Why Law Abiding People Engage in Mass State-Prescribed Violence - Article Example

Why Law Abiding People Engage in Mass State-Prescribed Violence Introduction A lot of state-prescribed violence has been witnessed worldwide after the Second World War (Buergenthal, 2000). The uprising of violence and the number of people killed in conflicts has shocked the world. It equates to the world war casualties. The states influence this kind of violence, whereby people living within a political territory find themselves conflicting over one thing or the other. The increase in worldwide populations has also led to high demand for primary resources, leading to their scarcity and greed for them. These attributes contribute to the modern life that is full of struggles, especially in politically unstable countries. These countries have inadequate forms of governance that push people into creating rebellions, which leads to anarchy in some regions. Such regions have their law of survival, whereby only the strong have a chance of survival (Chambliss, 2010). The state-funded or state-influenced forms of violence include internal conflicts, ethnic violence, nationalist violence, religious violence, terrorism, torture, and genocide. Most of these crimes can are avoidable and pointless. Necessity and failure of fulfillment of promises by the concerned governments and their representatives or officials drive them. People get into situations where they cannot live in harmony since they all need the resources, which are scarce or are inadequate for the people. It might also be a case where some people are favored over others, leading to hatred and jealousy for the favored group. Seemingly law-abiding people then get pushed to the edge of retaliation, which leads to violence and end up in revenge attacks, creating a conflict altogether. The conflicts can sometimes get awful, culminating in the deaths of many innocent adults and children, among other crimes that often result from conflicts such as looting. There are a number of reasons why honest and loyal citizens end up committing violent crimes. One of the reasons for violence as fuelled by the state is poverty and inequality. The poverty levels of people and the increasing cost of living lead people into fighting for the little available resources. These poverty rates also force people to steal so as to feed themselves. To consider such cases of theft as mass actions of violence, they involve deaths of many people, both young and old. Cases that experience such violence include the theft of domestic animals, especially cattle, in most parts of Africa. These animals are sources of wealth, and one’s poverty pushes them into cattle rustling. This crime is usually extremely violent since crude weapons come in play, and a lot of opposition comes up while committing the act itself. Other forms of theft include violent city robberies that involve shootouts and the exchange of fire across streets. According to Cohen (2001), these crimes of rustling and violent robbery are encouraged by poverty. One lacks something they need, and they still cannot figure out how to get the money to buy it. It forces them to steal what they lack, and due to their inexperience in handling weapons, they end up killing a lot of people randomly in a bid to scare others into submitting to their demands. Governments also fail in ensuring equal distribution of the national resources. They also plan poorly for the existing ones, failing to collect in times of plenty to minimize the stress and pressure that comes with the distribution when there is the need. You can never distribute what you do not have. Inequality can also be in the form unfair distribution of a country’s budget money, which leads to the oppressed states feeling undermined (Edwards, 1991). They eventually don’t feel the need to obey laws of a country that does not care about their needs and thus end up rebelling, and eventually conflicting with themselves and others. These undermined states can form rebel groups with time and can even fund state assassinations in a bid to get rid of their political leaders, who seem not to care about them (Gupta, 1990). Mass violence within a state can also result from inadequate government policies that govern industries and employment. Some states allow industries to misuse workers, to the extent of having children as laborers in factories. Adults in such places also work in hazardous conditions and are poorly paid. To counter this, educated civilians begin demonstrations, which are at first peaceful but then turn out to be violent. This violence is brought about by their need to offload themselves of the anger and frustrations that they have been harboring against the government. They create an economic standoff that results in the shortage of supply of goods from the manufacturing companies affected. These demonstrations can lead to the pulling in of more civilians all over the state, who go to the streets to support their work mates. The resultant events call for the intervention of anti-riot police units, some of which use violence and torture to get everything back to normal. Many a times, the shoot-to-kill order is given against violent protesters, and several of them die from bullet wounds and stampedes that result from police chases. In some cases, people leading the demonstrations are singled out and captured, after which they are tortured by state security organs until they call off the demonstrations (Hawkins, 2003). Most of them end up physically and mentally impaired after the extreme torture sessions while some of them die. Sexism is another reason people who were once law-abiding end up committing violent crimes. This discrimination can be seen especially in countries where the male and female gender have different levels of superiority, that of the male gender being mostly higher. As such, women are sidelined, and crimes against them go under with no much seriousness. As such, civilians end up violating the rights of women unknowingly because the states somehow allows them to by not considering women as an important part of society. This results in cases of unreported rape and domestic violence that is not followed up by authorities. These cases become a form of discipline in some countries, where a man can openly torture a woman in the name of punishing her and still go unpunished by the state. Such cases have been with us for ages, and it is not until in the recent parts that most regions of the world recognized women as equal to men in all aspects of life. This change even allowed women to vie for presidential seats in some countries (Kaarsholm, 2006). Sexism is the root of many more violent crimes, apart from sidelining. Such include the selling of women as sex slaves and prostitutes, some being shipped to distant countries against their will. It is such a shame that some governments overlook these crimes and even give lenient court verdicts against their perpetrators. Such light decisions promote the illegal and violent business against women since those taking part in the transactions are assured of a very short jail term if arrested, after which they can resume their business. To make matters worse, some state officials push for and finance these cases of violence against women for financial benefits (Kemp, 2011). One of the major contributors to violence committed by law-abiding people is racism (King, 1967). Some people tend to believe that some races are superior to others and that the excellent ones deserve to rule the so-called inferior races. The worst thing about this view is that some states that have a majority of one race discriminate against the minority race. This discrimination is seen in terms of distribution of national resources, issuing of legal licenses, employment opportunities, health care, education and access to other social amenities. The superior race is given the lion’s share of everything that is available, leaving the remains of the inferior race. Cases of violent murder are seen in the two races, accompanied by feelings, expressions and views of extreme hatred. Such lack of togetherness can bring about a sense of wanting completely to eliminate a particular race from some territories. This elimination can be in the form of evictions or mass murders, the two of which are quite common in countries that are governed by leaders with well-defined racial opinions (Kramer, 2010). State officials promote racism. These people always support the race with which they are associated in terms of government subsidies. Discrimination against the other races is the norm. In most cases, the inferior race feels sidelined and hated, and, therefore, tends to retaliate if they have no other way to get the same resources as the so-called inferior race gets. The conflict of interest leads to political arguments and social separation. Cases of violence against each other follow this separation. The violence does not necessarily begin as a war between two armies, but with a single murder of someone from one race by another from the other race. Retaliatory attacks follow and an eventual uprising is formed, characterized by violent evictions and takeovers, to the point of having government coups. A severe case of this racism can be seen in the slavery of Africans once they arrived in The Americas. The slaves were so called and treated because they were of a different race and thus deserved animal treatment, or so it was thought. They were made to work endlessly in cotton plantations; some dying out of illnesses and starvation because they lived in poor working conditions. A lot of violent treatment against them, and the inhumanity that comes with racism surfaced and remained for many years. Racism creates a deep hatred between people of the involved races. Even after the abolishment of slavery and slave trade globally, the races that formerly produced slaves still feel hurt by how their forefathers suffered. This dissatisfaction is to the point where films and documentaries are still being created in regards to how slaves were mistreated. Some governments still demand compensation for how their citizens endured pain in slavery (Robertson, 2000). The same case of racism saw many nations globally get colonized for their resources. This colonization is because they were deemed inferior and could therefore not be in need of their national resources. The colonialists seemed to take advantage of the weak militaries of the races they saw as poor and thus took to violent colonialism. The violence was a means of subduing and scaring any opponents or rebels (Ruether, 1974). This tactic worked for some time until the suffering became unbearable, and the colonized nations had to fight back violently. Most countries gained their independence through war and the shedding of blood as they sought to kick the colonialists out of their countries. The freedom fighters are great patriotic people, but were pushed to bloody violence by the need for freedom, which the state had denied them. Ethnicity is cause of one of the biggest crimes against humanity – genocide. This crime involves the mass elimination of one group of people because of their ethnic identity. It was seen in Rwanda in 1994 and resulted in the deaths of close to 800,000 persons. The fact that this genocide was fuelled by political differences brings one to identify the state as a reason people turn to their neighbors and friends and kill them mercilessly. Genocide is clearly a mass murder of one group of people based on their identity, especially in terms of ethnicity. As was seen in Rwanda, the death of one political leader and the need of another to lead the people created conflict. It blew up the hatred between two tribes that had tried so much to accommodate each other (Sanders, 1995). One tribe felt superior to another and, therefore, the one they regarded as inferior could not rule them. They therefore decided to eliminate the inferior tribe, killing men, women and children and displacing a very vast number of them to neighboring countries. Women were also sexually harassed, showing the adverse effects of war and the disrespect that people have against other tribes. Over a decade later, the Rwandese are still recovering from one of the greatest genocides in global history. People still get counseled because that are still haunted by whatever transpired within those few days. State leaders were blamed for inciting people to carry out massive killings. The fact that the Rwandan government was involved in such a massive crime indicates that the state pushes people into crimes that they commit unknowingly by being loyal to their leaders. Most of the perpetrators of the genocide committed the crimes against humanity merely because they were instructed to do so, and not because they had themselves planned such a mission. The crude weapons used were supplied by state officials, indicating the rot in governments that cause civilians to turn against each other. The Rwandese had lived peacefully with each other, having only two tribes. Political greed, however, pushed them to respond to state orders asking them to kill their friends and neighbors (Williams, 1985). Conclusion Governments rule people and guide them through international alliances. They also have a mandate to protect their people against any forms of external and internal conflicts. However, the rising cases of internal conflicts and terrorism are highly fuelled by poor governance, which results in retaliatory attacks and the formation of rebel groups. These rebel groups turn out to be extremely violent against the government and its officials. However, despite them having beliefs and hopes of a better government, the rebels and any other retaliatory group end up hurting innocent people. The damage worsens to the point where civilians get killed by violent groups. This violence calls for change in government policies. Human rights should be protected, and violating of any of them should have severe consequences, regardless of whether the perpetrator is a state official or not. Political territories should be safe havens for civilians, with their leaders advocating their well-being and development. Human life should be protected at all costs, and all grievances should be solved through the appropriate and legal procedures. References Buergenthal, T. (1995). International human rights in a nutshell (2nd ed.). St. Paul, Minn.: West Publishing. Chambliss, W. (2010). State crime in the global age. Cullompton, Devon: Willan Pub. Cohen, S. (2001). States of denial: Knowing about atrocities and suffering. Cambridge, UK: Polity Edwards, S., & Tabellini, G. (1991). Political instability, political weakness and inflation: An empirical analysis. Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research. Gupta, D. (1990). The economics of political violence the effect of political instability on economic growth. New York: Praeger. Hawkins, D. (2003). Violent crime assessing race and ethnic differences. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Human rights defenders: Protecting the right to defend human rights. (2004). Geneva: UN, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Kaarsholm, P. (2006). Violence, political culture & development in Africa. Oxford, UK: James Currey ; Kemp, W. (2011). Blood and borders: The responsibility to protect and the problem of the kin-state. Tokyo: United Nations University Press. King, H. (1967). State crimes. London: Dent. Kramer, R. (2010). From Guernica to Hiroshima to Baghdad: The Normalization of the Terror Bombing of Civilians. Cullompton Robertson, G. (2000). Crimes against humanity: The struggle for global justice. New York: New Press Ruether, R. (1974). Religion and sexism; images of woman in the Jewish and Christian traditions. New York: Simon and Schuster Sanders, P., & Myers, S. (1995). Racism. Brookfield, Conn.: Copper Beech Books Williams, P., & Verma, G. (1985). Ethnicity. Milton Keynes: Open University Press. Read More