I am beginning to fear for our country given the creeping callous disregard for law and the rule of law by some charged with ensuring adherence to and respect for the law.
Governments are bound by the law and they must act in accordance with the law. While Urban Renewal may be a laudable objective of a Government, one would expect that programmes to demolish “derelict” or unsightly buildings could and would be accomplished in full accord with the law. The law requires that the owner and the occupier of a building be advised of the Government’s intention to demolish a structure and stipulates a period of time to vacate the building or remedy its disrepair. I have been dismayed to learn that this Government, anxious to be seen to be doing something and determined to demonstrate that their Urban Renewal 2.0 programme is real, have begun the wanton demolition of buildings and that in at least two instances people were unaware of plans to demolish and were in fact still living in the buildings! This is wrong and this is illegal.
I am similarly concerned with the number of what may be called “official shootings or official killings” occurring in our country this year. My understanding is that all police shootings and certainly all police killings must be explained and justified. Such explanations and justifications have not been readily available of late and I am beginning to fear that the horrible hit and death squads known to operate in some Caribbean and Latin American countries may be raising their ugly heads here.
All of us are outraged by high levels of crime today. All of us want to support the police in the enforcement of the law and arrest of suspects. None of us, who love and cherish our democracy, can tolerate official disregard of our laws most particularly by our law enforcement officers.
I hope that you and all of our media houses will soon enough stop your recent practice of serving as a public relations arm of the Government and begin to call upon the Government and all of its agencies to act in conformity with the law and to be accountable to the people for all their official actions.
Q.E. Thomas II
