The Editor, Sir:

Your online edition carried a report and follow-up vox pop from Jamaicans, discussing seriously, whether men should be banned from grabbing, adjusting or scratching their crotches in public. This was based on a court ruling imposing a fine on a man in Italy for engaging in the act.

Now we have a real dilemma. Consider, for example, the propensity of some policemen to go on exploratory missions when searching young men - mostly from the inner cities - for weapons. Should they be liable for prosecution for crotch-grabbing?

And considering that the Lawyers Christian Fellowship wants the proposed Charter of Rights to remove the section that speaks of the 'right to privacy' - would I be liable for prosecution when I wake up in the morning and need to make adjustments or address an itch? And by whom?

We have bigger issues

And a female medical student observed, again in all seriousness, "That no local court ruling was necessary as we have bigger issues". You don't say! But then she went on to ask, "How would men feel if we went around grabbing our crotch?" Why, we would simply reciprocate the greeting!

Incidentally, the story suggests that the Italian man was fined for "ostentatiously touching his genitals through his clothing". That, apparently, was no simple grab. Perhaps he had a seven-year itch!

I am, etc.,

CHADWICK BARNSWELL

Kingston 6