Jungle Justice

avatar

777A0F33-FBC6-4202-BC6B-FB796075190E.jpeg
Unsplash

Right from time, my view on jungle justice has always remained the same. I’ve always been against the idea of we taking the law into our own hands and ending people’s lives right on the spot without allowing the law to take its course but at the moment, I feel things like this can be seen from different perspective. You might think that the people are being cruel by taking the law into their hands but you wouldn’t feel the same if the person being punished has done something bad personally to you in the past.

A good example of what I’m trying to say was something that happened in an area where I used to live many years ago. There was a time when we were being terrorized by a group of thieves who were popularly known as One million boys, their name trying to pass a message to the public that there was a million of them out there.

These boys were famous for using weapons like machete and knives on their victims. One night, they had attacked a man in the night while he was sleeping. They had robbed him off everything he had and instead of just taking what they have and leave, they decided to cut him all over his body with their machete. The man would have lost a lot of blood and probably die if his neighbors had not rushed him to the hospital in time to have his wounds treated.

Few weeks later after that attack, another group of the one million boys attacked that same street but this time their mission had been unsuccessful and they had tried to run. All of them escaped except for one and everybody attacked that guy with all the strength they had. The guy who almost lost his life some few weeks back was among those who was hitting the criminal. He had immediately asked that the guy be burnt alive because he knew that handing him over to the police was like handing a criminal over to another criminal, they will most likely take whatever money he had and set him free.

From the perspective of us who had been threatened by those thieves every night, the idea to burn that man alive sounded like the best idea there was. We wanted to pass a message that we weren’t to be messed with and we wanted to do it quick. But if you were a stranger who maybe only came to visit a friend that day and you saw what was happening, you would say that the people were being cruel and you would never support it and that is why I feel our view on jungle justice most times can be based on different perspectives.

To the guys who had been hurt by the criminal, they were doing the right thing. And to the guys who had not been hurt by the criminal, the people are taking the matter a little bit too far. I’m still against the idea of jungle justice but I feel that sometimes, this people do what they do because of what was done to them.

The criminal was later set free after the king of that community decided he didn’t want the man dead. The people were furious but there was nothing anyone could do. After that event, the attack on that street by the one million boys ceased until we moved out of the area. If they came back, I have no idea by after what was done to that young man, I doubt any of them would.



0
0
0.000
2 comments