WE are at one with the editorial view of the Sunday Observer that dirt “at the head of the stream” is facilitating the sort of attitude that will lead to the tearing down of social infrastructure for profit on the scrap metals market.

We agree that what happened at the Colbeck pumping station is “symptomatic of a society that is and has been turning on itself for some time now…”

But this newspaper also feels strongly that there are enough decent Jamaicans around to contain such criminality and push back the evil ones among us.

We believe that what has been lacking on a systematic basis is properly organised action — under the umbrella of the law — at the level of communities.

The society must move to cleanse itself of the corruption in political leadership and in organs of the State that has undermined progress and made cynics of many of us. But among the other things we must do is to strengthen communities so they can help to protect themselves and secure their future.

No police force will ever be able to deter criminality or anti-social behaviour on its own. Nor can the police successfully investigate crime while acting alone. For the chronically understaffed and under-resourced Jamaican police force that reality comes even more to the fore in these days of budget cuts and austerity.

We accept that in many areas of Jamaica, a major difficulty is the high level of distrust between ordinary people and the police.

But Jamaicans should also appreciate that there are communities across this country in which there exists a reasonable level of trust between citizens and the police.

Invariably, in those communities there are citizens’ organisations that work closely with the law and the crime rate is lower than in other areas. In such communities it becomes harder for unscrupulous and evil people to scrap pump houses or remove the rails from bridges; or, for that matter, rob, rape and murder.

In such communities citizens partner with the police — even if only on the basis of providing information — to protect life and property.

They provide the examples we all must follow.

State organs such as the Social Development Commission obviously have a leadership role that must be played at an accelerated level — subject, we know, to budgetary constraints. Citizens’ groups such as the Jamaica Agricultural Society have done such work for decades. Other farmers’ groups of more recent vintage, such as the Production and Marketing Organisations, also do such work.

Teachers, for so long the natural, instinctive leaders at the community level, should never relinquish that role under any circumstances.

And as we have said before repeatedly in this space, the Church — to which so many have traditionally looked, not just for spiritual guidance but also for material help — must make it their duty to help in the organisation of positive community action.

This newspaper believes that if leaders at the grassroots level take it as their sacred duty to properly organise their communities in defence of their own good and well-being, shameful episodes such as at Colbeck last week will become much fewer and further between.

We do not accept that it can’t be done. Where there is a will, there is a way.