THE EDITOR, Sir:
WHEN YOU talk to the people of Spanish Town, it becomes clear to you what a vast majority of the people of the Old Capital are not only law abiding, but peace-loving. This is a fact that is often overlooked.
My guess is that about 150 persons are involved, to varying degrees, in gun violence. Another 200 to 300 know of, or are sympathetic to the perpetrators.
I use sympathetic in its broadest sense to mean those who would happily have all of them put away. That is those who 'see their value' in 'protecting' their communities.
I exclude from this number some of those who accept that a number of these men dispense a kind of justice in their communities and protect some citizens from petty (and not so petty) thieves.
Those I exclude because while accepting this fact, they long for a time when law and order would be dispensed by the paid agents of the state.
So what are we left with? A town with more than 50,000 residents with a number of lawless, cold-hearted gunmen and those who support them accounting for about 500.
This means that over 90 per cent of the town is having its image tarnished and its life affected, by a small minority. It is time for this quiet majority to get on the move and 'retake' this town.
I am, etc.,
KEITH NOEL
Hall Crescent
Kingston 8
