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The law always prevails

Nov 27, 2010 Editorial

Police Commissioner Henry Greene once said that no matter how long the criminal remains at large the long arm of the law would rein him in. And indeed this seems to be the case. When the five broke out of the Camp Street jail the society began to worry about the likelihood of the police re-capturing them.
These men went on a rampage that seemed unending. They caused the entertainment spots to close as soon as night fell; people began to remain at home, a condition that prevails to this day although there are still vestiges of this attitude.
It soon reached the stage where policemen were afraid to wear their uniforms or even to let people know that they were policemen. Any were shot; a traffic rank was shot and killed while on duty, another was killed outside a city nightspot and one of them, who was shot in the head, is blind to this day. There seemed to be no end to the criminal reign.
That reign came to an end when four of the five died when violently, having been targeted by a rival gang. However, that gang had grown and had attracted others equally violent. These gang members did the unthinkable. They attacked and killed a government Minister in his home.
For years this kind of unprecedented behaviour continued and on every occasion both the Police Commissioner and the Home Affairs Minister kept repeating the mantra—the police would eventually catch all of them.
Six years after the breakout the police did get the new leaders of that gang that was spawned by those who broke out of jail. The police did get their men. However, there is a continuation formation of criminal gangs. For example, the police became convinced that there was a criminal gang that had torched the Ministry of Health.
Immediately the government concluded that this gang was aiming to topple the government or at least to make life uncomfortable for the national leaders.
The government was able to track a telephone call out of the United States making it known that this local gang had an international link and that the mastermind lived overseas. The police did make arrests and found out that even among their ranks were people supportive of the criminals. Two of those arrested, Colin Jones and Kurt Thierens, walked out of a police station lock ups without cutting the padlock and without forcing out the door or floor or the wall.
Yesterday, the police once more got the gang members. Admittedly, this time the crushing of this gang began among the members themselves. This was the same with the gang that had holed out in Buxton. From time to time the Buxton gang members killed each other for various reasons, one of which was a perceived morality among the members.
They killed one of their own for raping a young woman in the community; they killed another for shooting a young man in the village and they killed because they perceived that people were informing on them.
There was a similar falling out among this group. There were accusations of disloyalty, of double dealing and of people informing on the gang. As happens in such cases the guns these people carried spoke volumes and as one happened in Buxton, the gang members buried their own in shallow graves away from prying eyes.
And so it is that Colin Jones, one of the men whom they said burnt down the Ministry of health, is now in police custody. He did seem to have escaped the long arm of the law as did Kurt Thierens. It seems as if the Police Commissioner has been vindicated.
There are other gangs roaming the country and indeed these too will be brought down. What is worrying, though, is whether the collateral damage is going to be worth it. These gang members will kill people before they, the criminals are caught. Will the society afford the loss?

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