values to get out of the ghetto, according to a Government MP.

Maxwell Burgess said youngsters should be stopped from watching too much cable TV from the US so Bermuda can tackle the problems of violent crime.

And he said: "We have produced a generation just below us which is a generation like in inner-city America.

"Some of them are more inner-city than inner-city America itself. We could spend the remainder of our time here apportioning blame.

"But young people have tried to teach us one thing -- that while we apportion blame, they are falling through the crack.

"The young people I know say: `No, I don't need your cash. I need some love'.

"Somehow we have got to bring home some home truths and that is, quite frankly, that it takes a family to raise a child.'' Mr. Burgess was speaking during the motion to adjourn after Parliament had reconvened yesterday.

He added: "I'm not prepared to hear the Shadow Home Affairs Minister and the Home Affairs Minister himself talk about locking these people up and throwing away the key.

"Otherwise Westgate, the Prison Farm and the Co-ed facility will not be enough to hold them all.

"Our children often have unmonitored access to cable TV in their homes.

What's required now is a genuine understanding that our kids' exposure to North America has its problems.

"Some of them have a North American ghetto mentality and this country will be held for ransom in the not-too-distant future.'' Government ministers and PLP leaders are already preparing their own youth summits to tackle youth crime after a series of violent incidents during the House of Assembly break.

Home Affairs Minister Quinton Edness has proposed a national young people's conference for later this year, with hundreds of youngsters to be invited.

He had already criticised an Opposition plan for a youth forum because it includes plans to talk to gang leaders.

But the Minister said the Government-organised conference could take place in one of Bermuda's main high schools. He said senior ministers and headteachers would form a panel to answer questions from worried students.

MAXWELL BURGESS -- "We have produced a generation just below us which is a generation like in inner-city America.''