Bermuda must stop talking "rhetoric'' and start taking "bold steps'' to end violence before it is too late, a US expert warned yesterday.

Dr. Beverly Coleman-Miller, a violence prevention advisor to the US government, also reprimanded local residents and leaders for not "staying awake all night'' when the first acts of violence occurred in the schools.

Because America did not "stay up'', violence took hold of many US cities.

And now, metal detectors, gun-free and drug-free zones were commonplace in schools and public areas, said the Howard University professor.

Dr. Coleman-Miller, the first speaker on the third day of a national violence conference at Number One Shed, also delivered several new, disturbing statistics: Eighty percent of US homicides occur because of interpersonal conflicts; Fifty percent of all women who go to the Emergency Room go there because of abuse by male partners -- though many will lie about their injuries; and Ninety percent of Washington DC's homicide victims were truants, expelled students or high school dropouts.

Dr. Coleman-Miller urged Bermuda to take more notice of the concerns of the youth because "they have the answers''.

"I've looked at your statistics, your newspaper headlines and that awful slide show (on Police file photographs) and I know where you are,'' she said.

"You are early on. You are not yet to the point where you are sitting on a bubble. But you should make every effort to stay at that point. You don't want me saying I'm not going to Bermuda. They're getting mugged down there.'' Demanding that Government set up a national youth violence-prevention task force, the Howard University professor plucked three teenagers out of the audience to show "they have the answers''.

The teens' frank answers to questions from the audience left many in dismay.

One called Police "evil rotten people'' when asked what young black males were concerned about.

Another said the only time he and other young black males could unite and feel respect was at reggae sessions.

"The black men have no power,'' the teen said. "Court Street is controlled by a few individuals and they don't care about me. If I walk down here (Front Street) I know they don't care about me.'' Anti-violence programmes that work Another said he was unable to find books on great black leaders in his school library. And he said parents today seemed more concerned with money and paying the mortgage to worry about their children.

He said the black youth were disillusioned with foreign workers being allowed in because, aside from the controversy over the Police Commissioner appointments,, "Pakistan people are coming in to flip hamburgers''.

"That's why black people rob you, because they have no respect, so to cure it they destroy everything,'' the youth said.

Dr. Coleman-Miller said one of her "two favourite rhetorics'' was talking about family values -- "saying let's get our families back together''. The other was preaching "let's get our children back in church''.

Both were impossible tasks unless residents and governments were "prepared to tell people their families were messed up'' and then hand them blank cheques to fix them; and unless Church ministers and others who preached instilling Christian values were prepared to bang on people's doors every Sunday and drag them to church.'' "Rhetoric wastes time unless you get something in place to work it,'' she said.

Bermuda's efforts to stem violence should concentrate on what works as opposed to what does not.

Curfew laws did not work except on military bases, because communities were not prepared to help enforce them and they deprived people of personal liberties.

And harsh crime laws such as America's "three strikes and your out'' law did not work because they cost too much, she said. Sentencing people to life for three offences was setting up prisons to be "costly old-age homes'', she said.

Among some proven anti-violence measures, she said, was, "oddly'', joining the Nation of Islam religion. "Children who join the Nation live,'' she said.

Suggesting a bigger role for the Bermuda Regiment, she said: "Another thing that works is the US Army. It keeps our children alive. There are more white females killed in the US Army than young black males.'' Peer conflict resolution and mediation also "worked'', she said, urging teachers to take their classes to watch local union negotiations.

Dr. Coleman-Miller, instrumental in key state legislative changes, said she h ad "a bottom line'' for proposed anti-violence programmes.

"The programme must make the children care about the outcome of their own behaviour,'' she said. "If a programme's not at my bottom line, I say cancel it and restart.'' She said local residents must recognise violence is a learned behaviour, which can be "un-learned''.

And most of it was learned not through the US-influenced media, but what goes on in the home.

Domestic abuse was also not necessarily related to alcoholism. There was battery of women in Mormon communities, she noted.

"Believe me, TV and the media are teacher's aids,'' she said. "Violence is a reflection of what goes on in the home.'' If Bermuda did not fix domestic abuse, "There will always be violence in Bermuda,'' she warned.

The Island must also not forget the "devastating'' impact of violence on the children who witnessed it, she said.

New Hampshire had a new law that says an abusive husband or lover can be charged with child endangerment if he is violent in front of a child, she said. Dr. Coleman-Miller believes it is "dangerous'' to talk statistics.

"One or two could easily be more than 100,000 one day,'' she said. "The fact is we should have stayed awake all night the first day a child brought a gun to school. Bermuda should have stayed awake all night and kept the lights on when the first act of violence in school took place. If you can sleep through one you can sleep through two, and five is no big deal.'' She noted it took the murder of a young bride on a highway outside of the crime ridden neighbourhoods of Washington DC before the authorities started paying attention to the city's murder rate.

"TALK TO THE YOUTH!'' -- American violence prevention expert Dr. Beverly Coleman-Miller seeks answers on the causes of violent crime from a local teenager in the audience.