'See-no-evil mentality' entrenched

THE EDITOR, Sir:

The lead story in The Gleaner of April 16, entitled, 'Pastor urges church members to discard the see-no-evil mentality' is another hollow call.

Why the 'see-no-evil' mentality has survived is because ghetto residents, especially, believe to see and speak is suicidal - however twisted that belief is.

Who will convince a mother, who just witnessed her son's murder by well-known gangs from another tribe, that reporting their names to the police will result in any redress, and not her own extinction? Where is the network of security to combine evidence of crime with a system that serves justice to criminals while protecting informers?

The erosion of structural support continues to keep people living by a rule that says 'see no evil and you'll feel no evil'. The sad state of affairs is that the very thing that eats away at order is what many live by for self-preservation. Who is going to be the lone lamb to the slaughter where there is no guarantee that your words will not dig your own grave? Who is going to guarantee the information that you provide the police will be used to apprehend criminals and not leaked to the very ones against you? Is there an organised movement of national security that infers such a collective trust?

For any call to break such a long-held bond of secrecy would seem to require, at least, some evidence of informer support.

Homer Sylvester