Car theft: A new record?

It is now well known that 2017 seems to be a record year regarding criminal rates and violence. Unfortunately, it is to be expected that in other delinquent measurements the increase will be kept at par. Such is the case of car robbery with violence, which aims at becoming another dramatic figure this year.

Each day, between 2006 and 2016, 512 vehicles on average were stolen nationwide, according to information from the Executive Secretariat that EL UNIVERSAL presents today. A quarter of those automobiles were violently taken away from their owners.

It is when the citizens, tired of the incompetence of the authorities, try to compensate the absence of the State and seek the security of their property on their own, in this case with the anti-theft and geolocation systems.

This lack of efficiency in the face of such a widespread crime ought to be taken more seriously by authorities since, firstly, it fosters that image of incompetence, and in some cases of involvement - of which our police and justice procurement authorities are already so stained.

They should also be concerned about the fact that it has been verified, like in the case of the huachicolores, that car theft is only the beginning of a long chain of crimes.

Attacking the crimes that support the modus operandi of organized crime wouldn ot only be the correct strategy, but also necessary to stop the rates that show 2017 as a year impregnated by violence and impunity.

It is also a crime, like many others, that is hampered at the time of the corresponding report. The moment difficulties are imposed on the victim to denounce, the machinery of impunity is put in motion, which criminals have taken so much advantage of.

Measures may be taken at the federal and state levels from police corporations, but if public servants are reluctant to to assume their corresponding roles to initiate investigations, the effort will be in vain.

A true awareness of citizen service, through good training - along with vigilance on corruption - could initiate the cleansing of our justice system.

Criminals should be the ones who felt pursued and stalked by justice. On the other hand, citizens, besides being constantly harrased by crime, are the ones who suffer the tortuous road into which denouncement, demand of justice and security have turned.

We must not let this other statistic, an indication of social decomposition, continue increasing the to resurgence of crime that we are living in Mexico today.

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