IF we were to try and put aside the conventional cynicism of Karachiite and look at the reported news item ?CM takes notice of street crime?, there is perhaps some reason to believe that the glass is half full. At least street crime is noticed, talked about in official circles, and the Chief Minister has reportedly taken notice of the ?increasing incidents of robbery and street crime?.

Indeed street crime is talked about in town and unfortunately most citizens are scared about being out on the street alone or in company. The fact that streets appear crowded and there is far more police presence, including the Rangers and private armed security, do not diminish in any way the aspect that a citizen is far more a wary person on the street than he has ever been in history. For all the reassurance that emanates from corridors of officialdom, there is uncanny feeling that something unexpected can always strike.

One has frequently heard from citizens of how they have been held up, and robbed. I am distracted here by a shocking and fearful account I have heard from a colleague who was targeted by a mob in Gulshan-i-Iqbal near NIPA Chowrangi on May 30. He and his wife survived the attack. After three weeks now, they are still in a state of fear. His wife still wakes up at night at times and begins crying in fear. (This is a face of Karachi, I may add). The mob set his car on fire, I state here for the record. The attackers tried their best to ensure that the couple remain trapped in the small Suzuki. There was a bit of a tussle between the young men in the mob, and the couple managed to get out of the vehicle. They ran for their lives, and were pursued, for reasons they can?t understand. This colleague revealed that he wrote letters to the editor of five dailies, but none was published. One newspaper regretted that the subject was too sensitive to be published, he told me.

One is heartened to see that the chief secretary has focused on street crime now. He took notice of certain incidents that were reported in print media, which included robberies in Gulshan-i-Iqbal and Liaquatabad, then snatching of Rs42,000 from a journalist in town (allegedly done by a police mobile, said a PPI story); as well as looting of minibus passengers in Lyari. The PPI story underlines that the chief secretary expressed ?grave concern? at these news reports and asked IGP and CCPO to take steps for coping with such incidents.

As one writes this thought goes back to the streets of Karachi, as they were in the past. They were never so unsafe, and one citizen disagrees with the premise that we can dismiss it all as ?urban crime?. He says that street crime, at times small, petty, and quickly executed is symptomatic of the breakdown of neighbourhood values and affinity. Other aspects like hard economic times and unemployment are aggravating factors or primary factors. He recalls the times when neighbours knew each other and there was a meaningful, reasonable interaction between them. One Karachiite observes that today there is either indifference to neighbours or ignorance; in some instances a hostility. The reasons could be political.

Of course Karachi is a political city and with the local government elections coming up in the next two months, some uneasy thoughts about what could happen come to mind. What will be its impact on the street rather street crime? The common man does wonder and hopes that it doesn?t mean that disorder lies ahead. A Karachiite I spoke to referred to the current spate of violence and wondered why there is this recurring restlessness and related unhappiness. People die, property is destroyed, and the damage done to the collective psyche is deeper than what we can imagine. It may not show in the form of street crime, strictly speaking, but it does make the streets unsafe.

One well-known cause of our streets being unsafe is the snatching of vehicles and cellular phones. The growth in this crime has impacted how we use mobile phones in public. It has certainly made people more conscious of the need to be careful with their vehicles, and in and around them. Inside cars, people keep windows closed, if they can. And car doors are locked! Hence I have often heard colleagues talking of the need to be street smart now. It is time to teach family members the art of being street smart in markets and shopping areas. Sometimes criminals operate smoothly and swiftly at such places that no one but the victim knows. Of course, this is done at gun point. There may be police in the vicinity totally unaware of what is happening.

Street crime in Karachi needs to be focused upon frequently, as street safety cannot be taken for granted. Given our changing society and the gulf between the rich and the poor as well as the inadequacy of the police force, street crime could pose a huge challenge in the days ahead, opined some Karachiites. One of them spoke out his apprehensions: ?I feel very unsafe in Saddar when I walk alone. I have heard so many stories of people being held up at gunpoint.? Is more policing the answer to street crime?