As I read the various responses to the Government's new crime plan, I see where our human rights and other lobby groups claim that the new measures constitute a violation of our rights.

I would like to ask the following:

Isn't it a violation of our rights when our doors are being kicked off, and our mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, husbands, wives and children are being shot to death?

Isn't it a violation of our rights when we cannot send our children to school, church, shop, or anywhere without fearing that they will be kidnapped, raped and murdered?

Isn't it a violation of our rights when our senior citizens, including returning residents, cannot sit and enjoy a quiet evening on their verandah?

Isn't it a violation of our rights when we cannot open our doors

to enjoy a little cool breeze? Jamaicans cannot feel safe anywhere, not even in church anymore. School is no longer a safe place.

What rights do we now have? I am willing to give up any right that the Government sees fit to take away if I think it will help to make me a free citizen once more in this Jamaica land we love.

In the face of a nine-month-old baby being raped and murdered, in the face of a school boy being hacked and stuffed in a pail like a hag, in the face of our senior citizens being murdered and carted away in garbage trucks, can we truly talk about rights?

I am, etc.,

MARLENE M. STEER

Ebenezer, Bamboo PO

St Ann