Haitian Police Empower People to Kill

“If you don’t kill the criminals, they will all come back,” a Haitian police officer shouted over a loudspeaker.

As thousands of military ‘peacekeeping’ forces continue to occupy Haiti, Haitian police are encouraging citizens to murder criminals.  Such an announcement can only add more chaos and confusion to an already complicated situation.  Although We hear of all the looting going on in Haiti, We have to try and imagine the kind of situation the Haitian people are up against.  It is estimated that over one million people are now homeless in Haiti, struggling to survive with another aftershock rocking the nation just yesterday.

What constitutes a criminal in such a situation?  Is it a crime to loot from stores in a city that has had its workforce and livelihood destroyed?  How long would You sit starving outside Your crumbled house if You knew that the convenience store across the street was inaccessible and abandoned?  Would You eat, or would You just allow Yourself to starve?  And if You chose to eat and a citizen saw You emerge from the store, should You be shot for trying to survive?  Should the people of Haiti ignore the resources that are available to them while they wait for rescue crews to arrive?

The people of Haiti should not be promoted to destroy each other in any way but encouraged to embrace the fact that they are all in the same unfortunate situation.  If all of the micro communities in Haiti worked together to try to salvage any valuable resources they can find, the situation may be made more tolerable.  Of course I am just like You, completely removed from the reality of the situation.  But I do know that empowering terrified and traumatized people with the authority to independently decide what constitutes criminal behavior and to sentence citizens to immediate death is not in the best interest of peacekeeping!  To say the very least, this statement demonstrates the morality of those We collectively trust to uphold justice and it is not one to be proud of.  Is this the true moral conscience of the police patrolling Our streets, that they long for the opportunity to take the law into their own hands and kill criminals?  What happens when police become lawmaker, judge and executioner?

Today I will start a new category in the economic section of My blog that offers an incredible but very real solution to many of the world’s problems including the crisis in Haiti.