While going through some newspapers today, something caught my attention. A woman, a wife and a child were seeking justice from the government.
Justice for what?
It turns out that a young Uber driver visited his mom in another state for the Easter holidays. His wife and child were his mother while he was going about his daily life.
On Easter Monday,he was accused by an angry mob of being an internet fraudster(a yahoo boy).
How did they come to this conclusion?
They said that they saw a woman and a child's clothes in his car and they also saw a 'snake' in the car. Remember, this is a young man with a wife and child. Moreover, they couldn't provide the snake when they were asked to.
After making a whole lot of fuss, they beat up this young man and went further to burn him! Because of mere assumptions. You can only imagine how heartbroken the mother and wife felt as they watched their loved one die without being able to help.
Now my question is, what the actual hell?!
This news made me recall the number of times that I have heard of jungle justice both far and near. Yet, jungle justice is very much illegal.
For those who probably don't know what I'm talking about;
Jungle justice or mob justice is a form of public extrajudicial killings which can found in Nigeria and Cameroon, where an alleged criminal is publicly humiliated, beaten and summarily executed by vigilantes or an angry mob
Source
Jungle justice is mostly carried out for very trivial crimes that could have been handled legally, an example is theft. You see a mob burning someone and you ask an onlooker, "why are they burning him? And the response is
"He tried to steal pepper or a purse". That sounds very ludicrous doesn't it? Well, it happens.
The fact that upset me the most is that jungle justice is very much illegal but it's still practised! So far, I haven't heard of the police officers reprimanding anyone. The people that commit this act walk on the streets very freely with their shoulders raised high. Yet, there are laws that kick against jungle justice with intense punishment for those who break these laws.
The last time I witnessed something related to jungle justice was on my way back from school some time ago. I saw smoke burning by a U-turn close to my house and people were slowly dispersing from the U-turn. I asked what happened and they said that a man was burnt for attempting to steal a motorcycle. Mind you, he didn't steal it, he just attempted to.
I know that attempting to take something that isn't yours without the owner's permission can be classified as theft but why burn the person? Why not report the person to the nearest police station?
This man was burnt and guess when the police officers arrived?. They came like three hours after the incident and all they did was carry the body from the road as it was a total eyesore.
I strongly kick against jungle justice and I think others should too. There are always better ways to go about punishing a criminal than beating or burning them to death. We have police officials for a reason.
Let's assume that this "criminal" stole from you and after a dog chase, you caught him. Why not collect the item that was stolen from you and be on your merry way or if that's not enough for you, you can collect your item and still report the person to the police. Why involve the crowd? When you could settle the issue like a sensible person.
This post isn't designed to be a lecture about jungle justice rather it is a plea to allow the government to do their job. Some people may say that the government wouldn't do their job well but let me ask, is a cup of rice or a purse really worth ending someone's life for?
I'd really love to hear your thoughts on Jungle justice. Is it worth it in the end? Are there better and less violent ways to go about it?
Thank you for your time
With love, wongi ✨
