Jamaica needs ambassadors for crime prevention

THE EDITOR, Sir:

THE NATIONAL Security and Education ministries and many other Jamaicans have condemned the brutal killing of Yetanya Francis. Can this be a turning point? Can this be the incident to rally Jamaicans at home and abroad? There was a tragedy in Canada earlier this year in which 16 members of the Humboldt Broncos High School hockey team were killed in a bus crash. After the crash, over CDN$15 million was raised through crowdfunding in 12 days. How many innocent youths like Yetanya have been murdered since the start of the year?

We need crime-prevention ambassadors, who believe that it is social intervention that will prevent gangs from continually recruiting our youth, who will take this message to Jamaicans at home and abroad. The social intervention needs to target atrisk youth and needs to be widespread and supported by every patriotic Jamaican. Just this week, we saw ‘Ambassador’ Bolt attract thousands of people to watch him play 20 minutes of football

The outrage to this savage crime should not be just verbal: it should be the beginning of the realisation that we need to mobilise all Jamaicans at home and abroad to assist in tackling this crime monster, through targeted social intervention. EMILE GRANT Jamaica Diaspora Crime Intervention & Prevention Task Force

Canada