THE EDITOR, Sir:I HAVE searched long and hard and withal, my search has left me only with a weary and heavy laden heart for in all I have found not one shred of evidence to support the fallacy, which claims every little thing is going to be all right. The days of Bob Marley's three little birds, and our Jamaica no problem culture has come to a screeching, crashing halt. What is it that could have allowed us to come this far, to have strayed to the point where it seems our perception of development is more a state of regression than forward movement?
Explain, what suffocating drug have we swallowed so as to continue believing that the extra-judicial killings meted out to the poor and retarded, will not soon be meted out to us? I need an explanation as to how we plan to cope, and as to how we will explain to the children that we were alive, and strong and stood idly by whilst our government passed an anti-terrorism bill, that will hold fast a rein of true terror for generations to come.
THE GATES OF REASONING
I urge you, do not block the gates of reasoning with hereditary prejudices. It was just another day for Michael (Gayle) as he rode his bicycle down the streets ignorant of the fact that there was a government-imposed curfew in fact, a man just plain ignorant and oblivious to all reasoning. He met upon soldiers and police officers who must have told him to turn and go home- but who needed not to fear him. It is noted though, that he was given the beating of his life. They beat the poor retarded man to a pulp. The coroner's inquest showed that the merciless beating caused a rupture of his stomach. As he lived his last few hours, he persisted in vomiting all he consumed and had already digested.
It was just another day for Michael, as well as for the cowardly police officers and soldiers, as extra-judicial killings like Michael's go unnoticed every day in Jamaica. It is said that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent I believe, though, that it is their first and only.
Imagine, it was just another day for Janice Allen when she felt the lethally arresting pain in her back, which left her to slowly die. It was just another day for 15-year-old Reagon Beckford and his six friends who received mercilessly, some 46 bullets from near 60 cold-hearted police officers. It was just another day for Basil Brown, for Richard Williams, Patrick Genius, Agana Barrett and so many other Jamaicans who have been terrorised and killed cold-bloodedly; and by whom the ones who have taken a scared oath to protect and to serve all Jamaicans.
JUST ANOTHER DAY
It was just another day for them and let us all be rational, if their cries have not yet been heard, who then will hear ours? Who shall we call on, when the ones we fear are the ones appointed to protect? What will you do, when like all these other Jamaicans, you are faced with the grim and grave reality of police, not brutality but fatality?
What can you say then, when like these innocent victims, your trials are dragged out, thrown out, or worst they last but for an hour? Imagine the agony and the distress to know that you like your brothers and sisters, were beaten mercilessly without thought of your life, or the impact of your death. Imagine being riddled with innumerable bullets while you beg for life and in all that, imagine your murderer walking away scot-free with his job, and his life intact, while your family still mourns. Just imagine!
I am, etc.,
ANDREW WILDES
wildz1hotmail.com
Brown's Town
St. Ann
Via Go-Jamaica
