The Editor, Sir:

I am emotionally distraught as I write this letter. The news broke, while I was working on the road with a fellow co-worker on Monday, about a young girl's murder in my parish, Westmoreland. We were within walking distance of the funeral home in Savanna-la-Mar where the body was on display for all and sundry! Scores of persons rushed to the scene to take a look at "di likkle pickney wah dem kill!" A few cried (all females), but the majority just went and came back with a clear description of the slash to the throat! All around, the juicy news of the deep cut and how the body was clad made the rounds. Men, women and children, even babies, walked up to the "display room" to see it "fi demself".

Is this legal? Should the funeral home be allowed to display bodies, especially those involved in cases of suspected murder, to the public? What about the family's right to privacy? Should the uncouth behaviour of a public entity be allowed to continue unchecked? Shouldn't the police have seen to it that the body went straight to the morgue where evidence, and so forth, could be gathered? Maybe I watch too many Crime Scene Investigation (CSI) shows, but as I looked, I just wondered about all this.

Desensitised

As for the children who viewed the body, they came away grinning and pointing, so desensitised have our children become. A mother had her toddler there looking on! What's wrong with us? Everyone who looked at that child on Monday should have been weeping and wailing, but all I could read on faces was curiosity.

We have reached a dangerous point in our society when we no longer mourn these acts of violence. I'm no psychologist, but I've read and seen enough to know that pretty soon, if left unchecked, the crowd will not come to look at the bodies, as they are no longer moved by such occurrences.

I am, etc.,

GLORIA DIXON

dixonsda2003@yahoo.com