THE EDITOR, Sir:
I COULDN'T help but feel compassion for Commissioner Forbes when he admitted recently that the plans to combat crime in Jamaica had failed.
While the barrage of criticism of his candour has been unrelenting I think we, as a society, need to offer our support.
Yes, ultimately our police force is responsible for creating an environment that is safe, and he, as our Commissioner, must devise an effective strategy, but fighting crime in Jamaica cannot be placed solely in the hands of the police. The problem has now escalated to monumental proportions and we need to band together if we truly want change.
The criminals in our society have so much access to high-tech weapons, high-speed methods of transportation, etc. that I don't know if we can foresee a day in our future where our police force can match that kind of arsenal. We need a different approach. I commend the media houses for their role in this collective approach by their recent portrayal of the police in a very positive light. It is clear that a policy decision was taken on this matter and seeing members of our police force in supportive roles with the public, particularly children, is certainly welcome. I am not sure if the police are afforded psychological counselling but I imagine that often the abuses and excesses that occur on the part of the police are a consequence of not having an outlet for their own emotional strains from daily and sustained exposure to a life of crime on our Jamaican streets. We need an approach that involves us all, whereby eache of us feels that we have a stake in the future of our country. We all need to consider the recent increase in violence in Mountain View Avenue as an assault on our personal safety even if we reside in another neighbourhood in Kingston or even in Portland.
The challenge for each of us is to figure out how we can support the police for our Jamaica, land we love.
I am, etc.,
CANDIS HAMILTON
candishamilton@hotmail.co
Ocho Rios
Via Go-Jamaica
