By Plator Nesturi
The debate over the situation with crime in the country has been the focus of the media, but also politics and parliament. And when we refer to crime, we are not talking about law and order, but the ties that exist between crime and politics, the fact that crime exploits these political ties and the fact that politics rewards criminals over their involvement in the election campaign. Everything started with a video footage in Elbasan, which was made public by the media. This video footage shows how weak police authority is in front of the “tough guys” of the area. Meanwhile, throughout the country, there’s been an increase in the number of cases where fire arms have been used along with mob like murder attempts and ordinary murder attempts, there’s been a growth in the number of deaths and wounded and this entire situation has led to a growth of insecurity on the streets and public premises.
Under these circumstances, the opposition decided to join the public’s outcry by launching direct accusations from parliament. Of course, this is a good thing. When there’s abusiveness and undermining of the state’s authority, everyone should react. But all of this looks like a cowardly reaction.
Crime and the world surrounding it were not invented today. They’ve been there for ages and their aim is not to embrace political ideas, but make a quick profit. Therefore, while the comments made by the US ambassador or some other international institution refer to a growing threat that crime is posing in the country saying that there are four mob clans and 20 crime families in the criminal world, this shows that this sort of reality has been shaped over a relatively long period of time, where all the political sides have closed their eyes in front of criminal activities which have enriched and made these clans or families more powerful.
The opposition is being hypocritical by taking as an example of the growth of crime and its ties to politics, the arrogance that some local street gangster displays toward police officers. To reduce this whole problem with these kinds of street gang stories, you’re either closing your eyes in front of this problem, or you’re minimizing it to save important figures. The power that the crime has doesn’t depend on its behavior toward police, but the economic strength that it manages to accumulate. The heads of criminal groups do not undermine police on the streets, but they make deals on how to invest their money and they do this in expensive restaurants and often, with politicians from both sides on the table. Crime and corruption have turned into a binomial and if one is to be hit, then both of them will be suffering the blow. All European institutions are recommending us to wage a pitiless war against crime and corruption. This is why the approach that the opposition is taking about the growth of criminality, seems insincere. By tackling street crime and not the essence of the problem, it looks as if it wants to open up a window of cooperation with the underworld once the latter sees that the balance of power is aiming toward today’s opposition. In this case, crime opens up for collaboration.
Years ago, the dissolution of the Task Force at the Prosecution of Tirana, was seriously criticized by the US embassy and the EU authorities. Not only money was wasted because the prosecutors and judges in question were trained, but this specialized structure was also operating in the area of financial crime. And where there is financial crime, there’s the street crime, traffic, corruption and other types of crime. The entire political class kept quiet in that case. Even the rightists, who are in opposition today, considered it as something trivial. Perhaps today, we desperately need extreme measures in order not to be all infected by this. The vetting process is only a starting point, while SPAK is the continuation, because we should not forget that crime managed to penetrate parliament and it has spread its roots in the economy, in construction and every other sector. There’s a lot to do, but it cannot be fought without a general political will. If there’s not a real deal on how to fight this phenomenon, then it’s pointless we pretend that this will ever happen. The most we will do is comment on the street gangs.
Note: The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Albanian Free Press’ editorial policy
