THE STUDENT march against the violence that has enveloped Spanish Town was more than the routine street protest. It was spearheaded by the UWI Guild of Students which invited other tertiary students from the University of Technology (UTech), Northern Caribbean University (NCU), Excelsior Community College and the Shortwood and Mico teachers' colleges.
It was therefore a demonstration of concern by young adults who are being groomed to assume leadership roles in various disciplines across the region. They are therefore mature enough to sense the potential dangers of a community in crisis, teetering on the brink of anarchy.
Their seriousness of purpose was manifested in the presentation of a $100,000 cheque from the Guild to the Spanish Town police to support the fight against crime. It was a useful even if token contribution of practical support, as against the frequent calls for more resources to be given the police.
Such calls for more resources have come from the police themselves, most notably the Police Officers Association complaining last month about shortages of equipment of all sorts, even items such as uniforms.
As recently as last weekend MP Dr. Horace Chang criticised what he said were inadequate resources to tackle the chronic crime problem in St. James. That criticism, uttered on the eve of the student march in Spanish Town, serves to indicate that the problem is islandwide.
Spanish Town invites focus because it is more than just one of the typical volatile communities in Kingston, the capital, which erupt so frequently. The Old Capital is reportedly a haven of extortion rings as a major element of its crime problem.
More than most other criminal activity, tackling extortion needs co-operation from the victims if police action is to be effective. The citizenry at large must be persuaded that they should support the police.
The peace march has taken place even as the dreadful murder rate, which seemed to have abated in the preoccupation with Hurricane Ivan, has resumed its upward trend. People seem to be killing people as a first resort to settling domestic conflict; this as a separate category from the gang wars over turf.
It seems to us that the easy availability of illegal guns has to be a primary target of police strategy in this area. Hence the recent announcement about boosting the maritime facilities to stem the inflow of guns and ammunition.
The effectiveness of these and others measures requires that people must support and supply the police with the intelligence they need. We hope that Sunday's march for peace will have had some positive effect in persuading people that their role in stemming criminal violence is critical and urgent.
THE OPINIONS ON THIS PAGE, EXCEPT FOR THE ABOVE, DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE GLEANER.
