Introduce a crime tax
published: Saturday | November 16, 2002
THE EDITOR, Sir: I AM sure I am not the only Jamaican who was horrified opening up my Sunday Gleaner and seeing the number of murders in Jamaica.
I believe that it is time this new Government makes this the No. 1 priority issue to deal with for the next two to three years. The Government can only fight crime by having enough resources to deal with the problem at hand and with the right people involved in place for strategic intervention.
I know it is an American view that one way to solve a problem is to throw money at it but I think this method needs to be tried in Jamaica. Introduce a crime tax and I will pay it gladly if I know how the money will be spent. Create a budget for intervention to solve the crime problem that includes recruiting the best police officers, training them, getting them equipment, building more courthouses, getting more prosecutors and judges, providing places where first offenders have to attend to get help and be rehabilitated, getting better forensic labs, putting money basically into the all aspects of security and justice.
Enough has not been done on all avenues of the problem of crime whether it is, praedial larceny, domestic abuse, robbery, rape or murder. It is essential that crime be tackled in each parish and money be spent in each parish. The public should know how much money is being spent on the crime problem and how much money is needed to tackle the problem facing us as Jamaicans. I am not going to run away from Jamaica quite yet before we put all our energies into solving this problem.
I am, etc., CARELE EXCELL cexcell@cwjamaica.com Via Go-Jamaica
