Urban drift seen as root of trouble

By JIMMY KALEBE
URBAN drift is one of the major contributors of law and order problems as well as many social issues in Lae, says Met Commander Chief Supt Chris Kunyanban.
Kunyanban said many of the people moving into the city lived in settlements and some of those settlements were illegally mushrooming around the city.
“When these people are evicted, they migrate to other areas within the city and accompanying them are their habits of creating law and order problems in public places,” he said
He said when police did not attend to such problems committed by these groups of people at public places, people pointed fingers saying police did not do their part.
Kunyanban urged police station commanders within the city to watch out for illegal settlements when moving around.
“When you move around and come across structures built on areas where there has never been such activities before, report that immediately so that arrangements can be made early to take proper approaches to this,” he said.
“Demographic information is very important to identify such illegal activities.”
Kunyanban also mentioned that cultural norms were also an area which police personnel of all ranks and files should understand by now.
“The cultural norm is one way in which people tend to take law into their own hands and a good example would be if there is a problem between two people, one has to inflict injuries on the other before going for compensation,” he said.
“This is how problems were solved in the village and that has been brought into our towns and cities – people tend to take the law into their own hands.”
Kunyanban pointed out that under the law, problems had to be solved lawfully and that meant they should be reported to police and proper processes needed to be taken to solve the issues lawfully.