Five people shot. One man dead.

That’s only the latest disturbing New Iberia headline that has come after a spate of shootings in the last month. And, unfortunately, it won’t be the last.

On the best of days, fighting violent crime is like playing Whack-A-Mole on an oversized board with a tiny mallet. The only way to make any progress is to use the tools at your disposal to either shrink the size of the playing field or increase the size of your hammer.

When the New Iberia Police Department was re-formed two years ago, residents said they saw a reduction in violent crime, especially in the gunfire that used to punctuate the evenings — and the days, in many cases. But in recent weeks, the frequency of drive-by and walk-up shootings has been on the upswing.

On the street, people talk about the police, saying the officers aren’t up to the task. But there are more players on the team than just beat cops and investigators. Many of the individuals who have been involved in the rash of shootings have been arrested. They’ve been jailed. Police worked to solve the cases.

And the people they arrested have been allowed back on the street again, often without any sort of trial or reckoning.

After someone is arrested, our system of justice guarantees the accused a speedy trial. Within the judicial framework for that, there are prosecutors, grand juries and defense attorneys who argue the merits of the cases against the accused and there are judges and trial juries who oversee the process between the two sides. And sometimes the system of checks and balances, the philosophical tug-of-war between the rights of the individual and the desire for community safety, can become out of balance.

For instance, Bryson Charles was killed Thursday morning, shot in cold blood. He has a rap sheet, a list of arrests and court appearances going back years. He had already forfeited bond in other cases for failure to appear. But he was given the opportunity to make bail again and, less than 72 hours later, was accused of being involved in a shooting with two other people.

After that arrest, he was again given the opportunity to make bond.

But this time he was out on the street where he could be targeted, whether as an individual or part of a group. And that targeting cost him his life.

A month ago, three men were shot, one fatally. Two of the three had been released from jail on heavily reduced bonds. One of the victims, Aaron Carter, is currently accused in two murders, one in Vermilion Parish and another in Acadia Parish.

But instead of going to trial on charges that are years old, he was allowed to make bail. And within days of his release, he was the victim of a drive-by shooting.

Street justice doesn’t have timelines or statutes of limitations. And it is not concerned with the rights of the accused.

Giving our community, any community, peace depends on all parts of the law enforcement infrastructure, from patrol officers through chief judge, from public defender to district attorney, working toward a common goal. If that doesn’t happen, then no one, not the accused or the citizen on the street, will be safe.