CRIME DOES NOT PAY. CRIME DOES PAY. – PART I.

IT CAN PAY…AND WITH GOOD DIVIDENDS TO THOSE WHO ARE WILLING TO RISK THEIR LIVES LIVING IN THE WORLD OF CRIME AND GETTING AWAY WITH IT AND IF THEY ARE NOT CAUGHT EXPEDITIOUSLY BECAUSE THE SYSTEM IS SUCH THAT IT TAKES A WHILE FOR THEM TO BE APPREHENDED.
By Mansor Puteh



YET THERE ARE STILL SOME PEOPLE WHO ARE STUBBORN WHO WANT TO TAKE THE RISKS OF COMMITTING CRIME TO LEAD THE LIFE OF CRIMINALS TO GET SOME THRILL FROM IT.

THEY MAY BE PETTY CRIMES, BUT THERE ARE ALSO THOSE THAT INVOLVE LARGER SUMS OF MONEY OR PROPERTIES AND EVEN LIVES…

MAYBE CRIME DOES PAY AND IT COMES WITH GOOD DIVIDENDS. AND IT IS FUN WHILE IT LASTED, A CONCEPT THAT IS THRILLING AND EXCITING TO MORE AND MORE PEOPLE THESE DAYS, AND THANKS TO THE MEDIA AND TELEVISION WHICH SEEM TO PROMOTE CRIMINAL ACTS IN MANY SUBTLE WAYS.

There are too many hidden pockets in Malaysia where the criminals can operate from and almost freely sometimes just a stone’s throw away from a police station.

There is no system that acts as a check to stop people from committing crimes so easily. The whole country is open to them and the attention is too focused on how to arrest criminals when it should be on how to stop people from drifting into it.

One can therefore be said to be ‘encouraged’ to become criminals because the risks are low.

If the risks are very high and the dividends not worth it, then even those who have poor education and have bad traits will not dare to embark on such insidious adventures because they know the risks are very high. They might as well stick to working as construction workers or do petty trading in the ‘pasar malam’ and earn a living out of it as it is their lot to do.

And if they want to succeed in life they know they have to pursue their education so they can move up a step on the ladder of success.

Otherwise, why do we see the many Iranians and Nigerians and some South Americans who still want to pursue the glorious and adventurous lives of smugglers and criminals?

They know the risks involved and wanted to take them.

Most of the time, the system ‘allows’ crimes to happen and for criminals to get away for a long time before they are apprehended especially the repetitive crimes that involve the smuggling of humans and other goods particular contraband fireworks and crackers from China and other counterfeit electronic and many assortment of cheap products and goods from China and clove or ‘kretek’ cigarettes from Indonesia where there is a huge demand from Malaysians and foreigners living in the country.

I don’t think there is any argument on this matter that crime does not pay.

Many feature films and television dramas promote the life of crime as adventurous and exciting. Being good and chaste is old-fashion.

But it can be said it does, if people want to get ‘free board and lodging’ without having to worry about where and how they can get them.

Going into crime can solve their problems for a while especially if their lives were worse off in the free world than in prison. They would choose to go to prison then.

So some might even be tempted to commit rape so they can be ‘housed’ for life and get free meals everyday and a roof over their heads.

It’s not exactly a spa but they think it is. So what can we say? Crime does not pay, you say?

But to some the thrill of robbing, stealing and maiming seems to be worth the risks involved, despite the harsh punishment that await them. Surely they know that it does not pay to be in crime, but they did not care.

And how so often have we seen in the media when criminals commit crimes of all sorts, and barely a few days later, they are apprehended. Sometimes, they are caught holed in their hideout within a day or even hours of having committed the crimes.

Yes, they never learn. They still go along the same route of planning their criminals acts and actually committing them, only to find out that the loot that they had stolen, is not worth the time they would have to spend being in and out of the courts while in remand as well as in prison.

Many of them do not seem to be able to look slightly ahead of their noses to see what lies ahead of them. Can’t they see police vans waiting to get them, if they commit crimes?

They also can’t imagine seeing the judges sitting in front of them giving the harsh sentences which will force them to be incarcerated for many years.

They cannot imagine how they will languish in prison doing time and are released many years later looking lost in a world which they had rejected?

They still have to return to society. They still have to live on.

Worse, when some of them who had to spend time in prison return to their old stupid selves and commit the same acts which will force them to return to the same drab activity of being taken to the courts and then sentenced to prison for another term.

There are some who learnt the lesson fairly late after having committed the crimes, while the others have to do it the second and also the third time before they finally realize their own folly.

The most that they can do is to escape the long arms of the law for just a while, so they are able to spend just a fraction of what they had robbed or stolen, before they are apprehended.

There are not too many places in the country where these criminals can hide themselves in without they themselves given the clue of who they are and what they had done.

CCTV systems are also a big help, as with the other sophisticated electronic surveillance systems.

More sophisticated safety electronic systems will be introduced in the years ahead so that it will make it virtually difficult for anyone to be negligent and be anti-social, unless if he is so desperate and does not care for the outcome and effect of his misbehavior.