The Editor, Sir:

Looking at the history of crime in this society makes me think that we are like a dog trying to catch its tail! In 1993 when then Chief Justice Wolfe presented the report of the National Task Force on Crime, commonly referred to as the Wolfe Report, he warned that the opportunity to implement solutions must be seized. Using the words of Shakespeare's Brutus he said:

"There is a tide in the affairs of men which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat. And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures."

Chief Justice Wolfe went on to warn that the "time of the flood is now. Further delay will have disastrous consequences."

Disastrous consequences

Just a tally of the murder victims since then will reveal that the society has, indeed, suffered disastrous consequences as a result of the failure to implement the recommendations made then.

Then there was the 2001 National Committee for Crime and Violence. The recommendations of this committee were accepted by Parliament in 2002. I spoke with a member of that committee about the implementations of those recommen-dations. His words to me were that very few of those recommendations had been implemented.

Lawlessness

So, here we are again, further down the abyss. The society is hanging on to a bending tree with the swirling torrents of lawlessness and anarchy just a few feet below! So what have I learnt from all of this? I have learnt that it takes more than studies and Parliament's acceptance of crime plans to curb crime. If civil society does not find legitimate ways of making itself heard we will, indeed, sink into anarchy. And for those who think it cannot get worse, you are wrong, it can get worse!

So let's not be ambivalent about it! Mr Prime Minster, Mr Minister of National Security, Mr Commissioner of Police, we want the murder rate down!

I am, etc.,

S. RICHARDS,

2 3/4 Ruthven Road,

Kingston 10