Shots fired

THE EDITOR: The shooting of five allegedly rogue citizens by the local police here together with the statement by CoP Gary Griffith about the police shooting to kill could sooner or later have very serious consequences for the safety of the Commissioner himself. He could, because of these killings and his public statement, now become the prime target for the local criminals.

Not only that, since there appears to be a rise in the number of police killings that have taken place here in recent times we could expect another probe by Amnesty International into these killings which will only lead to the tarnishing of he image of the nation and its police.

We now have here a brigade of highly experienced criminals with a wide knowledge of how to kill others and the techniques of using a gun. They could be now classified as professionals when it comes to challenging the police and those in authority here.

With this in mind, I doubt very much if the criminals are going to just stand by and allow the police now to get the upper hand. Things have been allowed to go beyond the point of no return with regards to serious crimes, corruption, and everyday lawlessness, which is caused by the failure of our politicians, particularly those now in the corridors of power, failing to take the bull by the horn when dealing with crime and general lawlessness. We now have too many Mr Bigs playing their part in generating and making crime pay.

The other disturbing aspect of our crime scenario is that, apparently, many of those officials within the hierarchy of the police system here may know who these crime bosses are but do nothing to arrest or charge them which only assists in the expansion of more serious crimes.

One of the major solutions to our crime problems here is to completely reform the police system, ensuring that those bad apples are replaced by trustworthy citizens. I however,doubt that this will ever happen here, as it will all amount to cutting off too many noses to spoil too many faces.

GA Marques via e-mail