The Editor, Sir:

The Commissioner of Police, Lucius Thomas, and his men with their best efforts have a mountain of crime to climb that is getting higher, and that monster seems to be growing daily in sophistication and barbarity. Addressing the Jamaica National Building Society/Gleaner Company-sponsored 'Outlook for the Future Forum', the police chief noted: "The possibility exists from intelligence that some people tend to either loan or rent the firearm that they have."

Crime has blossomed

Whether we want to admit it or not, crime has blossomed into a multibillion-dollar business that is not limited to thesale of cocaine, guns, ganja or degrees, but also legitimate enterprises like guard companies, legal firms or even those that cater for prisoners. Impacted and facilitated by globalisation and improved technology, crime has now become one of the socio-economic pillars on which thousands in this society thrive and survive. The tentacles of crime have become so expansive and socially interconnected that every known profession and social class is tainted. I think if we were able to eliminate all crime at 9:00 a.m. on any working day, the economy would collapse before 9:00 a.m. the next morning, and by the following morning we could very well have demonstrations calling for 'we want justice'.

The police and enforcement alone cannot stop crime from consuming all of society, making it into a functional cleptocracy, while being in the traditional normal sense a dysfunctional society. According to Rear Admiral Lewin, the factories that produce criminals will have to be closed in order to keep crime at a functionally acceptable level.

I am, etc.,

MICHAEL SPENCE

Micspen2@hotmail.com

P.O. Box 630

Liguanea, Kingston 6