The front page of this newspaper shows a mob of Samwu protesters using sticks and knobkerries to beat a man while a traffic cop and other people look on.
This is only one of the many examples of criminal activity that have taken place this week without any intervention from authorities whose job it is to protect citizens and their property from criminals.
The front page of this newspaper shows a mob of Samwu protesters using sticks and knobkerries to beat a man while a traffic cop and other people look on.
This is only one of the many examples of criminal activity that have taken place this week without any intervention from authorities whose job it is to protect citizens and their property from criminals.
We have seen enraged hooligans break a wide range of laws, trashing the streets, singing racist songs and threatening citizens while police officers simply stand by.
If the police and traffic cops do not immediately arrest people who they see repeatedly committing crimes in front of them, then the police are complicit in those same crimes.
This week two men were beaten by mobs because they tried to defend their businesses. It was evident that the police were not going to defend anyone or their belongings.
Bystanders commented that the two victims of mob violence were silly to have needlessly provoked the marchers.
As the two men concerned were subsequently beaten up it is true that they were foolhardy to challenge the protesters, but what kind of society are we living in where the police ignore rampaging strikers and we think it is rash for a man to defend his property?
What kind of city are we living in where traffic cops will rapidly pull you over if you drive around the block without a seatbelt, but if you feel like throwing bottles around and hitting people on the head with a stick no problem.
While the Samwu strikers might have had good reason for going out on a strike, their ill-discipline and hostile behaviour towards the citizens of this town have drastically undermined their own cause.
Any sympathy that might have been left over from the last time Samwu went berserk has rapidly dissipated.
Going out on strike, means that you have a right to strike, but it does not mean that you have the right to infringe on the rights of other people, nor does it give you licence to turn the town, where thousands of other people live, into a pigsty. It is sad that a labour dispute has polarised the town in such a dire manner.
