“news makes us grieve for strangers…”
Billboard in Monrovia, Liberia
Everyday I read headlines from around our world: Haitian Elections, Bird Flu In India, California Flooding, Darfur Conflict, Nepal Insurgency, Hurricane Katrina, Philippine Mudslide. It is rare to be very close to the news...but for a change, here in Liberia, I am literally living where news has been a world headline recently…Africa’s First Elected Female President Is Inaugurated in Liberia, Focus Shifts On Liberia’s Recovery.
Something happened here a while ago that didn’t make the headlines. The only thing that makes it “newsworthy” to me is because it had quite a personal impact. But in fact, it was just one example of something that happens here in Liberia on a regular basis. Vigilante justice.
Between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, a man on the street tried to steal a cell phone from someone. A crowd of people who saw the attempted crime beat him to death within a matter of minutes. For two days the dead man laid in the gravel along the side of the road, in the searing sun, just 50 yards from the entrance to the port gate where our ship is docked.
I saw many people walk by that dead man, practically having to step over him along the busy roadside, just to pass by. Adults and children would slowly approach the body, and stare for a few seconds, before continuing on. I could smell the decay even from across the wide street. But it seemed to me that the Liberian people were only cautiously curious, and, although solemn, seemed not at all offended or surprised at the fact that he was laying there.
I was amazed. I have never seen anything like this before. I was amazed that this man’s dead body lay along the side of that busy road for TWO days. Why didn’t someone dispose of his body? Take it to a morgue? Weren’t their any relatives looking for him? Couldn't the UN do something?
On the second day, I was in a taxi coming back to the port gate from town when I asked my taxi driver why that dead man was there. He explained that the man had tried to steal a cell phone. (This fact was already known by most everyone around) "But why don’t they take his body away?" I asked him. “He is a criminal,” he said, “He is left there to show people what happens if you steal.”
I felt sorry. I had alot of emotions welling up. Of course, I was sorry that this man died. I wondered what children might have had to witness the beating. Or how they felt seeing his body. I was sorry that he lay there along the road as a spectacle. It seemed a swift and heavy price to pay for such a petty crime. It seemed that, in light of the other glaring problems that Liberia is facing, stealing a cell phone was theoretically barely going to register on the scale. But as I read more about vigilante justice in places like Liberia, I came across some pretty polarized opinions.
One source I read quoted a local man explaining:
“Criminals come around to hijack you while you are in bed. They take your generator and then wake you up and take your mattress,” explained the 31-year-old Liberian man, a construction worker by day and vigilante by night.
Some believe that mob justice is purely a pathway to revenge for most participants. And that mob justice is sadly inadequate because it lacks the careful examination and deliberation required to discover the truth and respond with appropriate action.
Others say, corrupt, inept, or non-existent government judiciary systems and police forces seem to justify the actions of vigilantes…calling vigilante justice “effective and efficient.”
I found myself angry and grieving in a way…for this stranger lying along the road. For this complex social system that I understand so little about. For the fact that in my world of headlines, I miss the huge personal chasm between my privileged life and the everyday reality of the actual “common man.”
God, give me compassion, and understanding.
posted by Colleen at 7:43 AM
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