The headline Snatch thief beaten to death by angry mob caught my attention. At long last, snatch thieves are beginning to have a taste of their own bitter medicine without a single iota of sympathy from anyone of us who are law-abiding and peace-loving people.

They deserve to receive the consequence of the peoples' wrath. The long and enduring spate of snatch thefts all these years has inflicted a lot of trauma onto the victims, disability in some and not to mention sadness and grief to some families who have lost their loved ones through unnecessary and senseless deaths.

It is becoming so rampant that I would not be surprised if most of us or our loved ones, have at some point in time been a victim or an attempted victim.

The police and the government are simply not doing enough to eradicate this serious crime. Yes, I would deem snatch thefts as serious crime because of the serious consequences most victims increasingly experience.

The police and government must demonstrate to the rakyat that they are committed and are serious in fighting this crime and other escalating crimes like rape and robbery. Please don't continue to give us the grossly unacceptable stale excuse of not having enough police officers.

Is it really an issue of being understaffed or is it an issue of inefficient deployment of staff? Deploy more policemen out on the streets where they are needed most instead of having them sitting in the office doing administration.

The government could even consider deploying General Operations Force, military personnel (in plain clothes) or beefing up the Police Volunteer Reserve force to help out, as suggested by some.

If after undertaking all these measures, our police force is still understaffed then the government should recruit more to beef up the force. After all, what could be more important than our safety and security?

We have the right to live in a safe environment and the government of the day should be committed to safeguard this basic right of ours.