The Editor, Sir:

A front page article in The Gleaner on June 4 said that the Church wanted to play a more active role in the combating of crime, and I agree. However, I do not only want them to play a more active role but a more effective one.

I have long held the view that the Church, which is really the people who attend the temple or building to worship, know the gunmen and gunwomen and have failed to inform the authorities, so it is good that they are now willing to come clean.

It is a fact that most of the smaller temples and some of the larger ones that house the people are situated in political garrisons, inner cities and volatile areas. and the people who attend these temples are the parents, sisters, brothers, cousins, aunts, uncles and friends of the criminal elements. As a matter of fact, even some of the same church members are gunmen and gunwomen in disguise.

The leadership of the Church, who on many occasions are able to broker peace between the warring factions of these communities, should be able to call upon these wrongdoers to bring in their guns or lay down their arms.

The Government, on the other hand, should be prepared to grant amnesty and pardons for these offenders, who in turn should be given incentives in the form of work, etc, for them to start a new course in life. From here, they should be monitored and nurtured back into the mainstream of law-abiding citizens.

I am, etc.,

DUDLEY BROWN

11 Beechwood Avenue

Kingston 5