BY ANY standard west Belfast was the scene of a shocking amount of crimes over the weekend. Incidents ranged from an apparently random, mindless attack on a car being driven out of a hospital, to the theft of another vehicle which was involved in two collisions resulting in injuries to four police officers.
In another terrifying incident a woman had her car stolen as she sat parked in the Glasvey area of Twinbrook, the same general location where Christopher Meli was murdered just a couple of weeks ago.
This lady was sitting in her Honda Accord at about 10.50pm on Saturday night when three men jumped into the back seat and a fourth pulled her from the driver seat.
The car involved in the collisions with police vehicles on Friday was reported stolen in a creeper-style burglary from south Belfast just before midnight.
There are measures which we can all take to protect our vehicles. We can lock all doors whether we are in the car or not and there are a range of precautions we can take to stop burglaries. It is just a pity we live in a society where we have to consider such things.
However the family who found their targeted by missile throwing youths on the Springfield Road after leaving the Royal Victoria Hospital could do nothing to prevent such an attack. No-one would expect to be the subject of such an outrage.
In another crime committed on Saturday night the home of a pensioner was burgled in Clondara Street, off the Falls Road near the bottom of the Whiterock Road.
Police said a sum of money was taken and it is thought the pensioner was at Mass when her house was broken into.
Outside of Belfast one man was seriously assaulted in Derry over the weekend and last night police reported that another man was in a critical condition after before found on a road outside Toome in the early hours of Sunday morning.
As already stated it is sad that we all have to think seriously about the effects criminal activity can have us. Any one of us could have our car stolen, our home broken into or worse still be the victim of a serious assault.
That means making sure we do all we can to help ourselves. But we should also be doing all we can to help the police to help us.
For instance if anyone knows anyone who was involved in any of the above crimes they should ring the PSNI immediately. It is only a matter of time before their actions result in serious injury either to themselves or worse to some completely innocent party.
They should be taken before the courts before that happens.
