Dear Editor,

No community in Jamaica should have the right or be allowed to tell the government of Jamaica and the security forces when they can and cannot enter that community. Our security forces must have free access to enter any community without shots fired at them.

The residents of Tivoli Gardens had no right to mount barricades and dare the state and the security forces to enter the community, so I am ashamed to read where people are saying that the security forces should not have entered. I support the government and the security forces in re-taking Tivoli at any cost. We cannot reason with criminals and we will not be held to ransom.

That said, the operation was a complete blunder on the part of the government – poorly planned and poorly executed. The government should never have announced that the extradition would go ahead without first allowing the security forces the chance to put in place detailed plans to deal with the events which were sure to follow.

The militia of Tivoli were given the upper hand by the government. They were allowed to erect barricades and to stage several illegal protests around the Corporate Area, which amounts to “counting coup” — a process by which Native American warriors won prestige by acts of bravery in the face of the enemy — and this was seen as weakness on the part of the government. The government failed to act and in doing so gave the residents a feeling of invincibility, so much so that gunmen carried out a series of coordinated attacks on several police stations.

However, if the government did not send troops into Tivoli they would have sent the wrong message to every garrison and criminal stronghold in Jamaica, that they are a law unto themselves and outside the control of the wider Jamaica, a state within a state, a force to be reckoned with, free to do what they want, when they want. This situation must never be allowed to exist if we are to build a strong united Jamaica.

Andre A Stewart

inmyownwords@earthlink.net