The gruesome sight of a decapitated head on a bar table is perhaps the clearest indication that our crime-fighting strategies of targeting at-risk youth, vulnerable groups and forms of criminal activity derived from dispossession and lack of life skills are completely misguided, inadequate and are totally off the mark.

What in the world imbues such gumption in persons – to cut someone's head off and place it on a bar table? A few years ago, the nation was horrified by the sight of Thackoor Boodram's head in a whisky box at the Caroni cremation site, then there was a slaying where the headless body of a Syrian businessman was found.

Can we just take a minute to think of cutting someone's head off, walking with it as though you were some Jason (Friday the 13th) wannabe and then leaving it for the public to view? God in heaven, help us!

Let's see what will happen now: will there be another Hoops for Life? How do the critics of the State of Emergency feel now?

Are we going to try some reality TV as how they have real criminals shouting at wayward youths until they wet their pants? Are we going to see roadblocks and traffic tickets by the hundred as the police did for Carnival? How sour the nation is today after the police boasted about the safety of Carnival and now to see officers gunned down ruthlessly and of all things a head on a table!

I feel like we are in Mexico or Ecuador. Those Colombians seeking help to fight crime will surely feel at home.

Or will the Opposition naysayers and hegemonic radio journalists who claim solutions once again cry out race and discrimination as the police go aggressively against crime hotspots in Nelson Street, Straker Village, Embacadere and the like. Let's see where we go from here.

Lystra Marajh

Glencoe