THE EDITOR: The recent media reports of police killings of four young men purported to be kidnap suspects, as reported by the deputy commissioner of police, appears to have been prepared by the police legal department.

The media release was crisp, bereft of any details such as “suspects pointing guns at the police or opening fire on them.” It simply stated that there was a shoot-out between the police and suspects, at the end of which there were four lifeless bodies, leaving citizens to put their own interpretation on related events without exposing the speaker to legal ramifications.

Right-wing, mainly middle-income and upper-income citizens, were satisfied with this media release. However, many mainstream and low-income people felt short-changed by this cleverly prepared account of events.

Those who defend the account given, stress that the police have come under attack in the past for inefficiency but are unable to keep career criminals behind bars and away from continuing criminal activity due to an archaic legal system and enabling attorneys. Thus, the police may have adopted the approach that they have little choice but to short-circuit the judicial process which hinders their operations by extrajudicial actions.

Other people point to the rule of law and what this precedent, if accepted, could lead to in the future.

Psychologists have been silent on the effects of certain actions on children growing up without immediate parents, particularly fathers, and the impact on our young men and society.

With reference to the recent kidnapping and police killings, the guardian of one of the alleged perpetrators recounted that the young man grew up with absentee parents – the mother having migrated, leaving a child at age five or six without the presence of a father.

As I write I am hearing a calypso on the radio by Ella Andall that seems so appropriate – Missing Generation. We should all listen to the lyrics over and over.

Continuing in this regard, I heard a news sound bite where the police commissioner, in a recent address at a parent-teacher association meeting in Tobago, stated that there is no substitute to proper parenting.

While I wish to compliment this assertion, I proffer that there needs to be an authority to identify and intervene in circumstances where proper parenting fails or is lacking. Such an authority must be empowered to foster-parent those children to ensure they achieve their rightful potential to the benefit of themselves and society.

While both sides, right-wing and mainstream people, may put forward strong arguments in support or otherwise with respect to suspected extrajudicial killings, perhaps the solution lies in amendments to the legal system, such as the bail system, anti-gang legislation and tardiness of trials. This action will encourage the police in their work, replacing the feeling of powerlessness and the push to extrajudicial action.

This is a call to parliamentarians and the judiciary to put politics and partisanship aside and support enabling legislation t