THE EDITOR, Sir:
THERE IS hardly a farmer in this country who can truthfully say he has been spared by thieves. The cry for government's action and justice to eliminate praedial larceny has become louder and louder. To challenge these thieves even on your own territory is tantamount to committing suicide.
Praedial thieves have been getting away with both produce and murder even at times when their prey may be defenceless and harmless. At this time when over-zealous politicians are making almost every promise that tongue can recite, it is my fervent hope that our expectation of better governance will include something about the praedial thieves and praedial criminality as well.
It might be difficult for 'outsiders' to understand the stressful and traumatic lives farmers and their families have had to perpetually live because of praedial thieves. Our own agonising experience although far removed from homicide was almost comical as we tried to envisage how a massive bull was stolen and transported through seemingly inaccessible Cockpit terrain during the dead of night. What is undoubted, is the proven fact that there are no limits to what a praedial thief can and will do in order to succeed at his trade.
In the absence of effective rules of law and good dispensation of justice, citizens will resort to 'dealing with de tief' themselves, instead of seeking redress through the courts. Likewise, the absence of swift justice and effective punishment is a recipe for parochial mayhem and anarchy. As evidenced in this parish a week ago, the citizens became judge, jury and executioner of a 'yam tief' who allegedly chopped the yam owner to death. We must extend condolences to the family and friends of Mr. Swaby who regrettably died in his field where he had gone to do his honest day's work without even having had the luxury of breakfast before leaving home.
The loss to his family will never be repaired and although his fellow citizens dispensed what they considered justifiable punishment we must seek to rise above savage barbarism. We must continue to advocate for more decisive action from the state and hopefully, there will be positive results before farming and the farmer become extinct not only in Trelawny but nationally.
I am, etc.,
SONIA CHRISTIE
Trelawny
