tolerate any area in Bermuda being unsafe.'' She has also said that the community must be a participant in Bermuda's fight against crime.

That, of course, is the real answer. Bermuda's communities must develop their own intolerance to crime. People in neighbourhoods have to protect themselves by making it very clear that they will help one another and that they will not tolerate drugs or crime.

The truth is that no matter how hard they try the Police cannot succeed on their own. Politicians can enact all the laws they like and give all the support they can to wars on crime but the ultimate solution rests with every Bermudian. We are not accustomed to lawlessness, we must not become accustomed, and we must not be tolerant.

As a Country we cannot accept crimes against visitors because those crimes endanger the livelihood of every Bermudian. We should make it clear that attacks on people on our streets are not the way we want Bermuda to be. Such outrages as a harmful substance thrown into the face of a taxi driver are alien to Bermuda's way of life and we must not accept them.

People in this community know where the guns are and they know that the use of guns can and will destroy Bermuda. They have a duty to make it clear that they will not tolerate guns if for no other reason than that the guns may one day be used against them.

Figures show that many of the crimes committed in Bermuda today are related to drug traffic and sales and to drug and alcohol abuse. That is true from crimes on the streets to domestic violence.

We recognise from the amount of drugs reported confiscated and the number of arrests made that the Police Drugs Task Force is active and doing its job well. Yet there are otherwise decent families in Bermuda who are living well on the proceeds from drugs run by their young people and their friends. It is not hard to figure out that an unemployed young man will not be flush with cash unless he is up to something suspicious. These families have to understand that their benefits are at the expense of the lives of other Bermudians and the well-being of other families and that until they ask questions and refuse to accept proceeds from drugs, the evil traffic will continue and will grow.

Drugs and the crime they breed are all around us. Those people who shrug it off and think it is not their problem are wrong. Drugs and crime inevitably impact in some way on their lives or the life of someone they love. Turning a blind eye is not an answer for Bermuda or Bermudians. Doing nothing is not an answer.