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The recent violence at Southampton Rangers and at Berkeley school was saddening but not surprising.

This is something that has been coming for a long time and I fear the situation could get worse before it gets better.

It's no good trying to blame the police or the politicians or the BFA, everybody has to take their share of the blame.

I was disappointed to read that the Premier, someone who I really admire, turned down the Governor's offer to meet more regularly on crime. I believe he has said that Government wants full control of the police but why not compromise, for now, and take the meetings?

This is a crisis situation and I feel we need to put politics aside and have everyone come together to solve this issue.

We have created this situation. We've got young men acting like this because of social issues that have been going on for a long time that we have turned a blind eye to.

As a cricketer and a footballer I see it all the time. Sport is a way out for our young men, young black men in particular. Without sports, the situation would be far worse than it is.

It's already got to the stage where it seems like we can't have a youth cricket league or a youth football league because young men can't go from one part of the island to another.

We can't just blame the police. They can't be everywhere and they are doing what we can.

We have to tackle this issue at the root level. There are a lot of mad young people out there, they are mad at this country, mad at the way life is in Bermuda and they take the easy way out in drugs and crime and violence.

We need to get our young people educated, parents have to start parenting.

You've got children raising children out there and people working two or three jobs to survive but we have to make time for our kids.

I have children myself and I believe we all have to take responsibility for their actions. My kids are facing challenges that I never had to face growing up.

My generation had Sunday School and YPD (Young People's Department) to fall back on.

Our youth today doesn't have that.

This situation is all of our problem. We need to put aside our differences and deal with it.

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