Better society helps to reduce crime

THE EDITOR, Madam:

Jamaica and the Caribbean have been plagued with a high murder rate. The problem has never been addressed adequately and current methods are more of the same – trying to curve the high homicide rate with increased policing.

The use of state of emergency to fight crime is an extension of business as usual. The murder rate has escalated, and so has the method of policing. All that will happen is that murderers and other criminals will have to get more crafty and vicious to survive, and I guarantee that they will. To them, the Government offers little benefit to play by the rules. The rules are skewed to benefit the

elites, and they are left to gravel. Until the bottom of society can live with dignity, social conflict in the form of homicides and crime will continue.

The political will to build a better society must materialise, or the populace will be treated with mere camouflage action based on force but no real change.

BRIAN E. PLUMMER