07/25/2021 18:47
Clarín.com
Opinion
Updated 07/25/2021 6:47 PM
They did not choose to be protagonists. They did not seek to reach the covers of the newspapers or the reports of the news. They were fathers, mothers, children, grandparents, neighbors, co-workers, friends. Young, old, with an armed story or one that was just beginning to be written. Similar or different, they all had hopes and dreams. Large or modest, they were all cut short by the
same scourge
. One that seems to be
absent from official speeches
and
concerns
and that perhaps now, in the fervor of campaign promises, some candidate flies to forget later without too much cost. Such the state of things,
insecurity
seems to be just a
problem
for those who suffer it. Of the
victims
and all those who were part of his world. Because a death is replicated in an infinite succession of concentric circles of lives that will never be the same again.
"
Brutal crime
in Mar del Plata: they hit her with a cement block on the head to steal her motorcycle", "
'Go away because I kill her
': they beat her to get her cell phone and another woman saved her despite the threats", " Violent assault on a pizzeria in La Plata: they were shot three times but
the bullet did not come out
”,“ 'Stay still or
I'll burn you
': the threat of a thief who assaulted a family in Avellaneda ”,“ He made a purchase on Facebook and agreed to surrender in Hurlingham: in the place they robbed him and
shot him dead
”,“ 'Guard, they want to rob you', he yelled at a neighbor to alert him and they killed him ”,“ Brutal attack on an 82-year-old pensioner years in an
entrance in Moreno
”.
Just a brief selection of cases that occurred between July 20 and 24.
Part of a concentrated horror in
just four days
.
Sometimes, as in some of these cases, the victims, by chance or by miracle, do not die.
They survive.
And there is no better word to describe life after any of these events.
Like that of Jorge Ríos, the retiree who
killed a thief
in Quilmes last year, when they broke into his house three times in the same night.
Today he
lives with police
24 hours a day and
in fear
of reprisals, while waiting for the moment to go to trial for aggravated homicide.
The survey carried out between May 30 and June 5 by the Insecurity Monitor of the Applied Social Psychology Observatory of the UBA, makes it very clear: for 7 out of 10 respondents nationwide, insecurity / crime / theft is , today, the main problem of the country. For
71%
it is a matter between "
very serious
" and "
extremely serious
", while 20% considered it "
quite serious
". When asked what feelings insecurity generated in them, the answers were fear, fear,
helplessness, anger and injustice
, followed by concern, abandonment,
corruption
, lack of protection and
helplessness
.
When evaluating the current state of insecurity compared to a year ago,
80% say it increased
. And when it comes to qualifying
the management
in the matter, between 1- terrible-and 10- excellent-, the
highest score
is taken by the
City
of Buenos Aires, with 5.1 points, compared to the 2.7 obtained by the Province of Buenos Aires Aires and the 2.1 that the national government receives.
When asked about the causes of insecurity, with multiple answers, 68% attributed it to "
guarantee judges
", 55% to "excessive benefits for criminals", 53% to "lack of education" and 48% pointed a "lack of State policies on the matter" and an "absent State." An overwhelming majority (82%) said they had
changed habits
due to insecurity, 83% estimate the possibility of suffering a crime between “quite” and “very probable” and for 77%, the problem will increase. Impunity also has its own thing: 9 out of 10 maintain that "those who steal or commit crimes almost never pay for their actions."
Already last December, when the Covid was at the top of the concerns in 27 countries surveyed by the Ipsos consultancy, Argentina gave the note by placing in the first place not the virus of the pandemic but, in that order, unemployment (46% ), inflation (41%) and insecurity (40%).
The only thing that seems to have passed is time.
Time is what those who fall victim to insecurity will no longer have while you read this column and
those responsible look the other way.
