“You don’t want to mess with us. There are people with ammunition; they may come here — that’s what they told me. I tried to calm them down; they will shoot. They will come.”

If December 2 was a day to forget, or one that will live in infamy for Bermuda, the above quote is not. And, taken in or out of context in lieu of what transpired at Western Stars Sports Club in the early hours of last Thursday, you have to wonder whether or not Derrick Burgess, the Progressive Labour Party MP and former government minister, should be the subject of a full police interview rather than spouting off within earshot of the media about worst-case scenarios that only further destabilise a divided community.

It is just as well that the “broken” House of Parliament has been put in abeyance until the new year; the country just could not stand up to another Friday such as we had almost a fortnight ago while mourning the death of yet another young black man — the 32nd such killing since May 2009.

The police became Public Enemy No 1 in the wake of the “Pepper Spray Protests”. Photographs and videos have done the rounds, and in few of them has law enforcement been done any favours. But before buying too much into the many and varied criticisms of police and the politicians, and the cries of dismay that Bermuda is at a new low when grandmothers are being pepper-sprayed in the midst of “peaceful protest”, there needs to be a sprinkle of reality.

The murder of Deshaun Berkley reminds us of where we are as a society and where we have been for much of the past decade — in a state of acceptance that it is OK for the most at-risk members in our community to be hunted like dogs, their families left to pick up the pieces.

A genuine concerted effort is required to put an end to this nonsense. It may end with the police and the courts, and to a lesser extent with the lawmakers, but it most definitely starts at home and in communities.

The saying “guns do not kill, people do” applies to more than those who pull the trigger. Ownership is spread far and wide, and the stench of guilt for the murder of Deshaun Berkley is palpable.

Mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters ... girlfriends! You owe it to your fellow man to be the difference that can start ridding the country of this god-awful menace — genocide of the young black male. If you know something, say something — not to the media or to isolated officers as Burgess did for theatrical effect, but in calm and detailed fashion to the authorities whose mandate it is to protect our citizens.

The murderers and would-be murderers in our midst are not going anywhere fast. A particular vigilance is required if we are to do better. If we are to save lives.

And we must.