Chief blames justice for lynchings

[NewsWhore]

The chief of the National Police, Rafael Guillermo Guzman Fermin, said his institution has nothing to do with the recent spat of lynchings that have happened over the last few days. The chief attributed the lynchings to the leniency of the justice department towards criminals and robbers that sow fear among the citizenry. When reporters asked the major general what he felt was the cause of the large number of lynchings in the capital and in the provinces, he answered: "This is the result of something else, the lynchings are the product of the impunity and I have said that several times before." Guzman Fermin complained that criminals and robbers walk through the streets shortly after being placed before the courts. The usual is for them to be out on the streets in a few days. Last Friday a man was killed by a mob that chased him after surprising him together with two more young men robbing inside a house on Colon Street in Villa Fundacion, Bani. The victim was Ramon Otano Jimenez, 22, who lived at 54 Esperanza St., Domingo Savio, in the Los Guandules barrio. Nonetheless, Guzman Fermin was firm in saying that the police have been holding solid on crime through good intelligence and patrol work. He pointed out to the reporters that from Saturday to Sunday, "nothing had happened." In the first seven months of 2008, there have been at least 12 lynchings of young men surprised committing crimes in commercial establishments and in homes as citizens resort to taking "justice" into their own hands.

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