Bermuda has now recorded five murders this year, and is at risk of exceeding last year’s total.Details of this latest gun murder will come out in the coming days, but the time is now long overdue when Bermuda as a whole must take a stand against gun crime and gang activity.Anyone with any information about this murder and the ones that have preceded it has a moral and civic obligation to provide that information to the police. Doing so will help to prevent future murders.It is also critical that those who feel aggrieved by these killings not take matters into their own hands. The authorities must be able to deal with them without acts of revenge taking place.This weekend’s murder makes clear that firm measures need to be taken. This includes anti-gang legislation and the use of an initiative like the Ceasefire Programme which has had demonstrated success in the US and around the world.The first step for Bermuda is to recognise that this is the primary problem facing the community and that the resources of the whole community have to be marshalled to beat it.Police suspect that yesterday’s murder was a case of mistaken identity. Some people have tended to dismiss previous murders as simply being gang-related. This was wrong in any event; no life is less valuable than another’s. But if this weekend’s victim was an innocent bystander, then perhaps, this, finally, will be the tragedy that galvanises the community.Pride and precedenceOne of the victims of the Internet revolution is the letter not sent.Before e-mail, a person angered by another’s comments or decisions could vent their spleen on paper, then put the letter in a drawer, from which it would never see the light of day, and certainly would not reach its intended recipient. Then, spleen vented, the aggrieved writer could send a calmer response, or, indeed, ignore the matter.E-mail has changed that. The send button is too convenient, so comments and thoughts, no matter how heartfelt, which should never be read, are.Cabinet Minister Neletha Butterfield may be regretting hitting the send button after she felt protocol had been ignored at a service at an AME church which resulted in herself and Deputy Premier Derrick Burgess being seated behind Opposition Leader Kim Swan.A great deal has been written and said about this since The Royal Gazette reported it last week. Not much was complimentary.Technically, Ms Butterfield was correct. Mr Burgess was invited to the event as a guest. Other dignitaries had been given special seating. As Government Ministers they should have been given precedence. So she was right to be disturbed and right, perhaps, to complain.Ms Butterfield’s mistake was in the manner of her complaint. Apparently, she and Mr Burgess were late for the event, which did not help their cause. Ms Butterfield had had to be persuaded to go, which made her seem sulky.Still, the greater error was in saying: “This business that we are all VIPs in God’s sight needs to stop and respect be given to those who not only serve or have served in the Cabinet but also work and serve in God’s vineyard.”Ms Butterfield compounded the error when she made a clumsy threat to boycott AME events, although she has since said this was not meant seriously, and then to compare Bermuda Cabinet Ministers with US Government leaders.Ms Butterfield would have been better off to have had a quiet word with the Presiding Elder of the AME Church to resolve the issue, rather than to have put the complaint in writing as she did.Bermuda does give its politicians respect, but there is and has always been the sense that “I am better than no person, and no person is better than me” that gets riled by exaggerated demands for respect and perks.In the end, this will pass. But it’s a timely reminder that the Bermuda public likes to see a little humility in its leaders.