THE EDITOR, Sir:MAURICE AZAN was my dear Aunt Pauline's brother. I remember him as a kind, brave and decent man and your story about his murder mentioned the many good deeds he had done for May Pen and high offices he held.
I think that the only way to eliminate these violent hooligans is for your police and armed forces to adopt a shoot-on-sight attitude when it comes to these repugnant extortionists and to relax the gun laws in regard to the law-abiding citizenry so they can assist law enforcement with their own and everyone else's defence.
It seems that the seven murderers who invaded Mr. Azan's store were well armed (unlawfully) and the crime of gun possession mattered little to them. If Mr. Azan and his family were armed, as well as the other business owners and citizens who have had and are having problems with these criminals, the outcome of this incident and future ones would be much different.
Maybe if word got around that the citizenry were not so helpless, decent people like Mr. Azan would prevail and your crime rate would drop and, along with a reinstated death penalty, the incidents of criminal hooliganism would not be so common a subject in the newspapers.
I am, etc.,
S.B. SMALLEY
barbarossa@comcast.net
Ewing, New Jersey
Via Go-Jamaica
