The Editor, Sir:

John Mahfood made a strong statement on national security in your Friday paper. If he had to condense his statement, it could read: "The nation feels helpless, hopeless, fearful and frustrated."

The root cause of all of this, as we all know, stems from the fact that many parents are absent and many others are just masquerading as parents. And since we refuse to treat irresponsible parenting as a crime, we have a serious crime problem.

The only way to cause a rapid and radical reduction in the crime problem is to make it unpopular and unprofitable. It would not hurt also to make it punishable. In Jamaica, crime is popular, profitable and the chances of punishment are extremely remote.

Popularity of crime

Criminal activity has become popular because the practitioners are able to ensconce themselves with those persons in the society whom we idolise and respect - the entertainers and the politicians. For the past two years that I have been checking, there is not a week when an 'artiste' has not been in jail or in the news for anti-social acts ranging from abuse of women to murder or the harbouring of dangerous criminals. There was a time when their lyrics used to be about getting out of the ghetto and succeeding. Now their lifestyle and lyrics revolve around keeping people in the ghettos and living lives of crime.

In which civilised country could a thug who made his millions by questionable means be killed and news of his death cause senior ministers to abandon Parliament to start the grieving process? What about a man whose alignment with a political party enables him to be contemptuous of an order of the court to be a witness in a murder trial? And what message does it send to aspiring criminals when these connections can be the only explanation why one can be charged for the disappearance of hundreds of millions of dollars entrusted to one and the court seems impotent to try the case?

Struggle

Two days before Mahfood's statement, the media informed us of a struggle by thugs to 'control' the Caymanas spa. Two persons were gunned down the day before - one, a young girl. I am prepared to bet my chalet on the French Riviera, that when the blood stops flowing, the facility, which belongs to the Jamaican people, will be 'controlled', not by the Government or some legitimate lessee, but by the one who has killed the most people and has demonstrated the greatest capacity for sustained violence.

I would like to ask Mahfood if he believes the murder and extortion racket that has the entire Spanish Town and its environs in a virtual straightjacket and is now a billion dollar business, could have existed and flourished without the involvement of agents of the State. Who is really behind the lotto scam in Montego Bay? How many people have died as a result? Who has been killing them? Everybody - except the authorities - seems to know.

Mahfood seems to think that giving the police more resources would help. That may be true; but if a man is given one car and he is not driving it properly, giving him two more is not going to improve his driving ability. The police do not seem to be anticipating the thought processes of the potential offender and creating an environment that discourages follow through.

I am, etc.,

GLENN TUCKER

Stony Hill

Kingston 9