Assault

Luxson Chananda Crime Watch
Assault cases are some of the most prevalent crimes in this country. Unlike other crimes, assaults may, to some extent, be generally acceptable in communities where some sections accept them as a way of life.

To some people it is very much in order to raise your hand on another person. We all have at one time felt the urge to whack, poke, shove, kick or head-butt the other person in a conflict and more often than not got away with it.

Simply put, an assault constitutes the application of physical force on another person or inspiring a belief in that person that such a force is about to be applied. Technically, most scuffles, pushes and shoves or bare-teeth charges on a person amount to an assault just like the loud slap across someone’s face.

Perpetrators often walk away and live to see another day oblivious to the fact that they have just committed a crime only because sometime the victim never bothers to take up legal action against the conduct. Equally, it is also in order that the next person watching makes nothing out of it.

The scenario is unlike one where a thief has been caught in the neighbourhood or where a drug dealer peddling his staff across the road is discovered by residents. Before you know it a mob is gathering around him/her for instant justice or someone is frantically trying to get the police onto the scene.

Assaults are illegal and there can never be justification for wilful infliction of pain of any physical discomfort on another person. It has been said that some people find it as one sure way of expressing power and dominancy but the heinous act besides being morally wrong, gnaws at the dignity, emotion and even health of the victim. Yet still, there are others who feel they have been pushed into the crime during the heat of passion of unrestrained anger where physical action overrides the reasoning power.

Whether an assault at the instant of a feat of rage is justified or not is a story for another day but for now we need to be content with the fact that assaults have no place in our communities. Two wrongs never make a right.

The boxing ring can never be an option for the round table and like they say in our native languages “okuphambaniswa ngomulomo kulungiswa ngomulomo/chinokanganiswa nemuromo chinogadziriswa nemuromo”, equally true is the saying that “we cannot solve a problem with the same level of thinking that created them”.

Whatever the circumstances, assault cases have far-reaching repercussions on everyone — the victim, the perpetrator, relatives and friends of both parties and even society as a whole. Surprisingly, very few think about the devastating effects when they commit the offence.

As mentioned earlier on, assaults are very common with a number of them going unreported. Let us consider this fact, In Manicaland 6 453 cases were reported in 2018 whilst 5 465 were reported in 2019. The reduction can be attributed to some strategies mooted by the police and close cooperation from the public, assuming the assailants chose to lay down hands and arms for the negotiating table.

Most assaults have been a result of quarrels picked at various places in the community but most notably at beer drinks and other related places of recreation. Police have noted that the perpetrator has not been always been the instigator. In a number of cases the victim is often the mastermind of his/her ill fate only that nobody is allowed to take the law into their hands.

A case in point is that of people with a loose tongue who find pleasure in dressing down others over nothing or very trivial issues only to get a beating as a result. The police have, however, never considered victim-blaming in the investigation of any matter although it is worth pointing at at crime prevention platforms like this columns.

Perhaps the major contributor to assaults is the abuse of alcohol, drugs and other intoxicating substances. This is particularly when these substances are taken to levels that render a person incapable of having proper control of their faculties. In the past the option of a fine appeared less deterrent and offenders were known for the popular statement “Ndokubhadharira faindi”, suggesting that the offence is often premeditated and people would take alcohol to gather Dutch courage before pouncing on their victim.

Then there is this group of people who will pounce on any opportunity to assault for the pleasure of doing so. An example is the case of instant justice where someone feels the urge to lay a hand on a person who is at the mercy of a mob for a wrong done. The assailant here is at pains to squeeze in a kick, a jab or a slap not because they feel so much incensed by whatever the person has done but because an opportunity to assault has presented itself. Unfortunately, in a number of cases where the victim ends up dead they are the ones often accused of delivering the fatal blow.

Another factor has been the tendency for criminals to get away with assault because nobody takes up the matter, victims just let them be, onlookers think it’s just one of those things and law enforcers never get to know and if they eventually do relations would have been mended and the cycle starts all over again.

We look at more reasons for the prevalence of assaults in communities in the next edition of Crime Watch, their effects and how we can prevent them.

ZRP Manicaland Press and Public Relations