Letter of the Day | Crime monster forcing us to leave

THE EDITOR, Sir:

I was a victim of a crime when I was four years old. In 1969, my family resided in the annex to the post office, where my mother worked in rural South Manchester. Gunmen broke into our home and while one of them held my father at gunpoint, his cronies had my mother give them access to the post office, which they proceeded to rob. My brother was four months old at the time. I occupied another room with the helper and was awoken when someone turned on the light in my room. I sat up to see a man with something in his hand that I was later to learn was a gun. The helper had heard the commotion, and some years later, I learnt from a cousin that lived with us that they had hid under the bed while all this was happening. It is the first lasting memory of any kind I have as a human being on this earth.

Fourteen years ago, gunmen invaded the home of my now retired 76-year-old father. He was gunbutted in the head. My father almost died twice as a result of that assault.

Some two years after my father died, my brother called me to say that our 72-year-old cousin and his wife had not been heard from for 24 hours, and other family members and neighbours were at their home concerned. I immediately went to my cousin’s home and spoke to the people who were already gathered there. Arrangements were made to cut open the grill to gain entrance to the house and the police who had previously been there were recalled. I entered through the front door with the police. I saw my cousin’s wife on the floor in a pool of blood. It turned out that my cousin and his wife had had their throats cut, their house was robbed, and their car stolen.

Ten years ago, my uncle and his wife were robbed by gunmen at the gate to their residence in Mandeville, just after a trip from England. My then 72-year-old uncle had retired in Jamaica with his England-born wife. My aunt-in-law told me if she had had a return ticket she would have headed straight back to the airport.

Last Friday, my 16-year-old nephew was assaulted by a group of other schoolboys in Mandeville while waiting for a taxi to take him home. His mother called me around 5 p.m. to say she had been called and told he was in the taxi park bleeding, having been hit in the head. I rushed to the location, where I was told this had happened and, while on my way, I found out my nephew was at the hospital. I later learnt that he had been hit in the head by a rock and was knocked unconscious. We are now not planning his funeral because some taxi men intervened and prevented his attackers from finishing him off.

Some years ago, the then minister of national security, Peter Phillips, said the crime situation in the country required “severe, extreme and resolute measures”. He was criticised for that statement.

I was not one of his critics, but, unlike my uncle, I do not intend to retire in Jamaica.

ALWYN GREGORY