Dear Editor,

American entertainer Flip Wilson had a famous line in his comedy routine which he used frequently, “The devil made me do it.” He took no blame for his actions or inactions, like Adam in the Bible, Eve gave him a bite of the apple and he ate.

The same way God created the devil our politicians created the gangs, they are totally to be blamed. Gangs were created to ensure that opponents of one political party were kept out of the constituency, that even if you lived in the community and they weren’t sure of your party’s affiliation, you felt uncomfortable to vote. They were armed by our politicians because they needed to defend the area, hence the area don. Like the devil, after a while they became so confident that they threatened their creator, but getting rid of them has proven futile. Many politicians have allegedly used poor black underprivileged young men to climb to the top of the political ladder and then simply dispose of them.

Today we are passing anti-gang legislation because the gangs have become unmanageable, they have morphed into scammers, international drug and gun dealers, businessmen and powerful members of our communities. They have sanitised themselves, but beneath the veneer of respectability they threaten all of us. It is a lesson for all of us who believe in using people to climb the ladder of success, it has severe consequences and ruthless implications.

Today we are passing anti-gang legislation because the gangs have become unmanageable, they have morphed into scammers, international drug and gun dealers, businessmen and powerful members of our communities. They have sanitised themselves, but beneath the veneer of respectability they threaten all of us. It is a lesson for all of us who believe in using people to climb the ladder of success, it has severe consequences and ruthless implications.

Like Frankenstein’s monster it is our grotesque creation which is now out of control. Therefore it is not surprising to hear our political leaders making jokes while such a serious matter was being discussed. Some remarked that their constituents wanted to drown gang members, others said to boil them in oil, they were suggesting various ways of putting these people to death that came straight out of the dark ages. The same dons that they created and met with under the guise of darkness must be put down. Society cannot control them; many of them are illiterate, uneducated, unemployable, and irredeemable as one senior politician succinctly put it. We need to remember that England sent the same type of people to Australia and they created a First-World mining miracle. We cannot abort, crucify, behead, boil in oil, drown, extra-judicially kill, hang, or do any or all of these cruel methods to eliminate our problems. We need to solve them using civilised means. It will be hard and requires exceptional leadership which we have a paucity of.

Our leaders must not make the same mistakes of the past; because if we don’t learn from mistakes we are doomed to repeat them.

Mark Clarke

Siloah, St. Elizabeth