VIOLENCE CONTINUES to erupt across Jamaica, breaking out in Spanish Town and St. James. It is now even difficult to find new and appropriate language to record the crisis in the hope that words will be powerful enough to move the authorities to action.
It is against this background that we support the call by business leaders for a new approach by the Government to crime fighting and we particularly endorse the suggestion put forward by Mr. Godfrey Dyer, President of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA), that we should solicit more foreign expertise in dealing with criminal activity at the parish level. Mr. Dyer makes the point that we have been using foreign advisers at the policy and training level which has helped the situation somewhat but not enough to reduce the escalating murder rate which has jumped to over 700 since January. Such mayhem must inevitably have an impact on tourism and Mr. Dyer feels that it is now time for the administration to get experts from abroad who, in his words, "will take up residence within the CIB offices in every parish to help and guide in the art of investigation and the process by which one should prepare cases for court".
We like the specificity of this suggestion. If adopted it would focus foreign help on the front lines of crime fighting and even as it is assisting in dealing with criminal activity in various parishes it would also be providing 'on-the-job' training for members of the constabulary who, we feel sure, would be quick learners. On this basis, we might be able to recruit foreign experts on one or two year contracts.
As we stated in a previous editorial, we should not allow nervous nationalism to stop us from seeking external help, especially when it is offered with no strings attached. The Jamaican society is in danger of becoming so de-sensitized to violence that it may be defeated by its own inertia. Unless we develop a psychological state of emergency there is grave danger that we will lose the will to survive and the criminal elements will have destabilized the State. This must not happen. This need not happen if the Government, in exercising its leadership function, takes the public into its confidence in defining the true scope of the problem and the steps being taken to deal with it, starting with Mr. Dyer's recommendation.
THE OPINIONS ON THIS PAGE, EXCEPT FOR THE ABOVE, DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE GLEANER.
