The Editor, Sir:

It cannot be denied that foremost on the minds of most households in Jamaica today is the safety and security of family members.

From the modest farmer living in rural Jamaica to the business tycoon, surrounded by his grille bars and security guards in his mansion, nestled in St Andrew, Jamaicans, each night, go to bed gripped with fear and praying that the hands and feet of those who peddle crime and violence will pass their gates.

Over the past few weeks, a joint select committee of Parliament has been considering six anti-crime bills, which the Government hopes to bring to the House in its effort to deal with the crime problem.

Expect no effect

Mr Editor, it is my view, and I humbly submit, that these crime bills, even if they are passed, will have no effect whatsoever on crime in this country. Successive Governments have failed to address the social ills in the inner-city areas and have also failed to look at certain aspects of the justice system.

The present Government has pinned its hope of arresting the crime wave on the six anti-crime bills. It is my submission that these bills will be as successful in solving crime as the evangelist Bedward of August Town was successful in showing his followers that he could fly.

Government's view

If the statement published, attributed to Minister Pearnel Charles, and reported in your Monday's edition, represents the view of the Government, then clearly, we will never succeed in reducing crime and violence and punishing the persons, who are responsible for the current mayhem.

Mr Editor, will these six bills increase the confidence that the public must have in the security forces so that they will be willing to assist them in solving crime and coming forward as potential witnesses?

Will these bills be able to bring witnesses to court and so reduce the backlog of cases that presently bog down the justice system?

Will these six bills provide a waiting area for witnesses who are bold enough to come to court and not leave them wandering in the corridors of the court houses, while friends of persons on trial roam the same corridors menacingly?

Will these six bills assist both witnesses and jurors with their expenses to get to court? Will these six bills speed up investigative processes and so reduce the time between the commission of an offence and arrest of the offender from two years, in some cases, to say three weeks?

Persons now feel more comfortable in taking the law in their own hands or enlisting the services of known enforcers, who are meting out rough and ready justice. The first order of business must be to capture the confidence of the public in the security forces. They must be seen by the public as persons who are willing, committed and motivated to solve crime.

Community policing

There is a lot of talk about community policing, but community policing cannot work without officers of the force being more respectful to persons when they attend police stations or when they confront them along the streets of the country.

Mr Editor, a lot needs to be done but, as usual, we are going about it in the wrong way. It is not too late to fix the little things that do not cost much. If we concentrate on ringing the bells of change, for the sake of change, we will continue to wring our hands in anguish and pain as crime continues to envelope our society.

I am, etc.,

GLEN CRUICKSHANK, QC

Attorney-at-law

7 Duke Street

Kingston