The Editor, Sir:

Two recent events in Jamaica should give cause for concern not only for the citizens of the country but also for those planners who are always coming up with plans for combating crime. The first of these was the expose by Mark Wignall in the Jamaica Observer of the makings of a mass murderer and the other the death of a gang leader in Montego Bay.

What is even more tragic in the latter case is that Mr. Palmer was a graduate of Calabar High School, a graduate of the University of the West Indies and of Mico Teachers' College. Does this not cause us to pause and reflect on "something rotten in the State" when this is what is not an aberration but a disclosure of what happens to a number of our young because of the lack of leadership and healthy role models in the society?

I am, etc.,

MIDDLETON WILSON

middletonwilson@bellsouth.net

Miami, Florida

Via Go-Jamaica