Another mass killing by gun-toting thugs, this time in the Waltham Park Road region of the capital city, reminds us yet again that, though police statistics show a decline in murders, the populace has every reason to remain extremely fearful.

We suspect Prime Minister Andrew Holness is correct in theorising that this incident, like others before, is the work of criminal gangs.

As the prime minister has said, subduing these criminals is crucial if his Government’s growth agenda is to be achieved.

Intense police work, including intelligence-gathering using all available tools, must continue to suppress the evildoers.

Equally, as this newspaper keeps saying, twinned to police work should be proactive community organisation to help ordinary folk unite against crime, and very importantly a conscious building of unity across the political divide and embracing every sector.

Criminals must be left with no place to turn.

Also, we dare not forget the genesis of our gang and gun culture.

Older Jamaicans know that it took root in the rivalry between our two major political parties — the People’s National Party (PNP), formed in 1938, and the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) which came into being in 1944.

Political hostilities, with the gun as a weapon of choice, gained solidity in the bitter conflict for representation of Kingston Western in the 1960s.

Coloured by ideological divisions, those hostilities mushroomed and took Jamaica to the very brink of civil war in the late 1970s, leading up to the landmark 1980 General Election. It was a time when an area between Arnett Gardens (Concrete Jungle) and Wilton Gardens (Rema) became ‘no man’s land’ because of the political war. Legend has it that even dogs were at risk.

A leading girls’ school is said to have changed the colour of its uniform from green to blue because of the threat of political intimidation. That is said to have happened years after the 1980 election.

This newspaper recognises that most Jamaicans have only heard second-hand of the extremity of political violence which afflicted this country decades ago. Our people should know that our leaders of all political stripes pulled back from the brink, just in time, back then. And, as part of the process of gradually achieving political peace over a period of years, our leaders agreed on reform of the electoral process.

Today, the management of Jamaican elections through the Electoral Commission of Jamaica (ECJ) is seen as a model for others to follow.

In excess of the last two decades, political violence and intimidation have been minimal at most.

A worry in recent years has been a surge in reports of vote-buying — cynically challenging our prized democracy.

Mixed in with allegations of vote-buying in last week’s municipal by-elections have been stories of voter intimidation.

We urge the ECJ — which now has the relevant responsibility following the subsuming of the political ombudsman’s office — to investigate the allegations to the fullest, without fear or favour; and to report its findings.

That’s especially important since the general parliamentary elections are constitutionally due in 10 months.

Under no circumstances should Jamaica ever return to anything resembling the politically partisan horrors of decades ago which largely spawned today’s crime problems.