Inner-city degradation

WHATEVER ELSE may come to light in the wake of the West Kingston horror story, the quality of inner-city life must finally come to public notice and demand urgent attention.

True enough the toll of dead and the manner of their dying is the major concern. For it involves the very arms of the law supposedly acting in defence of public safety. But as today's Letter of the Day (on the page opposite) states it, 20-odd lives may have been too high a price to pay for what was achieved.

The background, of course, was what the inner city has become as an arena of contention for the spoils of both crime and politics. It was fortuitous that the private sector leaders were impelled to intervene as they did. For they came face to face with what Peter Moses described as "frightening situations" that the country has to work together to get rid of.

Public Defender Howard Hamilton Q.C., who had earlier called for a $2 billion-dollar re-development fund, seemed to welcome the revelation. In a letter to the Sunday Voices feature of the Sunday Gleaner he noted the apparent lack of concern of the wider society. Now that the PSOJ leaders had seen and were appalled at what they had seen "then the cries of the inner cities may at last be heard and understood".

Even if the broad enquiry envisaged by the Prime Minister comes to pass, major obstacles remain. Finding the facts will have to be followed by some process of healing. And achieving that in the run-up to a general election will require more than the proverbial political will.

We have faith that the best minds of the private sector, church leaders and the political community itself, broadly conceived, will meet the challenge.

The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner.

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