VietNamNet Bridge – Confronting the vulnerable and desperate situation of robbery in Saigon, many solutions have been suggested by experts and the readers.

Robbery on the streets of Saigon




Changing the law

Most of robbers are usually sentenced 3-5 years in jail, and with good amnesty, the time is shortened to only 1-2 years.

Many readers believe that that time is not enough to renovate the robbers and they will still return to the old “job.”

The readers said that classifying the level of crime in the values of robbed property is out of date and lacks a scientific basis. The robbery crime should be punished according to the behavior, the level of danger to the victim, the impact on society, not more or less the value of robbed property.

Therefore the higher penalties are needed to create deterrence.

Issuing resolutions against robbery

Given that robbery in Saigon has become "cruel and reckless," many deputies of the HCM City People's Council suggested taking the year 2013 as "Year of the social security and order."

Deputy Lam Dinh Chien of District 8, HCM City, said that robbery has become the burning story of the city. He proposed the city to issue a resolution on fighting robbery.

"We need the resolution to lead the entire city to focus on suppressing robbery crime, to the people to be assured when they go out to the street," Chien said.

This idea was backed by a lot of delegates at the last week meeting of the HCM City People’s Council.

Earlier, the city police agency advised the HCM City Party Committee to form the steering board for crime prevention.

"Sending them to islands forever"

Whether he lives in the central city of Da Nang, when it comes to victims of robbery in Saigon, Mr. Nguyen Ba Thanh, Party Secretary and Chairman of the Da Nang People’s Council did not hide his anger.

Mr. Thanh said he was in a wistful mood for a day when he read the news about a young woman in Saigon who nearly lost her hand because of robbers.

According to Thanh, that crime is less than the death penalty, but if he had the right, he would have sentenced the robbers to life in prison and sent them to an island.

"If I had the right to do it, I'm sure such robbers would have not had a chance to live in this society," Thanh said.

"They must be isolated from society. They will be still let alive but they must go elsewhere for the peace and order of society. For such terrible crime, they cannot be sentenced for just a few years in prison, then enjoying amnesty and returning to harm society!" Thanh said harshly.

Rebuilding the SBC taskforce

It is still remembered that after the country’s unification in 1975, a lot of reckless robberies happened in Saigon, the city police force established a taskforce against robbery, called SBC (robber hunting.)

The SBC taskforce included six teams, who worked with the motto: secrets, mobility, proactive prevention, and continuous attacks.

Many members of the SBC taskforce became “heroes” in the people’s eyes, such as Phan Thanh, Duong Minh Ngoc, Ly Dai Bang and Mai Van Tan.

The "privilege" of members of the SBC taskforce in duty is: crossing the red lights, running on the restricted roads and in the opposite direction, shooting the subjects if they do not surrender after two warning shoots or even shooting them dead if they are armed, aggressive and stubborn.

Nearly four years ago, derived from the actual situation, the city police set up the taskforce that operates similarly to the SBC taskforce. However, this taskforce is said to not work effectively as the SBC because the treatment policy is not good.

Thus, a former police officer suggested rebuilding the image of police "heroes."

Giving rewards to people who catch robbers

In addition to actively protecting their own assets, the government should have a mechanism to encourage people to participate in catching robbers.

Some readers told VietNamNet that the police should give bonuses and certificates of merit on the spot to people who join hands to catch robbers on the street, in order to encourage them to participate in the anti-robbery activities.

Installing cameras on cars

From the fact that the camera on a car unexpectedly filmed a robbery on the Saigon Bridge, many readers suggested the police coordinating with the Ministry of Transport to install cameras on all cars.

"Policemen cannot be present anywhere, at any time to hunt robbers so the images recorded by car cameras will help them identify and trace robbers," a reader named Tran Vu recommended.

D.Tam