The long wave of violence flowing through our society seems to encounter an insurmountable barrier in the crystal walls of the institutions that should be fighting it. A system of protection, a golden armor, surrounds those who hold the power to make changes, creating an ever-widening gap between the protected and the vulnerable.
The issue is as straightforward as it is bitter: can those who do not experience violence in its daily brutality, who do not feel the cold cut of fear on their skin, truly understand the need for decisive and immediate action? Legislators, judges, the great “decision-makers” of our society live in an overprotected reality, where the contours of violence are blunted, transformed into numbers and statistics, losing the faces of the victims and the echo of their cries.
Yet, for those who wake up each morning and take the train to work, for those who return home at night along dark and deserted streets, for those who live in fear of an unexpected assault or domestic violence, reality is starkly different. Danger is not a distant abstraction but a tangible threat, a constant shadow that sways on the edge of normality.
In the face of all this, the judicial system appears deaf and powerless. A bureaucratic labyrinth that, with its complex and often outdated rules, seems more oriented towards protecting the rights of the violent rather than the victims. Too often, we see violent criminals avoid justice due to legal technicalities or obsolete laws, while the victims are left to deal with trauma and impunity.
This cannot and must not continue. A paradigm shift is necessary, a collective awakening that pushes us to revise our laws and policies on violence. Those in power must step out from the golden walls of their towers and immerse themselves in the raw and naked reality of the streets, trains, supermarkets.
It is not an easy task. It requires courage, empathy, and determination. But if we want to build a safer, fairer, more humane society, we must address the issue with seriousness and urgency. We must stop hiding behind the comfort of ignorance and face the harsh truth: until the victims of violence are protected with the same zeal with which we protect the violent, we can never hope to eradicate the evil that threatens us.
