A friend of mine called me yesterday to tell me that his beach community here in Costa Rica is experiencing a big increase in crime. This, of course, if not unique to just his area. Crime is increasing at an alarming rate, but most especially in beach areas.

His community responded by holding a meeting. They have set up neighborhood teams. They all decided they would work together to fight the crime. They will do their best to work with the police and prosecutors. Experience has shown that neither the police nor the prosecutors are able to effectively deal with the crime. Most frustrating is that those on the receiving end of the crime usually know who the perpetrator was, yet still nothing happens.

The community further decided that they would take matters into their own hands should the authorities not control the problem. An example from this week is that a well-known criminal who has gone unpunished by the authorities was shot twice and is now in the ICU of the Limon hospital.

I like the fact that the community is pulling together, but I’m not sure how I feel about combating the crime in the area by committing more crime. Yet at the same time, I sure can’t blame them.