Dark side of the law

Hole of Justice

By Peter G. Jimenea

The dark side of the law

Wearing crash-helmet for motorcycle riders was implemented by law to protect the drivers and back-riding passengers. But as it turned out, the helmet that had irate some motorcycle riders was in part, not also good for the police.

Over the months that follow, underworld characters, especially guns-for-hire, have developed the smooth mastery of killing for a fee by using motorcycles and wearing crash helmets to cover their faces.

In highly urbanized cities, traffic congestions is an eyesore and no emboldened motorcycle driver wearing crash-helmet would over-speed in busy city streets unless he transfers on the sidewalks to get out of the mess he’s in.

What’s more, with use of cellular phones, motorcycle-riding killers can easily evade PNP checkpoints. Their advance look-outs sent ahead to monitor the movements of the police can be of great help to carry-out the crime.

Wearing crash-helmet actually helps but not so much in busy streets where traffic flow is in turtle pace. It only adds burden to the driver when the heat of the day is beyond normal temperature. It also distorts his sense of hearing on sirens of following cars.

Wearing crash-helmet is helpful to motorcycle riders going a long-distant route outside the city  In fact, authorities have cited persuasive reasons why they must wear it due to rampant reports of road accidents involving motorcycles.

However, there are counter-arguments against the order. The traffic aides of the local government units, enforcers of the land transportation office and the PNP must also reconsider the good views they all share.

Guns-for-hire is now a lucrative business for criminals as witnesses are becoming scarce. If we study the PNP’s solution on how to curb this style of killing, we can easily glean their lame-duck feeling in solving this crime.

The same is true with RA 7610 better known as the Anti-Child Abuse Law. Syndicates are reported to have been using minors to carry out their illegal activities knowing these minors cannot be prosecuted or imprisoned being protected by Juvenile Protection Laws.

Criminals are also using young children to open the gates, doors or windows of a house they want to ransack. If ever apprehended, they are just turned over to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) for custody, nothing more.

But once these young kids returned home, the peace of the community is again bothered as residents have no guarantee these kids have reformed and will not go back to their dirty jobs again.

School officials are in dilemma how to discipline young students doing wrongful acts inside the campus. They cannot impose discipline for fear the law protecting these kids might be used against them by tolerant-parents.

The same is true with our law enforcers. Their mere reprimanding of these kids if reported to higher authorities could put them in hot water. Thus, lot of petty crimes have been committed by emboldened kids today.

The dark side of this high-risk law virtually hampers the smooth operation of peace and order in the community. Thus, the many things that our school authorities and the PNP could have done were set-aside and left undone.

By ruling-out discipline instead of using it as a measure to obviate future consequences is designing our moral downfall. Crime of minors neither stopped from coming in nor getting out of the police and DSWD offices due to parental neglect and lack of school discipline.

I am compelled to comment on the required wearing of crash-helmet in the city as the reported atrocities of guns-for-hire and other high profile criminals using motorcycles are now getting out of control.

This is also true with the unfriendly Anti Child Abuse Law that can put the integrity of school-authorities and law enforcers in peril. Lawmakers must now amend this law as it endangers morality to become - the last casualty!