The news coverage and photographs of gang violence at Wellington Oval two weeks agoseem to have had a galvanising effect on the community.

It has forced people to recognise that this is a serious problem, and there seems to be a community-wide desire to solve it.

What is worrying is that this desire will gradually diminish as the incidents fade in people's memories.

Assuming that there are no further upsurges of violence in the next few weeks, it is a all too conceivable that nothing much will get done, at least until the next time.

To be sure, those who have been charged in connection with the incidents will have their day in court, and ultimately it will be for the courts to decide their guilt or innocence and the appropriate punishments if they are convicted.

But those actions will not do much to probe just what it is that sparks these waves of violence and what can be done to prevent them.

There are a few steps that can be taken quickly. One, as noted by Christian Dunleavy on his Internet site (www.politics.bm) is that everyone, the media included, should stop referring to these incidents as "youth violence" since some of those accused of perpetrating these acts are in their 20s or older, and are adults.

The second, also noted by Mr. Dunleavy, is that the public should take care not to assign their pet social problem as the sole cause of the violence.

One person at the public meeting last week blamed it on the decriminalisation of homosexuality. Others will wheel out single teen mothers. Drugs, women and BET have also been blamed.

What should be recognised is that there is no single cause of the violence, and in the rush to pin the blame on a social ill, personal responsibility and accountability will be forgotten about.

The important thing is that this issue should not be dropped or forgotten.

The Government needs to make this a high priority. Expressions of horror and anger after the fact are all very well, but Government needs to do more than that.

The Police and the Government need to recognise that the Island has a gang problem. It does not matter if the gangs are not as highly organised or recognisable as those in the US or elsewhere ? Bermuda has gangs and the Police need to form a task force to deal with the problem.

This is not an insurmountable problem and it can be solved.

Efforts have been made in the past. Gang summits have been held, sweeps of known gang areas have been conducted and they have gone some way to easing the problem. But they have never been sustained long enough to eradicate the problem and that it what is needed.

But the community cannot allow the cycle to repeat itself and it cannot let those in authority off the hook if and when it does.

Too many people have died already.