The Editor Sir:

In your recent publications, your headlines have given the nation more than cause to worry. The editorial of Wednesday, June 18, has added to the current wave of fear bordering on panic. I refer to the recent truce brokered between warring factions in the August Town community.

Negotiator Horace Levy is to be commended for his initiative. There is, however, grave concern that he has acknowledged the fact that our security forces are incapable of taking the guns off the streets.

Mr Levy says that, even though some cooling off has been brokered, these factions reserved the right to keep their various weapons of destruction and murder. Are these weapons legally registered, and are the holders licensed to use them?

Afraid for our future existence

This is where the country must be afraid for our future existence. Here we have the army and police knowing that these weapons are in these communities. They know who have them yet they seem incapable of ridding the communities of this menace.

Is it time for the Government and Opposition to think of an outside force to save this country? We have been flirting with the idea of combining the security forces while the country is fast descending into chaos. Are you all living in Jamaica? Putting new faces into positions is nice, but we need decisive action now.

We have been avoiding the application of the death penalty, to our peril. We worry about the rights of the offenders, but what about the rights of the offended? From certain quarters, there are loud cries for justice for people who maim and murder. What about justice for their victims? There must be harsh sanctions, applied now, for the heinous crimes committed against our citizens.

Penalties

I have grown up in this country at a time when citizens expressed fear of being hanged for murder or fear of the cat-o'-nine. These were the penalties that one paid for breaking certain laws. The citizens are calling for serious sanctions to be imposed for serious crimes. We all cannot run away. There are some of us who do not have dual citizenship to abandon ship at anytime.

It is time for citizens of Jamaica to take to the streets to demand action to stem the scourge of murder in Jamaica, land we love. Letters to the Editor and wailing on talk shows simply will no longer do.

I am, etc,

A. GUY MORRIS

Duncans Post Office