visitor-oriented Bermuda. Protection against criminals has to be balanced against the need to rehabilitate Bermudian offenders, especially young offenders, and the dangers of turning people into criminals if we simply lock them up.

What Bermuda needs is a generally accepted and even-handed policy on how to deal with offenders. What we have right now is crisis response to crime. If there is an outbreak of crime, there are cries to lock people up. People, including politicians, begin to talk about tougher sentences. When you have a series of hung juries or Supreme Court acquittals, people suggest revising the judicial system. Jamaica has begun to flog people for crimes against visitors and this newspaper has had calls suggesting Bermuda should do the same. That is what we mean by crisis response.

It seems to us that Bermuda constantly sends conflicting messages to offenders. At election time Progressive Labour Party politicians, begin to court the pro-criminal vote and to send the message, one way and another, that offenders are hard done by.

The PLP complained long and loud about conditions at Casemates prison. We think they were correct. Conditions were bad and rehabilitation was at a minimun. Finally, Government decided to build a new and modern prison. Very quickly the PLP began to complain that Government was spending millions on a new prison to lock young Bermudians up instead of spending money to educate them and stop them falling into crime. They did that despite the fact that the Government was planning a whole new school system, including a $40 million new school at Prospect. Looked at sensibly, the PLP complaints make no sense except in short-term political mouth.

Then we had a period of election fever when the PLP began to complain that Bermuda was "over policed''. The clear message was that the Government was oppressing the people. This newspaper thought at the time that it was a dangerous attempt to attract fringe voters. Whether or not the PLP influenced the Minister of Finance, Dr. David Saul, we do not know, but he curtailed the Police budget along with other recession-hit budgets. It was not a wise move because the pressures generated socially and economically by a recession are well known to increase crime.

At the same time the PLP was complaining that Bermuda, and for Bermuda you could read "UBP Government'' was locking up too many young black Bermudians and saying that prison was becoming a right of passage for young blacks. This newspaper agreed with that.

However, we now have had rising crime against visitors and the PLP has switched to saying that there should have been no Police Force cuts. That seems to mean that Bermuda was not, as they claimed, over-policed. They are also saying, and we quote Mr. David Allen the Shadow Minister of Tourism, "Stiffer sentences are a deterrent.'' Mr. Allen has also called for magistrates and judges to get tough and has said that repeat offenders should be locked up. Forget being "over-policed'', he also said there is a need for the Police Force to be "beefed up''. We can only guess that since the October election he has decided that we are not locking up too many people. Doubtless there would be another switch to suit another election.

Bermuda has to have a solid and consistent message on crime. For a start, the PLP has to stop playing politics with the Police and with the courts. It should also stop playing politics with offenders. Conflicting messages are dangerous. We think these messages encourage criminal activity but they also confuse jurors and may well lead to unjustified acquittal of guilty persons.