Pall-bearers hold aloft the coffin of former national female footballer, Bernadette 'Lorraine' Mairs, as they stride to her final resting place, the Pye River Cemetery in Montego Bay on January 18. Mairs was shot and killed in Sam Sharpe Square in the St James capital on December 18, 2008. - Photo by Claudia Gardner

WESTERN BUREAU:

THE FUNERAL of Marcia Dorothy Scott, a 38-year-old murder victim from the Sewell Gully community in Montego Bay, St James, was enough for People's National Party caretaker, Henry McCurdy, to challenge politicians "to stop talking" and take action to combat the western city's crime scourge.

The time has come for communities to speak up, said McCurdy, who mourned Scott - his friend of three years - at the Montego Bay Seventh-day Adventist Church on Sunday. Scott was shot and killed by gunmen on April 21.

"I am sick and tired of spending my Sunday afternoons coming to funerals," commented McCurdy, the PNP's caretaker for the North West St James constituency.

"It is time for less talk and more action," he said, referring to a necessary responsibility of both communities and politicians.

McCurdy said that in order to reverse the parish's rising murder toll, politicians must follow three rules. First, he said, they must seek to serve. Then, they need to communicate better, he said.

Finally, McCurdy suggested that politicians should strive to educate. He views education as the only commodity that can take poor people out of impoverished communities. He also claimed to have witnessed the hypocrisy of some political leaders.

"Politicians use [poor] communities to win their elections. Once the votes are in the box, they forget about us. What they say in the boardroom is different from what they are saying to supporters," McCurdy noted.

Speak out against violence

He suggested that the people could make a difference by speaking out against violence and demanding change.

"We need a new breed of politicians to bring new ideas and energy to the island," said McCurdy. "It is time for us to share the pain with you and educate each other."

Another way to create change, the political caretaker said, was to enact a mandatory sentence for murder, sex and gun crimes instead of a justice system with discretionary leg room for judges. He believes clear laws with minimum and maximum sentences for the aforementioned violations would reduce crime and drive fear into would-be offenders.

More than 50 persons have been killed in St James this year. The parish recorded 216 homicides in 2008.

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