THE EDITOR, Sir:

I had just read Horace Levy's thought-provoking piece entitled 'A cry for vengeance', published as the 'Letter of the day' on November 20, 2008. Mr. Levy bemoaned the dog-hearted criminality and the hellish wave of premeditated murder (my words) that has been unleashed upon the peaceful and law-abiding majority on this beloved isle. One was left with the impression that he understood the victims' pain, and the instinctive, yet 'misguided' cry for revenge (again, my words). Levy's mindset, as exemplified by his knee-jerk dismissal of the efficacy of the death penalty, reflects the sputtering push for solutions by those so paralysed by resolvable fears, that problems escalate to maniacal proportions.

No one can confidently refute or assert the merits of 'the death penalty as a deterrent' argument. There is simply a paucity of scientific and empirical work in this regard. No one reasonably expects murders to decline simply by reintroducing the death penalty. No one is really saying that. But there are persons who believe that the dehumanising, premeditated terror against the lawful majority by an abusive, 'in your face' pseudo-egoed minority, must be met with the prospect of losing what they so lavishly deny others - their own lives. The deterrent merits may be disputed, but the punishment value is sound. Conceivably, if we make life sweeter, the prospect of losing one's life may soon become a real deterrent to murder and similar atrocities.

As one who once made the most recent killing field, Kintyre/Hope Flat, my boyhood playground, I am particularly shocked and horrified at the recent spate of killings and fire-bombings. May we take a non-academic and practical approach to taming this mother of evils? An approach that is respectful of the peoples' reasoned wishes? While I don't support hanging as a punishment mode, the lethal injection appears to be a more civilised response by an aching society, that must craft its own situation-influenced solutions to this clear and present danger.

Parliamentarians must vote to uphold the law, whether that law concerns capital punishment, prison sentencing or noise abatement. Our failure to address the supposedly minor infractions has spawned a pervasive inclination towards the haunting lawlessness that now envelops us all. Dog-hearted, calculated, premeditated and repeated mayhem must be punished, even as the jury is still out on the merits of the deterrent argument.

I am, etc.,

WAT CHING

wat.ching@yahoo.com

Kingston 6