THE EDITOR, Sir:

I note with a heavy heart the data coming out of the states of emergency, where some 4,000 persons have been detained in St James, the vast majority without charge, and some 6,000 in St Catherine and large numbers also in West Kingston, and so few charged.

It seems to me that we have scooped up thousands of young Jamaicans and placed them in detention for no clear reason. This cannot be a good thing.

These persons come from families, some have families of their own and they must feel that the State has no regard for them.

I write because I have children of my own and it would be hard for me to accept that my child could be taken into custody only because he or she happens to traverse an area and is flung into a detention centre to face inhumane conditions for no earthly reason.

This way of dealing with the fight against criminality serves only to widen the trust gap between the police and citizenry, increase the severe disregard of the State and its agents and must not be continued under any circumstances.

While we all abhor the intolerable levels of murders and criminality in general, we cannot all become so vile in our approach that we have no regard for innocent lives and are willing to sanction the incarceration of others because we are fearful. If we do this, we would be no better than the very criminals we say we are against.

As a parent of young, black children, I understand what the framers of the Constitution must have foreseen when they placed strict conditions for the declaration and continuation of the use of emergency powers in part or the whole of Jamaica.

We can do better by our citizens in protecting them from criminal gunmen and gangs , at the same time protecting their human rights and human dignity while maintaining our own.

Michael Bellamy