December 9, 2011Dear Sir,After reading the December 5 paper, I am shocked by the number of articles that have to do with crimes in Bermuda, especially gun violence. I think there needs to be a huge effort to cut down on this crime before this Island becomes an unsafe destination for tourists or even for all of us. Throughout my life, I have seen a massive change in the amount of violence on our Island. When I was younger Bermuda was a safe place where I could roam freely with no fear but as I got older the violence and crime increased as well. I now feel it is no longer safe to travel alone at night and even in the day in some places. Not only is there the fear of shootings there is also the fear of muggings that have occurred more recently.With all these fatal shootings, families are being torn apart. The families of these victims have my condolences because the death of a family member is possibly the most devastating thing a family can endure. This must be stopped and now that there are so many murders taking place, the Government no longer has enough money to compensate the families of the victims which is a huge problem that needs to be solved. Fear is being spread through the community as gang violence increases and now people are in fear for their lives.Even though some action has been put into place such as the Crime Stoppers campaign to stop the gun violence it is not making very much progress in stopping gun violence as a whole. There is even a new random check policy to check up on people who are on probation to try and cut down on the violence. The police can only do so much in stopping these crimes. The public as a whole must help to stop this violence and crimes. People must help with the Crime Stoppers. Just by giving information on the criminals and murderers the public can help cut down these crimes in a huge way.The rise in crime is caused by a mixture of the inefficient police force and the uncooperative public. This means most of these crimes are not being solved or that they are being solved in a very slow and inefficient way and unfortunately are not getting anywhere. I believe this must be changed and this can be done by the public taking an interest in the safety of our Island and making the decision to help solve this issue and stop the violence.KYLE MCGHEEWarwick