State of emergency – opportunity wasted

THE EDITOR, Sir:

I recently drove through one of the areas under a state of emergency (SOE) in Kingston. Soldiers and police were stationed on every corner. They obviously had nothing to do, and, frankly, looked rather bored.

The areas in which they were deployed had seen dozens of murders this year. There is no doubt that there are scores, if not hundreds, of guns in the said area.

Those guns would by now be buried in cemeteries, open lands, backyards, or stashed in cellars, ceilings, ackee trees and abandoned buildings. In a few months, the police will pack up and leave. The gunmen will dig up their guns, and we will be back where we started.

The security forces should be using the special powers they have under the SOE to search every square inch of the communities and find the guns we know are out there. They should be armed with metal detectors and gun-and ammunition-sniffing dogs. And when they leave, the only ‘weapons’ left behind should be kitchen knives and ice picks.

Very Concerned

St Andrew