It is a sign of the times that Commissioner of Police George Jackson’s statement this week that he would consider putting armed Police on patrol on Front Street and elsewhere if the circumstances warranted it hasn’t caused much of a ripple.

Mr. Jackson did not say that he would do so, and the likelihood is that things will have to get a lot worse before the sight of pistol- or Uzi-bearing Police appear on any but the rarest occasions is still a long way off, but it shows that the possibility — and the myth of Bermuda as a crime-free and safe country — is real.

That is somewhat depressing. Of course, the Police are faced with several problems. While wading through the Police’s crime statistics is a time consuming and sometimes confusing exercise, the statistics show that crime overall has not increased in the last few years and has gone down in some areas.

But that tends to increase the shock value of serious incidents like the ride-by shooting near The Swizzle South Shore and the earlier shooting on Court street.

And when no one is brought to justice for these crimes, it tends to undermine confidence in the safety and security of the Island as a whole.

At the other end of the spectrum are the nuisance incidents like street beggars and vandalism, which are not a serious in and of themselves but create an aura of lawlessness that in turn encourages other criminal behaviour.

Some where in the middle are the recent spate of burglaries and crimes against visitors that damage the Island’s safety and make people feel unsafe in the very place where they should feel most secure — the home.

In addition, news that Molotov cocktails were being prepared, possibly for use at a party as part of the ongoing turf wars between different gangs should send a shiver down the collective spine of the community.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair once said that his party would be tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime when the Labour Party came to power.

While the jury is out on whether he has been successful in that goal, a similar approach by the Police and the Government is long overdue.

The Police need to be given the manpower and the tools to enforce the law and to deter it — which is what Hamilton Mayor Jay Bluck and the Chamber of Commerce want in Hamilton — and the Government and other agencies, including employers, need to create the conditions in which the urge to break the law is diminished.

Only then will the spectre of armed Police patrolling the streets — which surely no one wants — will diminish.