Hala Al-Qahtani
Alsharq
Things that happen in our lives are based on certain indicators. Nothing happens all of a sudden without any indicators. But we don’t know sometimes how an incident happens and what forms it takes.
When we study about most criminal incidents occurring in our surroundings we know that we could have foreseen them in the light of certain indicators.
Only a few people take these indicators seriously and take precautionary measures to avoid a possible danger while the majority neglects them. Yet there are others who consider them as warning bells.
The bell continued to ring and they were afraid of consequences and immediately took precautionary measures while others turned their back to them, pretending deafness.
People are often influenced by the cultural models around them, even if it is the culture of racism and intolerance and practice it in their daily lives.
When we live in an environment of defamation, insults and verbal abuse we’ll also start practicing them in the absence of good examples that reduce the negative impact of a bad environment like the white corpuscles that protect us from diseases.
All the heinous crimes that occurred recently had their indicators giving warning bells.
When the teacher of Sabya opened fire on his colleagues there were indicators that showed the man was not in normal condition and there were striking changes in his behavior a week before the crime. At least two people in his surroundings knew about those changes in the man’s behavior but did not do anything because “they did not expect it would happen.”
Similarly, when the man in Badr district of Riyadh shot dead his mother, there were indicators. He was a drug addict, had divorced wife and abused parents. There was another strong warning bell when the man attacked his father three days before the murder. He slapped on his father’s face and broke windows of the nearby mosque and threatened to kill its imam. At least five people knew about the potential danger posed by the man but did not do anything.
A child in Uhd Al-Masaraha, Jazan, was murdered by his father. Many people around him are responsible for the crime as they knew that the father, a drug addict, was wanted for other crimes. He had run over his uncle and killed him. Weren’t those indicators enough to take precautionary measures?
When a female school manager refused to hand over a girl to her father she was shouldering her duty responsibly in order to save that girl from the clutches of the deranged man. But that plan was foiled by the men at the Qur’an Memorization School as they gave priority to him as the father and did not consider the security and safety of the girl.
Generally people who were imprisoned for crimes are likely to commit the same crimes at least two years after their release. This cruel father slaughtered his son a year after his release from prison. This highlights the poor quality and impact of reformation programs in our jails. They are still implementing the old system that does not cope with the modern crimes. The rehabilitation program must undergo a lot of improvement to change the mentality of prisoners before allowing them to return back to their families.
People who have committed big crimes should not be allowed to get out of jails easily and they should be brought under strong mandatory surveillance at least for a year, considering the crimes they have committed. The legal or security authorities should be given the authority to change that period depending on the behavior of the released prisoner.
Three horrible crimes have taken place in our society in less than a week. There were warning bells indicating about the potential danger but nobody listened to them, putting the responsibility only on the criminal and neglecting the role of society’s negative attitude that facilitated such crimes.
It is high time for authorities to enhance public awareness in order to sense potential dangers and take precautionary measures. Crimes will not happen without any reasons and before they occur we receive so many warning bells. If we fail to take that warning seriously, pretending deafness, crimes will occur one after another claiming lives of innocent people.
