Thanks for the coverage

April 15, 2003

Dear Sir,

I take this opportunity to convey to you a personal vote of thanks and my sincere appreciation to Mr. Lawrence Trott, reporter for the LifeStyle segment of The Royal Gazette and Mr. Tamell Simons, photographer; for the excellent, generous, and extremely beneficial coverage they allocated to my 24-Hour Walk-A-Thon to raise funds to assist with the financial commitment required to bring to fruition Bermud's much needed Neuro-Stroke Unit within the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital designed to concentrate with the rehabilitation of the many persons of the community who find themselves struggling with the aftermath of being affected by a stroke and it related trauma.

I truly commend these two gentlemen for the positive coverage they afforded to this event, which I am certain assisted with my personal effort to heighten the community's level of awareness of the need for rehabilitation facilities. FYI, since this event, some two weeks ago, the Stroke Association has been notified of another Stroke casualty.

MARILYN STEEDE

Event Organiser

Give them teeth

March 20, 2003

Dear Sir,

I am writing concerning the escalating gang violence here in Bermuda. It is obviously out of control and I feel that any attempt to quell it will fail because the Government, society in general and our legislators are missing the point. Many have addressed gang violence and the fact that unless violence is committed there is little the Police can do.

Has anyone stopped to think that without gangs there can be no gang-related violence? It may sound like a strange statement but I believe that gangs in and of themselves are a problem. Yet there is no legislation which addresses the formation of gangs. We have legislation which addresses inciting to riot and partaking in a riot but nothing which addresses gangs or posses. The formation of a gang by nature is anti-social. The gang's whole reason for being is to add strength to its members so that they can challenge and attack society and defend themselves from society and other gangs. They achieve this by buying, selling and doing drugs; bullying and attacking each other and ordinary citizens; engaging in break-and-entering for the purpose of stealing or in order to harm others; buying and selling and using illegal arms and illegal firearms; pimping and generally engaging in disruptive behaviour.

There can be no place for gangs in Bermuda! I'm sure that the vast majority of the violence and crime committed here is gang-related. The Police need teeth to do their job. Give them teeth in the form of legislation that makes gang activity or membership in a gang or posse illegal and punishable and/or treatable in law. Not too long ago I was shocked to hear that government leaders met with the heads of gangs in order to better understand them and to help prevent further violence in the community.

Firstly, meeting with the heads of gangs merely makes the gang leaders and their gangs more powerful. It also validates that they are an accepted part of our society with which we need to negotiate in order to attain peace in our society. This was a very bad mistake. I would point out that since that meeting there has been increased gang violence.

Also, vicariously, society and the media support gang activity. They support gangs by not opposing them at every opportunity. How many times do the DJ's accept messages and dedications of songs from one posse to another. Wake up, you are saying that posse activity is OK with you. People are constantly joking about posse this and posse that in a cute reference to this phenomenon. Some parents know their children are part of Gangs/Posses but do nothing about that fact. Maybe they are scared to, or they honestly don't know the ramifications of their childrens gang related activity, or maybe they just don't care! Some think it's cute and refer to it as such, thereby condoning this activity. If there were a law against such activity then these tendencies in our society might start to change.

I know there are reasons young people turn to gang behaviour. They do it to feel empowered, to fight back against a society they feel offers them little. There are however many children who do not feel this way. This is because they come from families that care for their children actively, consistently and firmly. The tendency to lash out at society starts with the rejection children feel at home. Clear and simple.

We do need to address this at its roots but in the meantime we need to protect our society. I call upon our government and legislators to attack this problem vigourously, get help from experts on gang behaviour (they exist). Lets deal with it before it gets real scary. You are only seeing the tip of the iceberg. There are many professionals working for government agencies who know a lot about what could be done and what isn't being done and why, but cannot say anything for fear of the all powerful "General Orders" concerning civil servants.

Free these voices/vices up and you may find many of the solutions are right here already. When no one goes out at night over the next couple of years because they are scared of organised gang violence, say good-bye to what is left of our slowly dying tourist industry, and to our once relatively peaceful society.

JOHN C. MUSSON MSW

City of Hamilton