Time to become involved
All too often one hears people saying they do not want to become involved and prefer to turn a blind eye.
The recent discovery of a potential drug manufacturing laboratory in the heart of Ermelo’s residential area has once again highlighted the need for community involvement.
With the ever-increasing crime rate it has become imperative to report all kinds of suspicious activity and unlawful doings to the police.
All too often one hears people saying they do not want to become involved and prefer to turn a blind eye. To a certain extent one can understand this kind of attitude, because court cases often turn out to be long, drawn-out affairs with postponement after postponement.
Reporting suspicious activity in your neighbourhood enables police to investigate and if such activity turns out to be innocent and above board, everyone can breathe a sigh of relief.
On the other hand, if the suspicious goings-on turn out to be underhanded criminal activity and exposed, the whole community can breathe a sigh of relief.
The criminals are then brought to book and often removed from society or they pack up and go some place else.
Providing the police with a tip-off does not necessarily mean one has to become actively involved in the process afterwards, but it may well help in solving a crime or even prevent a crime from occurring.
Timely intervention by the police can often lead to a crime being exposed and in many cases crimes can be prevented before they have even taken place.
Criminals hardly ever operate alone and before a crime is committed, they tend to meet often and are therefore all in one place. Once the crime is committed, they split up and go their separate ways and lie low for long periods until as they say “the heat is off”. This makes it all the more difficult for the police to round them up and make arrests.
Either way, it could be that our sons and daughters are then saved from being drawn into the underworld of using or selling drugs, housebreaking, theft, assault and robbery and other serious or petty crimes.
The police can unfortunately not be everywhere all the time and through the years have appealed to the public to assist them by being extra eyes and ears.
So let us begin to play a part in helping to rid our society of unwanted and dubious elements by reporting crime and making our town a safe place to live in.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if Ermelo could be known as the safest and most crime-free town in the country?
We could all then breathe a collective sigh of relief.
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