BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - THE recent shootings – already two for the year – should make us wonder whether we are simply sitting back and expecting the new Commissioner of Police and his Delta Squad to be the sole saviours of our nation.
We applaud the commitment of the Commissioner and his squad to get criminals off our streets, but will this mean that they will just be incubating elsewhere?
The news today (Friday) of the second murder for the month of January (it was almost three) leaves no room for comfort.
More and more we are forced to accept that this waging of a war against the criminals must be a battle for their minds and not just an absence of their physical presence. It is a war in which all must be involved.
How is a battle for minds fought? How does a nation convince its citizens that ‘life’ is sacred if its behaviour towards some of its citizens smacks of negligence and makes them feel that they do not matter?
How does a nation convince a sector of the country that it is unfair to take another’s life when that sector believes that it is being treated unfairly?
To what part of the criminals’ mind must the nation appeal when it is totally divorced from the life they live and what makes them tick?
Do we in our daily behaviour and politicking project the image that “might is right”?
Finally if a nation continues to depict heroes on TV and in the movies as “terminators” ... and those who continually get the accolades are those who can ‘draw their guns’ the fastest, should we be surprised that the youth without any role models have become “mimic men”?
You might say that all youth are exposed to the same violent culture on TV and in the movies yet only a small fraction resort to violence.
Just maybe, many more may want to experience the same ‘blaze of glory’, the same sense of power by doing something really outstanding, but they do not have the courage to proceed.
In addition, they may have to preserve their identity which some others just do not have.
The murder today should remind us that the entire society is sick and wounded and the police may only be able to put on a plaster or staunch the bleeding.
We must now think outside the box to solve our problems or we will all be in the category of becoming “mimic-men”. Suggestions welcome. We do not have to meet physically to put our heads together.
