The death of Douglas Chambers is indeed a sad thing I told My Friend P - a very sad thing.

Reports are that he stepped out of his own business to work for $1 a year doing something that he did not have to do and from all indications his demise was a by-product of his decision.

But I can't help but be irritated by how Mr Chambers' death is being raised to the level of martyrdom. 'It is an attack on the state', 'Public officials are at risk', are statements about the Chambers killing which must be coming from people who have been on Mars or at any rate not been anywhere close to Jamaica for the past ten years.

I am pained to be writing this again but wake up people, an average of six people are being killed a day - Mr Chambers, with all the public sacrifice that he made, was merely one of those six. I am bothered that the other nameless five people who died were not considered significant or worthy lives for the miles of copy written about their demise. What is it? They did not have a friend who was an MP nor have their photograph in the paper, so their lives were not profound enough for mention?

It confirms my thoughts on this matter that for the state to fix crime, indeed the people who perceive themselves to be in control of the state themselves need to be murdered - no slaughtered, so that it can be deemed important to fix this horrid monster called Jamaican crime.

It must seem to be a cruel thing to be saying and good lord My Friend P and I might now be accused of attacking the state but it is hard to see this any other way. We hear chatter about increased security for some public officials thought to be marked for death - well whoopee! Would we not all like to have the comfort of an armed guard protecting us while we sleep and walk in this battle zone called Jamaica.

For me, I would much prefer to have the comfort of freedom without a security detail.

I do pray that we don't need MPs and other public officials to be murdered for a complete no-nonsense approach to be taken to crime. Somehow, though, I believe that the inherent selfishness of our public officials who all seem convinced that they live in a different Jamaica from the rest of us, will continue to delay them being serious about crime and their demise will be and must be the straw that will force the change.

There will be many more Chambers to come. This is not a wish, just the truth.

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myfriendp@hotmail.com