The Editor, Sir:

"A revolution is coming - a revolution which will be peaceful if we are wise enough; compassionate, if we care enough; successful, if we are fortunate enough - but a revolution is coming whether we will it or not. We can affect its character, we cannot alter its inevitability."

- John F Kennedy Jr

Almost every single night we see on the television a case of police killing a civilian. More often than not the person is young, black and from an inner-city community. Certainly, some of these cases of police shootings must be legitimate, but not all and, it would seem, not the majority.

The shootings are usually accompanied by street protests which inevitably escalate into road blocks and the burning of tyres and the inconvenience to others. Now and then a member of Parliament may show up to placate the protesters with news that the police's investigative body, the Bureau of Special Investigations (BSI) will see that justice is done. But one is left to wonder whether the carpet at the BSI is not a mile high with all the cases swept under it.

Shortly after Bruce Golding came to power, he had a hurried meeting with the human-rights bodies. The post-meeting interviews gave the impression that the prime minister was sincere in his desire to see change since neither P.J. Patterson nor Portia Simpson Miller had entertained these bodies shortly after coming to office. However, what has transpired since is that Golding is more pre-occupied with the debt crisis and the country's economic woes than the rights of ordinary Jamaican citizens. He is unwilling to create any "bangarang", now that the shoes are on his feet.

Forced to act

We can protest but the majority of us cannot lockdown business as private-sector leaders did some time ago. We need to utilise the floodlight of exposure and media influence. If we can use these to focus on police killings then the Government will be forced to act, and this is confirmed by the recent hijacking case.

What we really want is that controversial deaths be treated with the respect and dignity that was accorded Bob Woolmer's, that of UK-born nurse Barbara Jones-Scott or American travel agent Claudia Kirschhoch or the "professionalism" displayed when a plane filled with Canadian tourists is hijacked. That's all we are asking for.

I am, etc.,

MARK CLARKE

mark_clarke99@yahoo.com

Siloah PO

St Elizabeth