There is no excuse for the crime wave

Dec 01, 2010 Letters

Dear Editor,
Allow me to express my concern on three current issues.
The recent dismissal of several Customs Officials comes as no surprise. Customs is one of the most corrupt of government departments.
The government loses billions of dollars in Customs and Excise duties. Many Customs Officers get rich overnight and importers have a heyday. Mr. Sattaur should put a few undercover and trusted (?) officers to tally how many containers leave the wharves within one day of arrival.
But he knows this already. He lacks the fortitude to do anything about it, because he has friends among the importers and some importers are in partnership with political heavyweights. So, who will bell the cat?
Then we have the Tender Board where tender documents are vague and any attempt to clarify triggers the wrath of the originators of the tender. While Government is mouthing transparency the reality is quite the opposite. Corruption is on the increase, and at a fast rate.
The government’s malaise on corruption will sound this Administration’s death knell.
This year has seen a very steep increase in weapons-related robberies. Hundreds of suspects are on remand or on bail, hundreds are in prison and hundreds still plague society because they have so far evaded capture.
The sad part of this phenomenon is that 98 per cent of the perpetrators are from the black collective, and more so from among our youths and, most recently, from the school population.
I have been taken to task on several occasions by my brothers and sisters because I speak out against what others accept as a right: to kill, to steal, to destroy. And some leaders of the collective seek to give justification for the acts of these perpetrators.
How can killing, robbing and destroying be right, my brothers? Lack of jobs?
Camillo Mitchell, according to his mother, worked two jobs. She seems to be denying that he had a third — burglary.
And how about the three students from Queenstown Community High? I wait with bated breath to hear justification from their parents.
The sad truth is that many black parents, relatives and friends benefit from the proceeds of robberies. But when the perpetrators are killed, their relatives cry out: they did not deserve to die like that!
How do they deserve to die? How did those they killed deserved to die?
To benefit from the proceeds of ill-gotten gains make you an accessory to the act. But there is a bigger implication: you are helping to destroy the ethnic collective. You are helping to promote the stereotype. You are helping to fuel the reluctance, even among ourselves, to trust our people, to give them jobs.
When you make use of the money and jewellery stolen from others, many of whom are killed, their blood serves to poison your life. You enjoy now but suffer later. Yet you ask: Why?
Leaders, start telling people the truth. Stop playing politics with your followers. Stop setting them up.
Some have accosted me with: The other side is stealing by the billions. Sure they are. But do you think affluence brings happiness or peace?
Those who steal MUST pay the price one day. But it seems as if some from our collective are already paying– with their lives.
And yes, I love to listen to Pastor Calvin Yearwood on radio in the mornings. You should listen too.
Godfrey Skeete (Ex-Soldier)

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