Why suspend woman who attacked father's killers on Facebook?

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Dear Editor,

In July last year I retired from the Metropolitan Police Force in London after 32 years' service. Since 2002 I was privileged to spend 18 months in Jamaica working in six-week periods with Jamaican police colleagues.

I fell under the spell of Jamaica and its people as have so many of my former colleagues, some of whom - Mark Shields and Les Green - will be known to you.

For the last few months, I've been working on a book which chronicles my experiences in Jamaica. It won't gloss over the problems of poverty and crime, but generally the tone is light-hearted and overwhelmingly positive. The main objective - if the book is fortunate enough to find a publisher - is to encourage my fellow countrymen, in these tough economic times, to holiday in Jamaica.

Imagine my concern when I saw the following article in the Mail on Sunday (http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/news/article-2086825/Daughter-attacked-Jamaican-fathers-killers-Facebook-suspended-countrys-tourist-board.html), which is an extremely popular newspaper in the UK, especially with that section of the populace most likely to holiday in the Caribbean.

Those of us who have travelled to Jamaica do our best to encourage our family and friends to holiday there. This article is a public relations disaster and although there may well be another side to the story, it clearly highlights a brutal murder and what appears to be the callous treatment of a grieving daughter by the Jamaica Tourist Board for expressing her anger on Facebook.

If I hadn't already experienced Jamaica and was considering where to take my holiday this year, Jamaica would be crossed from my list after reading this article.

The Jamaican government has a proud record of looking after those very few foreign nationals who become the victims of crime. They need to carry out some rapid remedial work in this case.

Chris Hobbs

Ealing, London

England