Anthony Modena, chairman of the Sandton Community Police Forum’s executive committee, believes that the key to stopping crime lies within our communities.
“We need to use communities who are willing to co-operate with us in stopping crime. I have seen communities come together in Alexandra. I recently went there and there were so many people gathered it looked like a fête. We need to mobilise people like this all over,” said Modena.
He expressed the faith he has in the youth and said he believes that the youth can assist communities in combating drugs. “We want to work with the youth, and I believe that the youth can help us fight against drugs. We want the youth to come together and take a pledge not to take drugs. This is a promise that they will not experiment with drugs,” explained Modena.
One of the strongest statements he made was that a house robbery should only happen once every 20 years. He further explained that he believes ‘communities can make the Braamfontein Spruit great by helping educate the vagrants in that area’.
Modena has chosen to take an optimistic view with regards to the fight against crime and feels individuals should ‘catch people doing right’. He also believes that those who do good in communities, whether it be individuals, shopping centres, policemen or taxis, should be rewarded.
According to Modena, communities, the Sandton CPF and the police need to form a strong team to fight crime. The underlying message is that the war on crime is a group effort.
