IS THERE ANYTHING WE CAN DO ABOUT THE MURDERS?

Last week, we made an exception and published the photograph of two men lying dead on the streets of New Providence having been gunned down moments before the photo was taken.  We do not agree with the current fashion of doing so but it seemed to us that we ought to try and shock our comfortable audiences out of the torpor which currently exists about the deaths and mayhem on our streets, mainly directed at young men.  Just before those two were gunned down, a passport officer was killed by a gun shot to the head.  The police later arrested and charged, a police officer with conspiracy to murder.  The motive appears be domestic jealousy.  The question though is no matter what the motives, the reasons, how can we stop this?  The Jamaicans are at it again trying states of emergency, but that is only a temporary band aid.  Something has to be done to stop it.  We also suggest that the police should stop trying to  take responsibility for stopping crime.  It is the society at large who has that responsibility.  We clearly need greater investment in social programmes if we are going to reap a further and bitter harvest in the years to come.  The police can help by shifting resources out of investigations and putting more police on the ground  to prevent crime.