If the residents of Crescent Road, near Two Mile in St Andrew (not the USA kind, as in Upper St Andrew, but the part of the parish which is more commonly referred to as 'down a town') are to believed, there was an attempt to kill a memory recently.

In a story in Wednesday's STAR,the residents accused the police of shooting a mural of Dave 'Machine Man' Sterling, the former 'Rat Bat Gang' leader who was killed in a shoot-out with the police in October.

It seems unlikely that anything will come out of the alleged incident, as no report has been made to the police (it is alleged that a shop was also destroyed in the incident). However, it does raise the issue of how to get rid of a memory.

It is standard practice that when a prominent 'area leader' is killed, most often by the security forces, their image is quickly painted, larger-than-life, on a wall in the community. This serves to preserve the memory of their persona, their presence, and whatever they stood for, long after they have died.

This, in essence, defeats a large part of the objective of removing an area leader who is involved in criminal activity, whether by incarceration or a shoot-out, in the first place.

It is something that the authorities will have to look at very seriously if they are to make any impact on the garrison culture. For it is one thing to get rid of a don. It is another thing to get rid of his memory.