Eat cake, say Belgian authorities

About the murder of a 17 year old Belgian boy, Joe Van Holsbeeck, in a Brussels train station by two teenage thugs who now turn out to be Polish rather than, as was widely assumed, North African, Paul Belien writes:

The Belgians hope that the arrest of Joe’s murderers indicates a change in the current pattern of lawlessness. After the Van Holsbeeck murder Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt and Cardinal Godfried Danneels blamed Belgians for their indifference because no-one in the crowded central station had interfered to stop the murderers from stabbing the boy. Glenn Audenaert, the chief of the Brussels judiciary, told the paper Het Nieuwsblad (18 April):

“The police cannot be present everywhere. Security is a collective responsibility. As citizens we are all partially responsible for the security of other citizens.”

In a country where it is illegal to bear arms, including protective ‘arms’ such as a pepperspray, people wonder how they should protect themselves and others against armed criminals if the state, which now acknowledges that it cannot be present everywhere [not even in Brussels Central Station during rush hour], abandons them and tells them that the security of fellow citizens is their responsibility.

As C.S. Lewis wrote in a different context, liberals geld men, then bid them be fruitful and multiply.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at April 25, 2006 08:50 AM | Send