The Editor, Sir:
FOLLOWING THE recent terrorist attacks in London, it has been announced that the lawmakers in Britain are bringing stricter laws to Parliament by September to be used against persons who incite, encourage or glorify acts of terror.
Neither was the United States of America tardy in revising many of their laws following 9/11.
Here in Jamaica we are fighting a not dissimilar war where hundreds of our citizens are killed each year. We recently heard the Police High Command say that a number of murders are carried out by pillion riders on motorcycles, but do we have any legislation to curb this form of transportation?
We also hear the DJs discouraging people from coming forward to give evidence by branding them as informers, but nothing can be done, because of the individual?s inherent right of freedom of expression. Mr. Editor, in the United States, the country regarded as the bastion of freedom, I am sure that if any DJ were to do this, law enforcing agencies would be down on them quicker than a hungry cat on a mouse. We need not even mention the income tax laws, which the Americans used to bring many of their criminals to book, when people were afraid to testify against them, and which our Government could use, and which they say they are thinking of. So what is taking them so long?
To my mind, laws cannot be static, they must be fluid and dynamic to suit the situation and to protect the majority from a minority who are hell-bent on causing mayhem to the society, even if it means the curtailment of some of our civil liberties.
I am, etc.,
LLOYD RUSSELL
lloydrus@cwjamaica.com
Discovery Bay, St. Ann
Via Go-Jamaica
