THE EDITOR, Sir:
THE FORCES of darkness are determined to bury our beloved country under rubble of lawlessness. It is clear that they will stop at nothing to bring us to our knees so that in a perverted sort of way, they feel they are the law and they have the power over life and death. They do not, and law-abiding citizens must show them that we will not cower in fear. We will not bow to them!
They declared war on this country when they attacked the security of its people. Therefore, the rules of engagement dictate that we should use the tools and tactics of war and fight back call out the army!
If they choose to behave like animals, then they have abrogated their right to be treated like human beings and must be hunted down like the animals they are and be brought to justice.
My idea of justice is nothing short of capital punishment by way of a firing squad and the charlatans who choose to play politics and delay the rope of justice by stalling the advent of the Caribbean Court of Justice do so at their own peril.
If the murderers are prepared to take life, they must be prepared to give up theirs. We must make an example out of those who are caught. In 1991, then tough-talking Security and Justice Minister K. D. Knight in defence of capital punishment declared that murderers must be rehabilitated elsewhere other than on this earth. I agreed with him then, and I agree with him now.
I made the call some years ago and I am making it again: Mothers and baby-mothers who knowingly harbour their gun-sons, gun-men and gun-baby fathers and allow their teenage sons to hide the guns in their school bags and take them to school when the police come a-searching, must make a resolve to give them up to the law, for your sake and your grandchildren's sake. If you continue to condone murderers, then you are just as culpable and it will not be long before they turn the guns on you also.
I say to the media: When the police cut down the murderers, irrespective of how young and innocent they look, we must not be quick to turn cameras and microphones on their grief-stricken mothers, grandmothers and baby mothers to give them a face and a voice. They must be made to suffer and grieve alone for the sons and baby fathers that they hide from the law.
That said, my heart and condolences go out to the families and friends of those martyrs of the law. And while their souls rest in peace, we must not rest until their perpetrators feel the full brunt of the law. I call upon government to make sure that those officers did not die in vain. This is war ... The gunmen fired first ... You must once again bring out the army.
I am, etc.,
CHARLENE DEVEREAUX
Kingston
