Dear Editor,
Your editorial “Don’t criminalise children” (08.08.12)  is certainly a bold and necessary step if our people are to regain their confidence and respect in this region.

In describing the victims you stopped short of saying poor and black. I will therefore complete the picture for you:
“Most were minors and all were male(poor, black and pessimistic  about life in Guyana).
You do not have to be afraid of being called racist or anti-government. You are stating the facts and exposing the depths of depravity to which the system has descended.
The poor we will always have with us but when they are hounded, marginalized and profiled as is happening in Guyana today it is not economics only.

This country is witnessing the worst kind of human rights abuse, the kind that silently creates an underclass and eventually a hotbed of violence and hatred towards established authority. If this is  not checked, over time we will not be able to assert ourselves as “one people”.
Yours faithfully,
Nathaniel Smith