Dear Editor,

As the new year is in full swing, and the novel coronavirus pandemic continues, one very old and almost normal epidemic is racing onwards — the wanton slaughtering of Jamaicans by gunmen.

At one point in my life I used to be of the mind that a lot of these senseless murders were a direct consequence of the economic hardships we are used to in this country. Not any more. I am now firmly of the view that a significant number of Jamaicans are irredeemable and the only way to save the rest of us from them is to cut them down.

Two things I looked at and realised we are not dealing with people who can be reformed. After years of social interventions of every conceivable iteration, and millions of dollars wasted, the areas are back as the killing fields of Jamaica. With the level of intervention in some places these should be the safest places in this country to live. Yet, it ain’t so. That has demonstrated, quite clearly, that no matter the amount of social intervention that the State can muster, you’ve got a significant number of people who have decided that their way of life is to cause maximum destruction every day until they are dead. How do you deal with people like those? Certainly not with more social interventions. That hasn’t worked! Neville Chamberlain tried that appeasement approach with Adolf Hitler, the end result was a world war.

COVID-19 has brought a whole lot of problems for decent, law-abiding humans. But, for the irredeemables amongst us, they have found a way to create the opportunities to continue their murderous ways. Even with lockdowns and curfews these idiots still go around killing people. They don’t fear catching the disease at all! One would have hoped that with this thing raging these guys would give the killing a break. From March last year the novel coronavirus pandemic has been here and they still managed to kill over 1,000 people.

What more evidence do we really want to see that a large section of this country is just lost? They can’t be reformed. They can’t be talked to. They can’t be allowed to live amongst decent human beings. They are just irredeemable.

And, one wonders if the police should bother to take them in. Maybe we should try a swifter solution. If you think that this is a bad suggestion, look harder at the situation that exists in Jamaica with criminals even ordering killings from behind bars!

Can’t people realise that these hoodlums are patently irredeemable?

We must be of one mind, one thought. They should be given no safe place so we can be relieved of this menace.

Fabian Lewis

tyronelewis272@gmail.com