Judging from what has been said over the past few days about the recent daylight murder in Limassol, one can only conclude that this state has surrendered to its fate. It is not merely the inconclusive discussions that periodically take place in Parliament, where MPs react, demand explanations and call the executive branch and the responsible minister to account over rising criminality. It is, above all, the disheartening realisation that those tasked with addressing organised crime have effectively raised their hands in despair, speaking publicly with a carelessness that exposes both the superficiality of their approach and, often, their sheer lack of understanding of the matter at hand.
Nowhere was this more clearly demonstrated than in the recent statement by the Minister of Justice, who without hesitation and seemingly for the public to internalise, declared that “the police cannot eradicate organised crime” because “organised crime has always existed, exists today and will continue to exist, evolving in its methods over time.”
This line of reasoning, encapsulated in a single thought, perfectly represents the absence of awareness of a politician who, under normal circumstances, should have no place in any executive body.
The minister’s statement is not a sober reflection of reality, nor a reluctant acknowledgment of a challenge we must endure indefinitely. It is the expression of a deeply ingrained mentality, one that betrays a dangerous complacency and a failure to grasp the gravity of one’s words. If the existence of organised crime is indeed as inevitable as the minister describes, then our society has effectively been abandoned to its mercy. The perpetrators, upon hearing such pronouncements, would have straightened their backs with pride, reassured that they may continue to operate freely, so long as they are careful.
Careful, that is, to ensure that when they kill on a motorway, there are no unintended victims. In doing so, they prove that they are, indeed, “here to stay” just as the Minister of Justice himself assures us, simply adapting to “new circumstances”.
To compound matters, the minister, unrestrained and tone-deaf, now seeks out crime statistics from 25 years ago to respond to opposition criticism, as if historical comparisons could excuse present-day failure. This attempt to rationalise policy through irrelevant data only underscores the absence of accountability in a ministry from which he should have been dismissed many months ago.