Editor:
I penned the letter below, the day before I opened your Oct. 18 edition and read Chris Moore’s page 17 spread – he is 100 per cent correct:
Our neighbour’s truck was stolen in Sechelt Village last night.
I remember in the early ‘80s when this type of violation started happening in our Cape Town suburb. Soon enough there were house break-ins and home invasions, robberies, muggings, the occupation of vacant homes and serious violent crime until living there became untenable.
“Human rights,” “the right to vote,” or “the right to live in a safe and crime-free place” are not actually rights, but rather privileges –– and privileges often need to be earned.
Individuals cannot combat crime, only organizations can. But it takes individuals to create an organization. There are not many places left in this world like the one we live in. I’ve been around and I know.
With over a decade of active neighbourhood-watch hands-on crime-fighting experience, I also know how extremely difficult it is to get rid of the crime scourge once it has entrenched itself. Sadly, we started our initiative too late and lost. (Google: Reign of terror changed the face of Camps Bay or Momadi Gang, Camps Bay).
Malmö will never be the crime-free town it was a few years ago, Cape Town neither, nor Oslo. Every set of circumstances is different, but the common denominator is that the residents were asleep. The good people of the Sunshine Coast really need to wake up and organize themselves sooner rather than later.
When I was a teenager, our Cape Town suburb was much like Welcome Woods. By the time we left it was all high walls, electric fences, guards, patrols and razor wire.
Carlos Liltved
Halfmoon Bay
