THE EDITOR, Sir:
AN ARMY of battle-ready police was sent from Kingston on the morning of Friday, August 19, to the Mandeville Market and the people had to call on Deputy Mayor Sally Porteous to calm the situation before it got out of hand.
When the police were questioned as to why they were there, it was not to capture gunmen, murderers or drugs, it was to clear a road in the market on which the higglers were selling. With over 1,000 persons murdered so far this year, is this what manpower should be used for when we have police right here in the town of Mandeville?
It must be remembered that it is back-to-school time and as could be heard from the crowd, if there wasn't so much corruption we would not have to pay any school fees. The Government is not paying the schools enough so they are adding what I call a CESS for the parents to pay on top of transportation, lunch money and uniforms. All these pressures add up and then they send police to take them off a street inside the market.
Government needs to be careful they are not creating a monster. I think we have all seen the signs. When police tried to lock up someone recently whom the people believed to be innocent, they just took him away from the police. Then there are the mob killings, when they feel the person might just get away, the monster in the people take their own justice. The third one that is looming is when they see the corruption and nothing is being done about it. The talk on the streets is 'it can't just go so'. If you keep on cutting off the power and raising the cost, providing no water or keep cutting it off then raising the cost, not providing the opportunity to work then you are going to need a lot more persons like Sally Porteous and you may still not be able to tame the monster you have created.
I am, etc.,
BINGROY C. ELLIOTT
Mandeville
