Letter of the day | Bring high crime rate to ground level for 2020
Published:Tuesday | December 31, 2019 | 12:29 AM
THE EDITOR, Madam:
In the opening ceremonies of the Olympics and World Championships games, we see many different countries, with an athlete carrying the flag of the country he or she represents.
Wouldn’t it be interesting, also, if we could know the crime figures of how many persons were murdered at the end of the year, in all the countries in the world, to see which of them has the highest murder rate, placing them first, second or third, like in the races?
Untimely deaths, in all forms, have shattered, and are shattering our world: crime and violence, gun crime, bomb blasts, traffic accidents, plane crashes, domestic disputes, stampedes, suicides, natural disasters, and the list goes on.
But let’s focus our attention on our little island, Jamaica, and see what we can do, along with the help of God and our police and armed forces, to bring down this high crime rate to ground level, in 2020, because it is not a pretty sight in Jamaica; it’s a very ugly one!
Let’s take a look at these crime statistics, of the number of people murdered during these years:
2009 – 1,680
2010 – 1,428
2011 – 1,125
2012 – 1,097
2013 – 1,200
2014 – 1,192
2015 – 1,450
2016 – 1,350
2017 – 1,616
2018 – 1,287
2019 – 1,326
My word! It’s absolutely unbelievable to see so many people being murdered in Jamaica over the years. The above list shows that we are consistently over the 1,000 mark. And most of the murders are being carried out by the gun.
TOO MUCH INNOCENT BLOOD
When we talk about Jamaica’s serious crime problem, people are saying that it’s not Jamaica alone it is happening; that it’s all over the world. That’s true, but the fact is, Jamaica is rated the third most murderous countries in the world; and was regarded as the murder capital of the world.
Let us do our utmost in the new year to bring down this high crime rate to ground level, as well as road traffic accidents. Let us join the late Joseph Hill (Culture) in singing: Innocent Blood – “… yuh tink a likkle, tink a likkle innocent blood fade away.”
Too much innocent blood is running in this country!
DONALD J. MCKOY