by

There Is Need For Popular Mobilisation Against Crime

The rea­sons for crime are many and mul­ti­fac­eted. Likewise, there is no sin­gle or easy solution.

As was said in this space last Friday, the snail-paced nature of Jamaica’s jus­tice sys­tem which, for exam­ple, has so far served to neuter what was sup­posed to be potent anti-gang leg­is­la­tion, has weak­ened crime-fight­ing. Then there is the chron­i­cal­ly under-resourced state of the secu­ri­ty forces: inad­e­quate per­son­nel on the ground, as well as sparse mobil­i­ty and crime-fight­ing tools.

Part of the prob­lem is that, in real terms, the Jamaican soci­ety has rarely focused on crime as a num­ber one pri­or­i­ty. To be fair, Jamaica with its vibrant pol­i­tics, but numer­ous and hefty socio/​economic prob­lems, can’t eas­i­ly focus. With the com­pet­ing demands of unem­ploy­ment, high cost of liv­ing, inad­e­quate health care, edu­ca­tion, shod­dy infra­struc­ture in terms of water, hous­ing, roads, et al, crime — enor­mous prob­lem though it is – some­times gets short shrift in elec­tion campaigns.

It’s gen­er­al­ly accept­ed, for exam­ple, that the promised ‘$1.5‑million income tax ini­tia­tive’ was piv­otal in the Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP) February 25 elec­tion win. Had the JLP pledged, let’s say, to dou­ble bud­getary allo­ca­tion to crime fight­ing, could they have won that elec­tion? We have our doubts.Yet vio­lent crime — rou­tine­ly described in Jamaica as “out of hand” — impinges neg­a­tive­ly on every aspect of life. There is every rea­son to believe that Jamaica’s tourism, a cor­ner­stone of the econ­o­my, would have been much, much stronger had it not been for the country’s nasty rep­u­ta­tion for vio­lence and criminality.

So now, there is a two-month-old Government, like all of its pre­de­ces­sors, tear­ing out its col­lec­tive hair in striv­ing to deal with this mon­ster – crime.

Prime Minister Mr Andrew Holness, in a recent vis­it to trou­bled St James, point­ed to the need to get the mes­sage to peo­ple that they have a cen­tral role to play in bring­ing crime and vio­lence to heel.

But even for those who do get the mes­sage, there is the dif­fi­cul­ty of find­ing the col­lec­tive will to act in sup­port of the police and law and order.

We have long argued for proac­tive com­mu­ni­ty mobil­i­sa­tion. It’s been con­sis­tent­ly proven that in those com­mu­ni­ties with vibrant and active com­mu­ni­ty organ­i­sa­tions, such as neigh­bour­hood watch­es, cit­i­zens’ asso­ci­a­tions and oth­er action groups, crim­i­nal activ­i­ty nosedives.

Criminals rou­tine­ly thrive in areas with lit­tle or no uni­ty in action and min­i­mal peo­ple mobil­i­sa­tion. Recently we had rea­son to applaud the pledge by National Security Minister Mr Robert Montague to embrace the Unite for Change ini­tia­tive intro­duced by his pre­de­ces­sor, Mr Peter Bunting.

We believe very strong­ly that com­mu­ni­ties should be organ­ised with the help of their polit­i­cal lead­ers and rep­re­sen­ta­tives; com­mu­ni­ty lead­ers, includ­ing par­sons, teach­ers, police, et al; and, of course, with sup­port and advice from the Social Development Commission. A pri­ma­ry aim should be to present a unit­ed face against crime and anti­so­cial behav­iour. It’s self-evi­dent that com­mu­ni­ties which are so mobilised will reap ben­e­fits not just in fight­ing crime, but in oth­er areas of socio-eco­nom­ic life.

Jamaicans shouldn’t keep throw­ing up their hands in despair. They should stand togeth­er and act to help them­selves. And, as this news­pa­per repeat­ed­ly told for­mer Prime Minister Mrs Portia Simpson Miller and her Government, we now tell Mr Holness and his Government: It is their respon­si­bil­i­ty to lead the way, com­mu­ni­ty by com­mu­ni­ty, to inspire Jamaicans to organ­ise and unite in sup­port of the secu­ri­ty forces, in this fight against crim­i­nals. http://​www​.jamaicaob​serv​er​.com/​e​d​i​t​o​r​i​a​l​/​T​h​e​r​e​-​i​s​-​n​e​e​d​-​f​o​r​-​p​o​p​u​l​a​r​-​m​o​b​i​l​i​s​a​t​i​o​n​-​a​g​a​i​n​s​t​-​c​r​i​m​e​_​5​8​792