THE EDITOR, Sir:
HOW DO you explain to a mother that her child is found dead after being missing for several days?
How do comfort her? How do you tell her to go on with her life? Can you say to her good will come from this? Can you say to her, her child has not been the only victim, who has fallen at the hands of crazed and depraved men? Will that comfort her?
Her child is still dead!
Do we have a system in the world called justice that we can count on? Is there a system? When a parent calls the police and says, "Our child is missing! Our child is missing! Help!
Police: How long has she been missing?
Parent: She normally reaches home between these hours, and now its this hour. Oh, help us find our little girl.
Police: Oh she isn't missing yet, when it has reached 24 hours and she still has not returned, call us then. The law says the search for an alleged missing person cannot commence until 24 hours have passed.
Twenty-four hours, what does this mean if you are dealing with a minor who has a routine time to get home and normally follows it?
There are always exceptions to the rule. Is it impossible to make adjustments or exceptions to the law according to the circumstances given?
Are we, as a people, this blind? Are the police this shallow? Are we seeing what is happening in our society today? Are we still in the 1930s, '40s, '50s? Do we not realise, that even 10 hours after alarming that someone is missing normally leans to one side?
Let us assist in adjusting the number of hours we wait before searching for a missing person. It will not bring back this little girl, but it may save another, not only in Jamaica but across the world
I am, etc.,
SHELEISHA KASSIE
Kingston
