CRIMINALS HAVE RIGHTS, OUR CONSTITUTION SAYS SO.

A mason walking to work early one morning around 6.00AM was pounced on and beaten to death about a year ago in Accra, because another man has snatched a lady's purse and the people were looking for this purse snatcher when they chanced on a hardworking man walking to work and beat him to death, in what is known in Ghana as mob justice. Were those people who beat this man to death criminals? That is up to forumers to judge with their pious conscience, but a father, an Uncle, a brother and a husband was killed because we demand instance justice as Ghanaians.

A school mate was beaten to a pulp and almost killed during the height of the Agege phenomenon when a shoe that came to be known as a 'PLATFORM' was in vogue and a must have in those days among students. This school mate bought the shoe from an Agege returnee who might have stolen it from somebody. This guy was walking around Kejetia in his newly aquired 'platform shoes when somebody shouted; THIEF, THIEF, THIEF, THAT IS MY SHOES, and a mob set upon this student who was only saved because one of the people in the crowd recognised him as a student from a prominent family making Asokwa Kumasi as a home.

A friend who lived in USA for more than twenty years returned to Ghana to live and contribute to the development of our beloved Ghana when armed robbers attacked his house one night, robbed and killed him at his East Legon residence about five years ago, thank God, the wife and children were still in Atlanta, USA. Do I want these armed robbers caught and shot at the spot? As a friend, I would love to get instant justice and satisfaction to see somebody paid for that crime with their own life for killing this guy who toiled for his money in Atlanta USA only to be killed in his own country in Ghana, but what about killing somebody instantly for this crime to satisfy myself and then finding out the perceived armed robber was not actually an armed robber but an innocent individual passing through the neighborhood to work and got caught in the melee?

Yes, the Police should shoot to kill any armed robber who engages them in a shoot-out, that is not in dispute, the problem is that, a Regional Minister should not stand in a podium and disseminate a falsehood about criminals not having any rights when our own constitution says otherwise..Human Right advocates are not demanding the rights of criminals only but the rights of everybody and they should be thanked instead of the castigation they are receiving.

It is this stupid, "criminals have no rights" that led to P/NDC murdering hundreds, if not thousands of Ghanaians because everybody arrested by them were deemed as criminals without any court finding these individuals guilty.

The problem here is that, we've lodged two issues together and we have some people in this forum who are too dense to decipher it.

One of the issues is; SHOULD ARMED ROBBERS BE KILLED WHEN THEY ENGAGE THE POLICE IN A SHOOT-OUT? I personally believe an armed robber who shoot at the Police should be shot at and if it means killing him or her, so be it.

The second issue is, DO CRIMINALS HAVE RIGHTS? According to our own fourth Republic constitution, criminals are guaranteed their basic human rights and therefore it is idiotic and complete nonsense when a Regional Minister stands at a podium and said "Criminals have no rights". Did this Minister read the constitution before swearing on it? Is his word the final arbiter to the constitution?

I presume we all have a modicum of intelligence if we can type on a PC board to express our opinions, but sometimes emotions take the place of sound discourse in this forum and that is really really sad. Can we have a matured discourse on such important issue like this without people sermonizing their pious morals on us as if they are the only custodians of morality?

The point is this;

1. Armed robbers should not be spared if they try to shoot their way out of a jam, but Police should also be careful before killing innocent Ghanaians. Ghanaians have a tendency of using the Police and the Army to settle Personnal scores so we should be careful what we demand. A case in point is when a man competing with another man for the affection of a beautiful lady one night saw his rival coming out of this lady's room shouted, THIEF, THIEF, only to be confronted by this lady who saved this man's life or who knows what might have happened to him.

2. Criminals have rights because sometimes wrong people are arrested for crimes they did not commit and without this rights, innocent people might find themselves in jails in Ghana for years without being committed of any crimes.

Not long ago, it was reported in this forum where a large number of Ghanaians are langushing in jails as long as eight years without being found guilty of any crimes and in some cases have not gone to court for their cases to be adjudicated, and that is not right as a civilized society to treat human beings like animals.

PEOPLE, THINK ABOUT IT, YOU CAN BECOME A PREY TO SUCH INJUSTICE, THINK AND STOP THIS EMOTIONAL STUPIDITY.

Armed robbers are a menace to society and every method should be adopted to eliminate that canker from society but we should not trample or throw our rights as human beings to achieve that goal which might bring a bigger problem of people getting arrested and thrown to jail for years because we perceive them to be criminals with no rights, that is not a civil society but a jungle I don't want any part of.