The Editor, Sir:

With tears streaming down my face, and perhaps hundreds of other Jamaicans', I watched the television news report on the tragic death of young Pia Phillips.

It's painful to note that the bizarre sequence of events that ended with a shot to her abdomen, and her eventual death, were as a result of another brazen attack on Jamaican women by thugs who are bent on testing and proving their mettle.

Oh, what evil they would have done to young Pia and her family members had that fateful gunshot not scared them away.

Pia is gone, but let us remember her father, who, in a fit of panic, so valiantly tried to save his 'queen', as he called her, from criminals. Let us all pray for him, as life, as he knew it, will never be the same again.

Questions

There might be some 'believers' among us, who seek to offer comfort in asking us not to 'question God' as Pia might have met a more gruesome death had she been snatched away from the loving home of her parents.

Kidnapping, raping and murdering young girls and women seems to be the in-thing; among well organised gangs recently, and there appears to be no soon end in sight.

These stories of abduction and murder lead the nightly television newscasts, at least, twice per week.

I'm not sure what it will take for the Government to wake up from slumber and do something.

Prisoners in our homes

Jamaicans, particularly females, have become prisoners in their own homes. No longer can the new mother walk her child early in the morning and late evening for some cool air.

No longer is it safe for the young woman, who wants to keep fit, to go out jogging whether alone or with a companion. No longer can little girls skip home on the way from school without looking over their shoulder for the "stranger" mommy and daddy warned about.

Letters of condemnation from politicians mean nothing to us grieving and fearful Jamaicans at this time. There is an urgent need for a television campaign, highlighting precautionary measures and how to respond during an attempted abduction.

It will make us all more aware of the Jamaica we live in and it will save some lives.

I am, etc.,

ANN-MARIE CAMPBELL

marieanncampbell@gmail.com