation of social mores and then initiate the process of violence in remedy of the perceived wrong. It is usually spontaneous and within a twinkle of an eye the multitude is upon the accused beating and slapping with woods, planks, pouring of fuel and eventually lit such person and allowed to burn to death.

mob justice : what a way to take human life

Reasons for Mob justice

According to Gail Super, a criminologist at the University of Cape Town, made clear that social problems and the gap between the rich and the poor is to blame. "The problem comes in especially with rapid urbanization and the migration of people," Super said. The criminologist pointed out that lynchings occur more frequently in poor and informal settlements because these areas face a major existential threat.

Vigilantism or mob justice is therefore a traditional way of communities to deal with criminals or the high level of crime in the country, the researcher said.

The police

Lizette Lancaster, a researcher with the Crime and Justice division at the Institute for Security Studies in South Africa explained that most people in Africa perceive the police as being corrupt and demotivated. "They often feel like they can not trust the police to address the crime problem.

The problem of not trusting the police is particularly worse in major cities. "The police often arrive only later when the bodies have been found by another group," Lancaster said. She said people in these communities are living in a legal limbo. Besides the police, in some areas are also governed by traditional norms which ensure law and order in their own context.

Ways to tame mob justice - solution.

• Let justice be done on time

According to Mr. Olusola Amore (A retired Commissioner of Police), To tame mob action, it is important that the law enforcement agencies do their bits and government should ensure that justice is dispensed on time.

This is not new to anyone. People are frustrated with the justice system and that is one of the causes of mob action. Looking at the administration of justice system, the police will arrest a suspect and charge him/her to court, but the matter can drag for years without any justice done.

The court will grant the accused bail and the person goes back to the community and probably become worse than before since they know the police court will not even take proper action. The community will be alleging that the police have let the ‘criminal’ off the hook. So, they believe that if the system cannot give them justice, then they better do it themselves.

• criminal justice needs to run smoothly.

Police needs to conduct good investigations; when the case gets to the court, let justice be dispensed on time and surly without fear or favour. Prisons also needs to be expanded so that convicts will learn one or two vocations or skills while serving so that they will become productive members of the society after coming out from prison. It should not be that they go to prisons to connect to criminal gangs and form a formidable gang that will trouble people when they come out.

They should also be made to understand that prison is not a place to perish but a place to go and make good restitution, learn new vocations as they are supposed to be various vocations that prisoners have to learn so that when they are out they do not go back to their crimes which most time is as a result of hunger, unemployment and lack of knowledge.

Our prisons should however be conducive enough to facilitate good learning pattern and also for humans to live in. It happens that the prison are not well taken care of. Prisons are neglected but it should not be so because human beings and even the prisons has a right to live and a dirty environment will mar that right.

• There should be serious punitive measures for anybody involved in mob justice.

There should be a working policy to guard against mob action. There is an existing law in this regard I think; it is just that people need to be made aware that there is such a law and that we are in an environment where laws can be effective.

People should not become Lords unto themselves. The government should organise public enlightenment programmes to dissuade people from taking part in dishing out mob justice. Moreso, the citizens needs to be aware thateveryone needs to be given fair hearing and judgement when any crime is committed. It is sad because mob justice does not weigh the volume of crime before it us executed. A man who stole a piece of bread due to the condition he found himself and one who raped a young girl are likely to be mobbed and this is against the law because in the court of law each crime has it's judgement based on the volume of the crime, this I stand to be corrected.

So in a situation like this it is very brutal to take human life and which in 95% cases go through a lot of torture, embarrassment and disgrace before "necklacing". This in my opinion is rather too extreme!

However, anyone caught committing a crime should be taken to court and not mob individuals who might even end up not being a criminal but because of circumstances beyond their control.

This happened in Lagos Nigeria. A young boy of 14 years and his siblings used to beg with their blind mother in a market. That fateful day they were not able to beg enough to eat. His younger siblings were crying and the blind mother could not do anything.

This boy decided to go around the market to beg for food from the market women. Non gave him. He got to a woman selling bread and asked in tears but she shouted at him to get out of her store. Without knowing what to do the boy stole a small bread and hid in his pocket. This woman saw that her bread has gone missing and ran after the boy.

The boy started running, the she started shouting thief! Thief!! It was not as if she didn't know that that small boy was a beggar. She kept shouting and chasing the little boy in the market.

People heard her, caught this boy. Beat him mercilessly and put a tyre round his neck. Poured petrol on him and lit him up. He started burning but this mob hard no conscience, no mercy, no pity.

He started running with the fire maybe to him it would quench but no! It only grew into full blow fire. This he ran until he fell and completely burnt to ashes!

Conclusion.

Mob justice is not a way to handle crime, no life should be taken without the consent of the law. To me there is no reason what so ever why a person's life should be taken in such a traumatic and wicked way.

Though a lot of things need to be done about the government and the criminal justice starting from the police to the court of law. The solution above should be implemented as well to curb and tame mob justice.

A citizen must be able to have access to justice and get justice when he is wronged. Nobody should be made to feel he or she is above the law because no one is.

It is also necessary for people to be enlightened on the evil of mob justice and how wrong it is even though it seem right because of the lapses on the administration of criminal justice and handling of criminals. Still it is wrong!

Instead of taking lives without trials it is better that the citizens in togetherness campaign against the problem of the nation's justice and crime instead of taking laws into their hands.

There should also be adequate security and of lives and properties. Government at all levels must work together to strengthen the judiciary which is the last hope of the common man.

Lastly,To discourage mob justice, we all must make our judicial system work. Criminals must be punished for crimes committed.

Stop mob justice today! Let your voice be heard. Every citizen deserve a fair trial without fear or favour. Right action must be taken to deal with crime.

Do well as to drop your comment on the issue. I still remain, yours lovely @gloglo! Have a blessed Monday and week ahead.💐💐

Image credit: GOOGLE.

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