At the outset be reminded that what happens elsewhere might be the present circumstance of others. However the event also threatens to become your future.
Let us look back in time. In the early seventies when new in Europe to illustrate an aspect of the Greek city-state I used to exploit the case of Kitty Genovese. She has been brutally murdered in a residential area of New York. There were many ear witnesses" for her slaughter took about half an hour. No one came to help as nobody wished to be involved. At the time the kids and the writers - conclusion was that this could not happen here". The passage of time has brought many changes. One of them is that it is happening here." Telling about it elevates the matter to a higher level.
To begin let us state a generally shared assumption. Some things are unlikely to happen because they are impossible". A fitting example: A blind person with cane and dog is safe from assault. The more so if the fiction is set at mid-day in a frequented place. Now then if some years ago you listed what could not happen you would have mentioned the above that has occurred now and that reflects our cultures deterioration.
Chur a small town in Switzerland could be anywhere thus the venue is unimportant. The event reported no matter how atrocious is surpassed by its implications. Therefore the inference is of universal significance and it involves us all as potential victims and as tacitly abetting crime.
The facts. A blind person with his guide dog is waiting at a square close to the entrance of the railroad station. While pausing the person and the dog are attacked. The assailant kicks the dog and then strikes the blind man. (Here you are spared sordid details.) This improbable scenario escalates further into the realm of the improbable.
There are many witnesses but no one interferes. Then a bus driver registers the scene. He hurries to help apprehends the assailant drags him into the bus locks him in and calls the police. This could be the end of a sad story. Only in this case the saga continues.
Half an hour later the attacker is back at the scene of his crime where he empties a can of beer. That done without any provocation he fells a passer-by. The rest of the events are murky.
Perhaps the identity of the troublemaker will cast light on a problem we face. The man is an Ethiopian who has stay" status. That means that while his claim to be an innocent victim of government persecution has not been accepted by the agency that handles requests for asylum but the stay" is justified by a fear that if sent home he might be punished for having left illegally. Behind this lurks an unpleasant truth. Not all alleged refugees are victims and not all of these migrants are peaceful. Apparently some have traits that would make any good government target them. Supplying such elements with transportation housing medical care clothing legal counsel and pocket money is not necessarily a noble deed but a sign of the foolishness of the gullible.
The central point here is not the crime but the states reaction. Is there a law forbidding kicking a guide dog and punching his master? Hardly. Who would think of such an atrocity? The immediate release of the perpetrator is not a sign of police incompetence in Chur or wherever you happen live. The laws were written with people in mind that had inhibitions were capable of shame and who had respect for civilization. The actions of the disrespectful crooked hostile and violent-by-principle are simply not covered.
Therefore the problem can be located in us. Civilization the way we have developed it for our own use is being confronted with unanticipated enemies and with originally unforeseeable challenges.
Our well-proven laws procedures our humanitarian safeguards and the corresponding tenets of our political culture are being rendered selectively irrelevant. More than that these ways and values are being converted into perilous weakness. Through this our way of life is not only questioned it is mortally threatened. Defending this way of life would be easy if only the available instruments of power would be concerned. However power has another aspect; it involves the ability to use its instruments. Therefore the real threat is that the humanism that had been incorporated in our laws can be used and is used to subvert and destroy our order. Often persons do this who are the beneficiaries of the system we have evolved.
Paraphrasing Lenin the question is What is to be done"? Having survived two totalitarian systems this writer must suggest seemingly radical measures that depart from our customs and cultural preconceptions.
We need to close by acknowledging that the traditional loopholes that aid this new criminality need to be closed. Previously unheard of crimes demand limited and carefully constructed counter measures.
The emergency powers of the police need to be redefined and strengthened. Possibly a new category crime against the community" might be created. Furthermore the idea that lurks in the back of our head namely that the hoodlum is somehow a victim needs to be reviewed. Our reorientation must include the awareness that the liberty of advanced societies can be subverted by exploiting freedoms protection. Democracy shall not remain the last refuge of the scoundrel that abuses it. Mainly however we must become conscious that we have achieved something and for that we need not apologize. Even if this accomplishment is as are all man-made systems imperfect it deserves to be defended in its homeland against its enemies.
Editors note: A short time after the above column was written the author learned that the asylum seeker who had attacked the blind man had been in the country for approximately seven years. During that time he had become known to the local police as a community problem and had also been convicted for sexual abuse of children. Despite this he is still at large.
At the outset be reminded that what happens elsewhere might be the present circumstance of others. However the event also threatens to become your future.
Let us look back in time. In the early seventies when new in Europe to illustrate an aspect of the Greek city-state I used to exploit the case of Kitty Genovese. She has been brutally murdered in a residential area of New York. There were many ear witnesses" for her slaughter took about half an hour. No one came to help as nobody wished to be involved. At the time the kids and the writers - conclusion was that this could not happen here". The passage of time has brought many changes. One of them is that it is happening here." Telling about it elevates the matter to a higher level.
To begin let us state a generally shared assumption. Some things are unlikely to happen because they are impossible". A fitting example: A blind person with cane and dog is safe from assault. The more so if the fiction is set at mid-day in a frequented place. Now then if some years ago you listed what could not happen you would have mentioned the above that has occurred now and that reflects our cultures deterioration.
Chur a small town in Switzerland could be anywhere thus the venue is unimportant. The event reported no matter how atrocious is surpassed by its implications. Therefore the inference is of universal significance and it involves us all as potential victims and as tacitly abetting crime.
The facts. A blind person with his guide dog is waiting at a square close to the entrance of the railroad station. While pausing the person and the dog are attacked. The assailant kicks the dog and then strikes the blind man. (Here you are spared sordid details.) This improbable scenario escalates further into the realm of the improbable.
There are many witnesses but no one interferes. Then a bus driver registers the scene. He hurries to help apprehends the assailant drags him into the bus locks him in and calls the police. This could be the end of a sad story. Only in this case the saga continues.
Half an hour later the attacker is back at the scene of his crime where he empties a can of beer. That done without any provocation he fells a passer-by. The rest of the events are murky.
Perhaps the identity of the troublemaker will cast light on a problem we face. The man is an Ethiopian who has stay" status. That means that while his claim to be an innocent victim of government persecution has not been accepted by the agency that handles requests for asylum but the stay" is justified by a fear that if sent home he might be punished for having left illegally. Behind this lurks an unpleasant truth. Not all alleged refugees are victims and not all of these migrants are peaceful. Apparently some have traits that would make any good government target them. Supplying such elements with transportation housing medical care clothing legal counsel and pocket money is not necessarily a noble deed but a sign of the foolishness of the gullible.
The central point here is not the crime but the states reaction. Is there a law forbidding kicking a guide dog and punching his master? Hardly. Who would think of such an atrocity? The immediate release of the perpetrator is not a sign of police incompetence in Chur or wherever you happen live. The laws were written with people in mind that had inhibitions were capable of shame and who had respect for civilization. The actions of the disrespectful crooked hostile and violent-by-principle are simply not covered.
Therefore the problem can be located in us. Civilization the way we have developed it for our own use is being confronted with unanticipated enemies and with originally unforeseeable challenges.
Our well-proven laws procedures our humanitarian safeguards and the corresponding tenets of our political culture are being rendered selectively irrelevant. More than that these ways and values are being converted into perilous weakness. Through this our way of life is not only questioned it is mortally threatened. Defending this way of life would be easy if only the available instruments of power would be concerned. However power has another aspect; it involves the ability to use its instruments. Therefore the real threat is that the humanism that had been incorporated in our laws can be used and is used to subvert and destroy our order. Often persons do this who are the beneficiaries of the system we have evolved.
Paraphrasing Lenin the question is What is to be done"? Having survived two totalitarian systems this writer must suggest seemingly radical measures that depart from our customs and cultural preconceptions.
We need to close by acknowledging that the traditional loopholes that aid this new criminality need to be closed. Previously unheard of crimes demand limited and carefully constructed counter measures.
The emergency powers of the police need to be redefined and strengthened. Possibly a new category crime against the community" might be created. Furthermore the idea that lurks in the back of our head namely that the hoodlum is somehow a victim needs to be reviewed. Our reorientation must include the awareness that the liberty of advanced societies can be subverted by exploiting freedoms protection. Democracy shall not remain the last refuge of the scoundrel that abuses it. Mainly however we must become conscious that we have achieved something and for that we need not apologize. Even if this accomplishment is as are all man-made systems imperfect it deserves to be defended in its homeland against its enemies.
Editors note: A short time after the above column was written the author learned that the asylum seeker who had attacked the blind man had been in the country for approximately seven years. During that time he had become known to the local police as a community problem and had also been convicted for sexual abuse of children. Despite this he is still at large.