A Sense Of Disconnect Regarding The Seriousness Of Crime In Jamaica

There is a cer­tain sense of detached res­ig­na­tion asso­ci­at­ed with the killings going on today, whether they are in the United States or any oth­er nation includ­ing our own small Island of Jamaica.
We no longer process each death with the same amount of grief and rev­er­ence we did in times past. Whether the grue­some­ness of the images and the speed and fre­quen­cy with which the images bom­bard our brains have desen­si­tized us is for the experts to decide.

Whether the sense­less­ness of the killing of 59 inno­cent con­cert­go­ers in Las Vegas Nevada or the mur­ders of Horace and Daisy Lyn in May Pen Clarendon, the shock­ing real­i­ty is that we are so desen­si­tized to the mur­ders that we only respond to them as sta­tis­tics or based on the fame and impor­tance of the victims.

The truth is that every time an inno­cent life is snuffed out we are less­er as humans for the loss of that per­son­’s con­tri­bu­tion to mankind.
The tragedy now is in the care­free way in which we treat the death of indi­vid­u­als. Like a sin­gle leaf falling from a tree at the end of its time so too do we treat the many indi­vid­ual mur­ders each day, sav­ing our atten­tion and in some cas­es our out­rage for the mass casu­al­ty situations.

It does not mean that those of us who are yet alive are all cru­el uncar­ing peo­ple it means that we can only process the cru­el­ty of each act in a lim­it­ed amount of time before we are greet­ed with another.
Sometimes so many indi­vid­ual cas­es that we can no longer pay spe­cial atten­tion, we sim­ply glance at the headlines.

What is it which caus­es some­one to open fire on a group of inno­cent peo­ple whom he does­n’t know? What caus­es some­one to make the deci­sion to blow up inno­cent men women and chil­dren he has nev­er met?
What is it which caus­es any­one to slaugh­ter an inno­cent cou­ple when sim­ply rob­bing them in dis­guise would suf­fice if rob­bery was the motive?

How many more lives will be snuffed out before the Government stop lis­ten­ing to pre­ten­tious peo­ple with their own agen­das and take the req­ui­site steps to pro­tect­ing the Jamaican people?
According to the report­ing, the Las Vegas shoot­er took his own life, he was not the only killer to take his own life before author­i­ties could arrest him, he won’t be the last.
One thing is cer­tain every mass killer in the United States know that if caught he will nev­er see the light of day again.

Can we say the same for Jamaica?I think not, killers sim­ply walk away with pret­ty lit­tle fear they will be held account­able for their actions.
The few who are brought before the courts are prompt­ly grant­ed bail and allowed back onto the streets to kill again as many times as they wish.
Nothing in the nation’s laws or the sup­port giv­en to law enforce­ment sends a clear mes­sage that crime will not be tolerated.

Contrarily, the lack of unequiv­o­cal sup­port ded­i­cat­ed to law enforce­ment and the lax atti­tude of the courts sends a clear mes­sage that the lives of cit­i­zens are not impor­tant unless they are from upper St Andrew.
The clock is tick­ing on this issue before we reach a point of no return. In 2010 Jamaica received a very impor­tant mes­sage of the clear and present dan­ger immi­nent against the state

The United States has the law enforce­ment infra­struc­ture to repel an attack on the sov­er­eign­ty and legit­i­ma­cy of the state Jamaica does not.
Clearly, despite the killings, there is a sense of busi­ness as usu­al on the part of the admin­is­tra­tion, that the func­tions of Government can be advanced despite the dai­ly mur­ders with a lit­tle mag­ic act involv­ing smoke and mirrors.

The oppo­si­tion par­ty is far worse, it’s goal is the con­trol of state pow­er and the pil­fer­ing of scarce tax-pay­ers resources.
That has been its modus operan­di, there is noth­ing to indi­cate that any­thing will change with that party.
So the nation is left with the hope that the Holness admin­is­tra­tion will stop the pos­tur­ing, send the so-called human rights lob­by pack­ing and get to work secur­ing the nation.

In case the admin­is­tra­tion is won­der­ing where secur­ing the nation falls with­in its raft of respon­si­bil­i­ties, the answer is num­ber one.
Every Administration’s pri­ma­ry respon­si­bil­i­ty is to ensure the safe­ty and secu­ri­ty of the people.
Advancing the idea that there will be pros­per­i­ty in this mur­der mad­ness is sim­ply anoth­er act in the smoke and mir­rors sideshow.