Enough is enough

'AUGUST TOWN mourns massacre', a Page One news story, informed us yesterday, relating the brutal killing of five people and the wounding of four others in communities in St. Andrew Eastern since Friday.

Killings such as these must not be allowed to continue in St. Andrew Eastern or anywhere else in Jamaica. That is the assurance the people of Jamaica are demanding from the government, through the protection of the security forces.

It is simply mind-boggling that in this relatively small country with a population of 2.6 million people, with 310 days gone in the year, the police are reporting that 858 of our citizens including 14 policemen, have been murdered. And the country is not going through a civil war. There are countries, much larger than Jamaica and more populous, which have had worse crime problems but which have been able to curb those problems to a significant extent. Surely it's not beyond the realm of possibility that we in this country can overcome our crime problem, recalcitrant though it seems.

But the police can't do it alone. They need the help of every decent, law-abiding, conscientious citizen in every community in this country. Citizens must know who the gunmen and the murderers are. They should cease sheltering and protecting them. They must cease harbouring them and providing alibis for them.

While it is true that it is the duty of the government to guarantee protection to every citizen of this nation, the reality is that the police force by itself cannot fight crime. It needs the co-operation of the populace.

It is time for the good citizens of this country to rise up, decide that enough is enough, and give their assistance to the forces of law and order.

Then and only then will the security forces be in a position to really combat the murderous crime wave that is ravaging sections of this land.

While it is true that roadblocks and demonstrations will draw attention to the problems of lawlessness and wanton criminality that is plaguing certain communities, the reality is that the police need information in order to take pre-emptive action. If justice is to take its course, they need the full co-operation of the public to bring the perpetrators to book. The police can do so much. Citizens need to tell what they know.

And the two major political parties, the ruling People's National Party and the opposition Jamaica Labour Party, must in the interest of the nation, not only join forces in fighting crime but take the bipartisan approach to the grassroots, from which most of the victims come.

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