Selective justice
Published:Saturday | November 3, 2012 | 12:00 AM
THE EDITOR, Sir:
Watching the video of security guards brutally assaulting a youngster they had apparently just rescued from probable death in the jungle court of Papine on Thursday, I was shocked by how entrenched our attitude of entitlement to inflict harm as retribution upon real or imagined wrongdoers truly is.
NO MERCY
That without hesitation they would depart from their contractual duties to protect the students and issue a lashing at the behest of a mob is despicable. As I listened to the crowd calling for the blood of the young man alleged to have been caught in a compromising position with another on the University of Technology campus, I was shocked at the glee that this macabre scene brought to the crowd at a security post at an institute of higher learning.
What is wrong with us as a people that we can share joy in displays of savagery and express indignation at displays of mercy?
Evidently, we lack positive leadership in this country for such a culture to take strong root. Successive captains have been inefficient, our moral compass is broken, our vision is askew, and we continue to drift into an abyss punctuated by acts of gratuitous violence.
This is an indictment on parents, politicians, and preachers alike. All the Ps must be held accountable, including our dearest Sister P. Jamaica cannot continue to seemingly pride itself in being corrupt, primitive, and without direction.
A clear message must be sent that wanton acts of violence will not be tolerated, that 'Out of Many, One People' is truly our motto, and that 'Equal Rights and Justice' is not a meaningless phrase. Now is not the time for pretty words, but for action, and I will be the first to take my own advice. I only hope those in leadership will do the same.
BRIAN-PAUL N. WELSH