Commentary

Hanover at risk

A STORY in today's STAR talks about the skyrocketing crime rate in one of our nation's safest parishes ­ Hanover.

The article indicated that the perpetrators, the gun-toting, live-stealing plunderers were aliens to the parish, possibly flouting the law in their communities, but instead of laying low, they spread the same misdeeds anywhere they go.

This is a sobering phenomenon for all Jamaicans because it makes us so aware that we are not safe anywhere anymore.

Children, men, and women alike are being gunned down and brutally murdered every day.

The story stated that the number of murders committed throughout all of last year is basically the same number of people murdered in three and a half months of the new year.

THE STAR also carried a story about criminals from the Corporate Area and Spanish Town, St. Catherine, migrating to Linstead to form gangs and initiate drug trafficking schemes.

Where once the rural communities were a safe haven for visitors and citizens alike, it seems that the poison and corruption from the urban communities are spreading and tainting the good lifestyles and peace of these areas.

Where once the urban communities knew first-hand the meaning of "community curfews" and understood that the rat-tat-tat-tat of gunfire meant you lay low and stay in your houses, the rural communities are being put through these same exercises. They have sadly become common-place, an arduous way of life.