Tame crime monster by addressing malignant socio-economic factors

THE EDITOR, Sir:

IAM writing in response to the letter titled ‘We are not understanding the crime problem’, published Thursday, January 30, 2014. Crime occurs in Jamaica because we have the perfect storm of malignant socio-economic and cultural factors which are driving it. This includes high rates of poverty and unemployment, a lack of education and opportunities, male absenteeism and the epidemic of boys growing up fatherless, the disintegration of the family unit, a culture which glorifies violence, the perception of injustice and inequity across our society, and a rising tide of desperation, helplessness, hopelessness, and frustration. We do not need more research to tell us this. Common sense will suffice.

Crime, therefore, will never be solved by simply purchasing bigger and better guns, killing or incarcerating more criminals, employing more policemen, forming more deadly police squads, firing more commissioners or ministers of national security, or implementing new crime plans. We have been doing all this for years – to no avail!

The late Wilmot Perkins began telling us this decades ago. His words would prove prophetic, but unfortunately, and to our own detriment, we simply dismissed them as the worthless rantings of a bitter, old man, and moved on with our lives.

MERELY TREATING SYMPTOMS

When will we learn that these short- term measures and crime plans are merely treating the symptoms but not the disease itself? Are we so blind that we cannot see, so foolish that we cannot understand, or so short-sighted that we remain indifferent since we have not yet been personally touched by the monster of crime?

I am pleading with you again, Jamaicans, to apply reason rather than rhetoric or emotion. Please recognise that we will only tame the monster of crime by correcting the deeply entrenched and malignant socio-economic and cultural factors which are driving it. This is, has been, and will always be the ONLY way! JASON DEPASS jasondepass19@gmail.com Toronto, Ontario