Criminals must face consequences for their actions
Published:Saturday | July 2, 2022 | 12:06 AM
THE EDITOR, Madam:
Criminals in Jamaica are multiplying like mosquitoes on wet summer days. They fester in the ‘nearby bushes’, ‘unknown taxis’, ‘gangs’ etc. etc. They also thrive in the police force, reactive rather than proactive successive government leaders, idle and inefficient ministry workers, women who protect them, underfunded schools, expensive secondary education, poor family planning, archaic laws, and employment opportunities.
The Jamaican society has voiced these same concerns over and over. The government knows that it must tackle social reform to reset how Jamaicans think and act. Anyone could tell you that education is the way out of poverty and that poverty leads to crime. However, a generalised statement like that is not reflective of the true state of things – there are simply just wicked people in Jamaica.
How do we ‘fight’ crime? My unpopular opinion is the death penalty. Jamaican criminals have no regard for law enforcement. They are brazen. Let us therefore brazenly hang them in a public square as examples to all criminals of Jamaica. Barbaric? Do you know what is barbaric? Murder, kidnapping, rape, stealing, incest and molestation ... and the list goes on.
Human rights group within and outside of Jamaica will and do have a problem with the death penalty, but Jamaica is not one of those countries that has the luxury to be progressive on every politically correct point. We have been in a crime pandemic for years. Use the laws on the books, amend laws with more punitive measures, and invest in education for all Jamaicans. We have to eradicate the existing criminals and uproot the system that gives birth to them.
It is a very unpopular opinion. The Church and its members will be up in arms, of course. Yet, I know this piece is only reflective and the government will in all probability do nothing. Therefore, the Church need not worry while the country is bathed in red.
PETULIA WAHRMANN