No one can turn a blind eye to the fact that Anguilla is changing and that if we are not careful we can lose the good name we have built up on the regional and international scene. And it is hard for us to see the character of our island falling into jeopardy when it is only a handful of lawless and misguided persons at work in the schools and communities.

The only excuse perhaps is that like everywhere else Anguilla is part of a world where degeneration and lawlessness are becoming the order of the day; and yet we cannot whitewash our growing social problems in this fashion. We all must be prepared to strengthen the hand and resolve of our newly-appointed Commissioner of Police, Keithly Benjamin, in his declaration of war on crime in all its forms. We must do our own part in whatever ways we can to help stamp out this ugly menace in our otherwise peaceful and law-abiding society.
Everything that happens in Anguilla is known around the world in a matter of minutes by the advancement of technology. The internet, apart from the telephone, has become a main vehicle for the dissemination of information abroad – some times in the worse manner – and so we cannot conceal anything. The incident involving the killing of an innocent school girl going about her business on a bicycle has not only sent shock waves throughout Anguilla but outside the island as well, resulting in a flurry of calls back here. This is the type of bad publicity that we cannot afford and must combat. There is remorse, anger and a feeling of shame everywhere on the island.
We applaud the many persons from across the island who spontaneously joined the police in the search for the missing girl which resulted in the grim discovery of her body. Above all we offer our condolences to her parents and other relatives and like everybody else we are at a loss to find the real words of comfort we wish to convey to them. It is a sobering time for all of us and we hope that such an incident, which we hear about elsewhere in the world, will never happen in Anguilla again.
The greatest contribution which can be made to young Jamida Webster and to Anguilla in this situation is for our justice system to avenge her untimely and cruel death by finding, convicting and punishing her heartless killer to the fullest extent of the law. A signal must be sent to every perpetrator of crime that such acts of evil have their just reward in the courts on earth as in the hereafter and that “he who sows to the wind will reap the whirlwind.” Anybody found guilty of this heinous crime should be deemed “a rogue and a vagabond” in the traditional language of a sentencing judge.

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