Eyes Wide Open

"To help, sometimes you have to do what hurts first." Duke

Yesterday, on the way to supper at close to eleven, I came across a group of eight to nine youths, the oldest of whom must have been seventeen at most, drinking and smoking around a stone table in a void deck. The youngest of the lot was a Sec One or Two student still in school uniform, a look of admiration etched on his face as he looked on. What exactly he was admiring, I did not know. Certainly, I saw nothing praiseworthy, not in the slightest.

What I did next took my supper buddies by surprise. I called the police and told them to sort the group out. I was certain that there was underaged drinking and smoking involved, not to mention the possibility of further mischief breaking out once those thugs became intoxicated.

The efficiency of our Police Force was once again evident as the group was gone when I returned to the spot forty-five minutes later. Well done, dudes in blue!

What really got my goat was that there were many other adults around that area at that time but none saw fit to do something about the juvenile delinquency that seems to be getting worse. The group looked like they had been drinking for some time as the bottles were only half-full or less. Surely, this should have been a cause for concern.

It is exactly this nonchalance and lack of civic-mindedness that we need to root out in order to keep our young people safe and to keep our streets that way as well. There have been too many recent cases of punch-drunk teenaged punks getting into fights and altercations, causing grievous hurt to innocent bystanders, for comfort. Cliche though it may sound, we all need to play our part as there will never be enough police officers to go around, efficient though they may be. We need to be their ears and eyes on the ground and that is an indisputable fact.

Certainly, the youths would not have thanked me for what I did last night. However, I did not have a beef with them nor was I doing anything out of malice. It was out of genuine concern. Sometimes, we need to save people from themselves and I was also looking out for the people in that area.

Hamlet was right in saying that sometimes, we do need to be cruel in order to be kind. Last night was just another example of that.