If it wasn't potentially so dangerous, we would perhaps be finding it uproariously funny and amateurishly melodramatic - something from a B-rated movie and an embarrassment to the B-rated at that.

We refer to the reports of men in masks, dark glasses and heavily tinted vehicles lurking around the home of Mr. Patrick Hylton, the group managing director of National Commercial Bank (NCB). Perhaps there is comfort to be had, if any can be extracted from such a situation, that there has been no actual attempt at physical harm of Mr. Hylton.

However, Patrick Hylton, his employers and the security authorities are right to take the matter very seriously, as they ought to take any threat on the life of any Jamaican. Death threats can easily evolve to actual murder.

We, of course, do not elevate a threat against Mr. Hylton any higher than a threat to the life and safety of any other individual, but comment on it here for two reasons. One is the brazenness of those who would commit murder and mayhem in our society, and the impunity with which they believe they can act.

Second, whether the threat on his life is for this reason or not, Mr. Hylton, as head of a major bank, has recently become embroiled in the controversy over the existence of the so-calle investment schemes. Anyone would be hard-pressed to convince people against making a link between this and what, at the very least, is an attempt at psychological intimidation of Mr. Hylton.

To the first point. Patrick Hylton is a very prominent Jamaican, who, in his management role, sits atop a banking business that has many billions in assets and makes significant returns for its shareholders. Looked at another way, Patrick Hylton is not some inner-city youth or underresourced nine-to-five working Joe without power or influence or the shelter of capital. Yet, in Jamaica, they, starkly, share something in common: an abject state of insecurity.

If men in masks and dark glasses in tinted vehicles can coolly roll around the house of one of the most powerful men in the country, with an intent to intimidate or worse, imagine what they might attempt with some poor Joe who lacks Mr. Hylton's potential access to protection.

Those who behave with such impunity do it because they can get away with it; there is unlikely to be any sanction under the law. Fewer than half the murders in Jamaica are cleared up, which is not to say that the crimes are really solved and the culprit taken to court and put away. Rather, clearing-up is about the police having identified a suspect.

Therein lies a significant part of the cause for criminal impunity in Jamaica, the over 1,400 murders here so far this year, and at the attempts of intimidation in cases like Mr. Hylton's.

On the second issue, whether connected to the threats against Mr. Hylton or not, this case will help to focus just how emotionally charged the issues with th investment schemes have become and how much blame many Jamaicans are ready to pile on to banks and other formal-sector institutions which criticise them. It is a matter about which the Government should take serious note and of which it should speak more, and with greater clarity, lest it soon be faced with a major crisis.

The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner. To respond to a Gleaner editorial, email us: editor@gleanerjm.com or fax: 922-6223. Responses should be no longer than 400 words. Not all responses will be published.