Chief Inspector Morgan with the Tema Community 2 District Police Command has advised the general public to help police officers arrest suspected criminals instead of taking the law into their own hands, talking about instant justice, Chief Inspector Morgan explains that Instant Justice is when a person suspected to be a criminal is beaten by a group of people or crowd with clubs, stones, machetes, or anything they can lay their hands on. In some cases, the alleged criminal dies in the process due to excessive beating or they are set on fire using old car tires and fuel.
Speaking on Plan B FM’s morning show NKOSUONSEM with Obidehye Kofi Sekyi, Chief Inspector Morgan said, that according to the laws of Ghana, this act is illegal and intolerable, but it occurs at an increasing rate. People who engage in this act are usually onlookers or people passing by or an organized group also known as “community vigilantes” whose aim is to protect the community from criminals and sometimes the victims are mostly strangers.
He said in Ghana, it is not only alleged criminals that sometimes face mob justice; people suspected to be witches, wizards, adulterers, and homosexuals sometimes find themselves in such situations. Due to the lack of trust in the law enforcement system in Ghana, people resort to taking the law into their own hands and dealing with these alleged criminals their own way.
From various research and surveys, people attributed the action of mob justice to;
The legal system is slow and the courts adjourn cases when there is empirical evidence of a crime committed.
The delays in the court process of dealing with alleged criminals when there is hard-core evidence do not sit well with the public, hence they prefer to handle criminals their way than to hand them over to the police. The people are usually impatient when it comes to the justice delivery system in Ghana.
The punishment given to criminals does not deter them and others from committing crimes.
To serve as a deterrent to others from committing crimes in a community the public thinks apprehended criminals do not face long jail terms or severe punishment. Hence, they seek justice to send a message to other criminals in the community and the victims as well.
The police and the judicial systems are seen to be corrupt, therefore criminals are not dealt with properly and they are later found walking on the streets freely.
The public believes that these criminals have acquaintance with the police and when they are apprehended, they are left to go within a short time. With this lack of trust in the police, people in communities tend to take matters into their own hands to seek justice for themselves.
When people do not know what happens to convicted criminals and also when sentences given to them are not reasonable.
With the lack of information and transparency from law enforcement, the people prefer to deal with suspected persons themselves than hand them over to the police.
Chief Inspector Morgan therefore advised the youth to refrain from activities that could disturb their freedom and the peace of the country as a whole as we are preparing for the 2024 general elections.
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