The Editor, Sir:

A few days ago I read an article online which painted a daunting picture of the Caribbean and its rising prominence as the crime capital of the world. With a murder rate of 30 per 100,000 persons, the Caribbean has surpassed Latin America which has seen a decline in their crimerate statistics. Even the United States, which has a population of around three million registered a murder rate of seven per 100,000 persons.

Seeing these facts were heartbreaking, but what was even more disappointing was Jamaica's murder rate. Jamaica registered a jaw-dropping 49 per 100,000 persons during 2006 and with major crimes on the rise so far this year, I can only imagine what the ratio would be for the year 2007.

After reading this article last week, I took some time to think: what do we as a nation need to do? A few things came to mind.

Wake up

We need to stop being so complacent, pretending as if nothing is going on. For those of you who know those individuals who are going around robbing and killing people senselessly, you need to wake up. These crimes affect you just as much as they affect my family and me.

We need to take ownership of our country and stop saying that the Government needs to do this and that. Why don't we, as citizens, start doing more to help clean up our communities? We have a police force. When we see laws being broken, stop hiding. Call the police. Too long have we been silent while these thugs go around killing our youth and destroying what little we have. Enough is enough. We need to start doing something, we need to get rid of the guns that are so easily available on the streets, and we need to make it more difficult for these thugs to survive in Jamaica.

Street demonstrations

On many occasions, I have seen where, when the police have shot someone accused of committing some crimes such as murder, the people stage street demonstrations, burning tyres claiming the person was a good person and the police did not have to kill him. But not once have I seen these same people demonstrating when police or innocent people get killed for no apparent reason.

It's full time we start adhering to the rule of law. People, we all need to wake up. From now on, I will be doing my part, if I see someone breaking the law, I will be calling the police. You can call me an informer, I don't care. I am not going to hide under my bed, nor am I going to make myself a victim anymore. Jamaicans, we all need to stand up and play our part.

I am. etc.,

IAGO

iago151@yahoo.com

Mandeville

Via Go-Jamaica