THE EDITOR: Following a murder in Carenage in which a baby was wounded, Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister responsible for Gender and Child Affairs, Ayanna Webster-Roy, called on 'all those who are considering the use of violence' to 'put down the gun, set aside hate and malice…'

Such an entreaty is obviously futile, especially since the administration that Webster-Roy is a member of refuses to take practical measures to remove the incentives for murder. But her psychology is also wrong, for the young men she's addressing do not kill out of hate but out of love.

They kill in defence of their brothers in their gang; they kill to protect their relatives; they kill to provide for their families. They see themselves as acting out of love even if they have hatred towards their targets. They see themselves as heroes with a purpose in life.

In other words, these criminals are not different in their motives from the rest of us. They are only different in using violence to express these fundamental drives.

And they have been encouraged to choose violence by official policies, such as providing URP contracts to known gang leaders, refusing to let citizens acquire legal firearms for self-defence, keeping marijuana illegal, and imposing a minimum wage on employers for 16 to 25-year-olds, who naturally refuse to hire these unskilled young men at such a non-competitive salary.

Webster-Roy could more usefully spend her time lobbying for such measures in Cabinet rather than making pleas that she knows will fall on deaf ears.

JENSEN RUSHTON

San Fernando

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