Its easy in the excitement of National collegiate football finals to miss a very important fact. Both quarterbacks in this highly anticipated football game are African-American. Neither ESPN the sporting world’s medium , or any of the other networks will bother to highlight this little fact.
What you will hear much about is the genius of Alabama’s coach Nick Saban (much deserved ) and Clemson“s Dabo Swinney. We are not in the business of predicting winners and losers in college football . Neither do we begrudge these two fantastic head-coaches. But since they won’t bother to expand or expound on this little fact, even the black analysts, sheesh , particularly the black analysts > So we just though we would bring this little nugget up.
We just thought that you will hear the names of these two outstanding young athletes a lot. But no no one will bother to tell you that in the big wide world of American collegiate football these two standouts just happen to be black. Enjoy the game .……
I am tired of writing about crime. I keep saying the same things over and over. The majority of Jamaicans have no need to be convinced of the commonsensical things which I say, but our élite dominates traditional media discourse on the issue, and our politicians are in terror of them the way ordinary citizens are in terror of gunmen. The politicians don’t have the guts and courage of leadership to take the tough decisions which they need to make to send a signal to criminals because talk-show hosts, articulate, well-spoken defense attorneys and other human rights fundamentalists will clobber them if they dare to act decisively and tough. Every prime minister and minister of national security knows that once he starts talking tough or takes strong action to make life harder for criminals, defense attorneys will be on every talk-show and every prime-time television newscast to make hysterical, histrionic claims of repression and denial of human rights.
Yet our journalists, columnists and civil society activists have the gall to be making calls for the Government to ‘do something now’ and to ‘act decisively’ to deal with crime and to “tame the crime monster. They talk about a whole menu of things which need to be done to fight crime. But examine them carefully. Not one would have any effect on murder today or next week. Listen to their recommendations again and ask, ‘which one would make criminals think twice about killing today?’. Yes, I agree with all the human rights activists about the social and structural changes which are needed to fight crime sustainably. But what strategies can halt the horrific daily spate of murders? When will we have all the money to effect all the grand social and economic transformation needed to do all the things which the social justice model demands? What irks me is not that these human rights fundamentalists are stressing the long-term things which need to be done. I have no disagreement with them. My problem is when these same persons harshly criticise the Government for not doing something now, when nothing they are proposing can have any practical effect on crime now. Nothing. Only one bleeding heart columnist has had the honesty to say plainly that there is nothing that can be done right now to halt crime, and we just have to invest the time and resources to get it right.
I respect that kind of forthright admission. He does not annoy me. But it is those who are writing editorials, columns and who are on talk shows demanding that Government ‘do something about this crime now!’ whose reasoning repels me. The only anti-crime measures which can have an immediate effect on crime deterrence must involve some curtailment of civil liberties enjoyed in normal times. We are not in normal times. It seems that that is dawning on our prime minister. In his new year’s message he said something very significant. I just hope he has the courage to carry it through, after the predictable voices in the defense bar get on early morning, mid-morning, afternoon and night-time talk-shows and newscasts to blast him. He said: “I believe the Jamaican people are now prepared and expectant of firm and decisive action in breaking the neck of the crime monster once and for all.”
Mr Prime Minister, they have been ready for a long, long time. It is our élite which has not been ready, using sophistry and obfuscation to escape the crystal clear conclusions: We are at war with criminals and we have to craft anti-crime strategies to fit that war.
The prime minister has now told us that, “I have been around the country and everywhere I go the cry is the same, deal with the criminals. I no longer detect an ambivalence.” There was never any ambivalence with the people, Mr Prime Minister. The problem is with our élite, who are as out of touch with the people’s everyday realities as the American élite was with working class and grassroots people in in their country, resulting in that shock defeat to their Democratic candidate. Our traditional media, like the American traditional media, are out of touch with grassroots fears, concerns and views. These ordinary Jamaicans are seen as just ‘panicking’, after ‘revenge’ and not being sophisticated or enlightened enough to understand the intricacies of human rights issues. We have a prime minister who is social media savvy and who is directly in touch with multiple tens of thousands of people through those platforms. His thinking is not just influenced by what traditional media discourse is. While I know he remains sensitive to that, he is acutely aware of a broader constituency; a constituency whose interests don’t converge with those of the defense bar.
I was happy to hear the prime minister announce that “we will be creating the legislative environment to support the establishment of the rule of law in communities where it is absent and to separate criminals from communities they have captured.” He went on to say: “We will be creating under this framework, zones where the security forces and other Government agencies will be able to conduct special long-term operations in high crime areas, including extensive searches for guns and contraband.” Excellent! Expect to hear defense lawyers on every talk show and to see editorials and columns inveighing in Manichean terms about an approaching Apocalypse and the end of democracy and human rights in Jamaica. If the prime minister is not prepared to press ahead despite that; if he displays the fear which has crippled others from decisive, tough action, he will back away from whatever he announces as soon as he does. The power of the media/defense bar élite has to be resisted. The courage of Andrew Holness’ leadership will be severely tested on this issue of security. Peter Bunting used to boast about how curfews had declined under his watch. There must be more curfews, searches and detentions in areas of high criminality. Certain people who nobody dares testify against and who can afford the highest-priced criminal lawyers must be taken off the streets and detained. You could say until you are blue that it is because my children will not be scraped up. That diversionary argument won’t detain me.
People in inner-city communities know that there are certain criminals who are well-known but whom nobody can testify against in a court of law. These guys can hire the best attorneys to defend them or to get them on bail where they can kill more people. Let them and their attorneys protest; let all the editorial writers, columnists and commentators come out in unison against the measures you are coming with, prime minister, have the guts to implement them in the interest of Jamaica and its future. Don’t be intimidated by élite lawyers with uptown diction and impeccable media connections. The people are not listening to them. The people know better. They don’t have safe uptown houses . The prime minister said in his new year’s address that he was confident that this year “will be the breakthrough year in bringing the crime monster under control, while respecting the human rights of every citizen” . I am for respecting human rights. I am not calling for extra-judicial killings or police abuses. But I am calling for locking down certain communities, locking away certain known crime perpetrators; going into homes without search warrants and stopping vehicles on the road. Curtail some of my civil liberties in the interest of all. You can’t have human rights if there is not a viable state. We cannot allow Jamaica to become a failed state and to let our prospects for economic growth evaporate before our eyes because our politicians and chattering classes are cowards. Enough is enough! .….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….…
mb
Thanks Ian Boyne. I have always believed that ultimately things will come to a boil, that sooner or later people’s eyes will be opened to the negative consequences of crime on their lives . More and more non-police Jamaicans are coming to that critical mass and it’s encouraging.
For years I have written and written and written about this seminal issue. For years I have spoken to the fact that there are a bunch of self-appointed Elites who shape public perception about what is done about crime. For years I pointed out to the Jamaican people who actually suffer from crime , that it is them and their family members whom are the victims of crime. I spoke specifically about where they may be found , I characterized them as those who live above Cross-Roads. But that does not adequately describe where they may be found. They are in the media houses,(move yu toe Boyne) they can be found in the Island’s Bar association, (the criminal lawyers who survive from crime).They are at the University of the West Indies,(Mutty Perkins labeled it the intellectual ghetto).The Norman Manley law school being the epic-center of the indoctrination, as well as the overall campus which has always been a ground-zero of leftist ideology.
These societal vultures are master pontificates. They carved out a place for themselves which effectively positions themselves as moral superiors. They understand that poverty and bad governance breeds crime. The perfect environment for them to operate. Taking the sides of criminals secures them in their abilities to make a living from the blood-shed,while shielding them from the blood-letting as a result of the stance they take.
The trail lawyers were always understood to be just an uptick above the vultures which tear the carcass from the corpse of the innocent slaughtered on the Serengeti. They like the Vultures are quite content to wait on the lions/lionesses , after which they swoop down to pick up the pieces left over by the killers. It the new breed of Vultures, (jankru) which have taken over the narrative. Those whom have driven fear into Politicians, and police , preventing them from doing what must be done to reclaim the streets from the mindless killers.
IT DIDN’T TAKELONGASWEEXPECTED
We knew it wouldn’t be long before these local jankru, I’m sorry vultures swooped down as they are wont to do whenever anyone dare step up in a away which will disrupt their food.. The ink on Boyne’s Article hadn’t dried before they swooped down. In case you are wondering who they are, here is what appeared in the Gleaner on Monday morning , the very next day.
.….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….… Courtesy of the daily Gleaner.
Public Defender Arlene Harrison Henry, a defence lawyer and human-rights activist, says the proposal by influential journalist Ian Boyne for Prime Minister Andrew Holness to curtail the rights of Jamaicans to address crime should be rejected for its ‘unlawfulness’. Boyne, in his column in The Sunday Gleaner yesterday, branded rights advocates, defence lawyers, and members of the media as elites “who harshly criticise the Government for not doing something now when nothing they are proposing can have any practical effect on crime now”.
Harrison Henry
“I am calling for locking down certain communities, locking away certain known crime perpetrators; going into homes without search warrants and stopping vehicles on the road. Curtail some of my civil liberties in the interest of all. You can’t have human rights if there is not a viable State,” he wrote, urging Holness to ‘resist’ efforts to undermine plans to address the crime problem this year. However, Harrison Henry said those suggestions should be rejected. “Mr Boyne’s aim is for the reduction of crime, and that is laudable. The methods he has prescribed, however, have already been tried, tested and proved not to work. So let us not forget that Tivoli Gardens incursion in 2010.”
She argued that some of the old methods included the Suppression of Crime Act of 1974 that was repealed in 1993 after yielding little results except for the alleged abuses of citizens’ rights. Tied to that is the creation of various special police units over the years that earned the wrath of rights campaigners for their actions. “At the risk of being regarded by Boyne as one of the human-rights fundamentalists, what we’re saying is that crime-fighting measures will not succeed if people’s rights are disregarded. Crime is a societal problem and it cannot be solved without the full involvement of communities.”
Atkinson
Jamaican authorities are struggling to contain crime, particularly murders — the key indicator. About 1,350 people were murdered last year, 11 per cent more than 2015. That’s a rate of about 45 homicides per 100,000 of the population. Rights campaigner Horace Levy said the figure is high, but the “nonsense” proposed by Boyne will not do anything to address the problem. “It simply has not worked. For decades, we’ve been doing that. It’s absolute rubbish! Absolute rubbish!” Levy said. “And, we in the civil society, and I’m sure the Jamaican Bar Association, will also be involved in it, will fight any attempt to bring back this business of barging into peoples’ houses without search warrants and limiting their right to bail. I’m disappointed in Boyne because he usually writes good sense,” added Levy, the executive director of Jamaicans for Justice.
Levy
On the issue of searching houses without warrants, Patrick Atkinson, defence lawyer and former attorney general, said Boyne should volunteer his house first. “I would like them to start by going in and locking down his community, and stop and search his car, and going into his house without a warrant. Since he’s willing to do that, let them start there,” he said. “It is just a recycled diatribe that occurs every time that there is a crime spike. When you have these spikes in crimes, they call on police to stop it. They call on lawyers to be silent. They feel it necessary to dismiss lawyers by referring to them as high-priced lawyers, as if that is some kind of a crime. They don’t speak about high-priced doctors or high-priced journalists. If you’re a lawyer, nobody has a clue what your fees are and that people somehow, by hiring lawyers, it facilitates them committing crime. It is all nonsense.
“To stop crime is really not the police’s job,” said Atkinson. “The police are there primarily to go and investigate crimes that have been committed.” His successor in the attorney general’s chambers, Marlene Malahoo-Forte, renewed the debate about rights and crime last May when she told the Parliament that “fundamental rights and freedoms guaranteed to Jamaicans may have to be abrogated, abridged or infringed” to address crime. Holness noted in his New Year’s Day message that legislative changes were coming, but gave no specifics. The public defender, meanwhile, said her office was prepared to fight any unlawful proposal.
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These are not the only entrenched criminal supporting people on the Island. Neither are the Organizations they represent the totality of the myriad institutions which does so. Some are even tax-payer funded ‚yet actively engages in and enhances crime on the Island. This has been par for the course in the over 50 years since the British handed the country after 1962.
I’m glad Ian Boyne used term “ELITES” to describe them, he simply forget to add “wannabe”. Criminal lawyers live off crime. Human rights people eat a food off allegations of state abuse. The very office of public defender is a contradiction, it should be scrapped , the public defender’s office is actually the DPP. What has that little creep Levy done outside leeching and mooching? In what other country outside the worlds number one criminal paradise Jamaica, would these despicable miscreants even have a say in national security policy?
Two issues arise whenever these vultures open their despicable pie-holes. (1) They demonize anyone who disagree with their views, and canonize those with whom they agree. (2) They naturally default to using the word “unlawful”, as soon as there is a suggestion to get tough with criminals. We know these people are leeches , we know they are parasites . What these damn fools do not realize is that all that is needed, is to change the laws and what they perceive to be unlawful now becomes lawful.
How dumb do they think the average people are? In Jamaica there two groups of people , there are decent good people who are victimized by crime then there are the criminals and their cabal of supporters which include these jankru Elitists.
The people of Colombia rose up against crime, they chose not to become a narco-state. They rose up against Pablo Escobar, the Medellin cartel and the Cali Cartel. But they also rose up on those who for years supported the criminals . That time is fast approaching in Jamaica. There are some in Jamaica who must receive visitations if our country is to improve . Our country must move from a criminal supporting state controlled by Liberal talking heads. In order to get there some of these” jankrus” who feed off the carcass of our countrymen must be removed.
War had literally been declared on Jamaica by the criminal elements in the period just before May 24, 2010 when the security forces conducted what they said was a necessary operation in Tivoli Gardens, Kingston.
Many Jamaicans will remember that before the May 24, 2010 operation, personnel at the Denham Town Police Station were attacked by gunmen, that heavily armed criminals from across Jamaica had assembled in Tivoli; that these criminals had barricaded and fortified Tivoli Gardens; that women had marched dressed in immaculate white clothes stating emphatically that they would die for their leader Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke, that the Darling Street and Hanna Town police stations had been razed and that two police officers were brutally slain on Sunday May 23 on Mountain View Avenue in St Andrew Eastern.
The aftermath of the security forces operation saw over 60 people being killed and, after sometime, Coke was eventually captured and then extradited to the United States to stand trial on a number of charges. He was found guilty and is now serving time in a US prison.
A Commission of Enquiry headed by former Barbados Attorney General Sir David Simmons, with Professor Anthony Harriott and retired Supreme Court Justice Hazel Harris as the other two commissioners, was established to assess events leading to events during the security forces’ operation, events after the operation, and to make recommendations. The commissioners heard testimony from victims, the police, the army, various specialists, and in the end made three major recommendations: one — that an apology be made to the Tivoli Gardens community; two — special payments be made to affected members of Tivoli Gardens; and three — that known garrisons be de-garrisoned over time.
In probably his last major interview before joining the ranks of retired police officers on Tuesday of this week, Deputy Commissioner of Police Glenmore Hinds told the Jamaica Observer that people, conveniently or otherwise, quickly forget the circumstances and events leading to the security forces’ operation in Tivoli Gardens on May 24, 2010.
“My most discouraging moment as a police officer who served for over 40 years was the outcome of the Tivoli inquiry, for the simple reason that I felt that all the evidence was not properly understood by the country and the commissioners, and I think to a large extent, we, the security forces, have not been treated fairly.
“I suppose the passage of time could very well impair people’s memories to recall events, but I remember well the events leading up to when the police and military went into Tivoli Gardens, and at the time there was no doubt that the country was literally taken over by criminals.
“I have never seen such palpable fear on the faces of Jamaicans than on Sunday, May 23, 2010 when policemen were being killed, policemen and women were being attacked at police stations. It was a most daunting period for us and the country.
V(16 )And the second beast required all people small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, 17so thatnoonecouldbuyorsellunlesshehadthemark —thenameof thebeastorthenumberof itsname.18Here is a call for wisdom: Let the one who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and that number is six hundred sixty-six.…(Berean Study Bible)>
In the din of everyday life it is easy to miss God’s voice. Those who trust in him and believe his words are sacrosanct must do their very best to go to their private places, or quite spaces, even when totally strapped to the hamster-wheel of life’s daily grind.
God speaks to us as long long as we are willing to listen. He is able to do that in tiny moments of his choosing because he is God Almighty. I can lay no claim to being an obedient listener who waits for him to speak through his Holy Spirit to my heart , yet in his grace and mercy, in his infinite wisdom and awesome kindness he sometimes chooses the least qualified , the least likely , the least worthy through whom to communicate his word.
Telling of his grace and goodness cannot always come from an esteemed pulpit, but from wherever we are , reaching the people we can reach, in whatever way we can. So that his Kingdom may be glorified. I am one of those unqualified, unworthy, unlikely servants. That must have been the way Jonah felt when he decided to ignore the Lords call to travel to Nineveh to warn the people of God’s imminent wrath which was to come. Jonah in his limited wisdom and human flesh had no use for the Ninevites, he believed they were utterly deserving of whatever God was about to visit on them. In his eyes they were wicked people who deserved every bit of what was to come.
It’s such a beautiful , wonderful thing to be comforted in the knowledge that God does not harbor the thoughts we harbor, does not hate the way we hate. In fact the only thing he hates is the sin in us . Even though we sin he forgives us while still holding us in his loving arms. Though undeserving we still benefit from his unconditional love, his unending forgiveness.
REVELATION.….
So this morning before going to work I was taking a shower as I always do each day, and out of nowhere his voice spoke to my heart “you like to write, how about writing something for me”? “How about telling those with whom you interact that my words are true today as they were yesterday, as they will be for evermore”?
“Wow” ! The Book of Revelation Chapter 13 Verses 16 – 18 was revealed to me. I found it stunning that God would want me to write about that to the maybe four people who would potentially be interested in anything I have to say. Usually my wife and maybe two of my friends.
According to fortune.com, for the first time ever, shoppers are going to the web for most of their purchases.
An annual survey by analytics firm comScore (SCOR, ‑0.97%) and UPS(UPS, +0.20%) found that consumers are now buying more things online than in stores. The survey, now in its fifth year, polled more than 5,000 consumers who make at least two online purchases in a three-month period. According to results, shoppers now make 51% of their purchases online, compared to 48% in 2015 and 47% in 2014.
According to the website Forbes.com, Amazon ruined the Holidays for retailers. As the owner of a small electronic business I know all too well what that feels like. Before this mad rush to shop online, I understood the mad rush toward the large box-stores during the holiday season. As Black Friday images emerged showing throngs of people lining up for deals in sub-zero temperatures, companies like Amazon has made it much easier to purchase online insulating shoppers from the madness.
Amazon is now asking the Government to approve drone licencing which would essentially allow the mega retailer to deliver same day to it’s customers. If approved this will certainly deal a death knell to many mega stores, not to mention small mom and pop establishments which are just barely hanging on for survival.
According to CNNmoney.com ‚In a sign of how dramatically the retail shopping landscape is changing, Macy’s is closing 100 of its stores nationwide. Macy’s (M) announced the closures Thursday. They represent about 15% of all Macy’s department stores. The iconic retailer did not disclose the locations of stores, but said most of them will be shut down in early 2017.
For instance, Walmart (WMT)announced plans in January to shut down 269 stores this year and just this week, inked a $3.3 billion deal to acquire Amazon rival Jet.com. Sports Authority, once the nation’s largest sporting goods retailer, is shutting all 450 of its stores after filing for bankruptcy. Other traditional retailers such as Target(TGT), JC Penney (JCP), Kmart, Sears (SHLD) and Kohl’s(KSS) have also pulled the plug on hundreds of stores in recent months. It’s a grim picture for retail store workers — there have been around 44,000 retail layoffs announced so far this year alone, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas data. Walmart’s closures alone impacted 16,000 workers. Macy’s closures come amid a sixth-straight quarterly decline in sales. However, sales fell less than feared and the company said it’s “encouraged” by recent sales trends. Wall Street applauded the dramatic store closures, sending the stock surging 17%, its best day since 2008.
Last night I needed to purchase a laptop bag for my wife, so after work I drove to K‑Mart, they usually have stuff like that right? Wrong, the store seemed like they were on the verge of closing down. I drove across the street to Radio Shack, they are smaller , with stores generally the size of my small business . They did not look much better than K‑Mart , just smaller more organized but of course they did not have any either. So I went a few miles up the road in another direction to Staples , only to see total darkness where Staples once stood, it had closed.
I Inquired from staff at a large store next door which is kinda like a dollar store filled with chachkies, “what happened to Staples” ? They told me they moved to where Office Depot once was before they closed down. So I got back into my car and drove the few miles down Route 9 south. The store was there like she said, but stocked surprisingly sparsely. I was the only customer except a lady getting some copies made. I found a few laptop cases and grabbed one for Cheryl, I was through driving.
A friend who owns a petrol station laments to me that he is paying humongous sums of money to the Banks through their merchant services divisions which handles credit card processing. This I understood well, more and more people are opting for the fast convenience of credit/debit card use over cash, my customers being no exception. He tells me the bulk of his customers who stop for gas uses a debit or credit card. His establishment also houses a convenient store as well, thats where his profits come from as there are really not much margins on gasoline sales. However he went on to say that even if the customers are not filling up their tanks but are getting a cup of coffee, they still plunk down a debit/credit card. Turning them away is not an option .
To the young Generation X’ers this is cool, clutter-free way of doing business, a cashless society. But a cashless society has it’s downsides. For instance the Banks are getting exponentially richer as they cut into the meager profits of retailers who have no choice but to accept credit card and debit cards. This forces more and more small business to close as they are unable to turn a profit.(And the rich shall be richer and the poor poorer) Credit/debit cards get lost they are prone to being compromised. Hackers are able to hack into large holding servers stealing millions of credit/debit card information which renders owners penniless and at further risk.
So with people literally looking to shop online which drastically reduces competition for large corporations, and the legal tender already proven vulnerable and easily compromised whats next? V(16 )And the second beast required all people small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, 17so thatnoonecouldbuyorsellunlesshehadthemark —thenameof thebeastorthenumberof itsname.
The human specie will do precious little to halt it’s own march toward it’s ultimate conclusion. In fact humanity is gleefully rushing to it’s destiny, unwittingly ‚fulfilling Biblical Prophecy in the process. Even so, Isaiah 55:11New King James Version (NKJV)11 So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.
Please read , leave a comment and definitely share.
Finally, Andrew Holness has started to figure it out , we won’t take any credit for incessantly beating the drums on this issue , sufficing to say taking control of the crime situation in our country is of paramount concern to this medium.
In a normal election, a presidential inauguration would be a celebration of our democracy whether your side won or lost, and an example of the country’s bedrock faith in the peaceful transition of power. It should be amply clear by now that the election of 2016 was no normal election.
As a result, former labor secretary Robert Reich thinks a Democratic boycott of Trump’s swearing in is entirely appropriate. And that includes former presidents. On Wednesday, Reich wrote a Facebook post arguing that anyone who attends the Jan. 20 event — unless they are protesting — is giving tacit support to a man who broke all democratic norms during the campaign and continues to show zero remorse for doing so, in short, a “dangerous demagogue.”
The post was apparently prompted by a call the Berkeley professor received from a politician he respects about attending. Maybe it was one of the Clintons, given the somewhat shocking revelation on Tuesday that the Clintons were invited, as were other former presidents and their wives, and would attend.
Here is Reich’s post in its entirety:
I got a call this morning from a politician I respect who told me he was attending Trump’s inauguration not because he backs Trump but because he believes in promoting unity over partisanship and supporting a peaceful transition of power.
I told him that’s why politicians of both parties normally attend an inauguration. But the issue here has nothing to do with partisanship or a normal transition of power. It’s not matter of Democrat versus Republican, or left versus right.
The issue here is how former presidents and other politicians should respond to someone who has shown himself to be a dangerous demagogue.
Donald Trump became president by lying, demeaning women, denigrating racial and ethnic minorities, denying intelligence reports of foreign intervention in our election, excusing violence against opponents, and undermining the freedom and independence of the press. And since being elected he’s held rallies and issued tweets in which he’s continued to tell big lies, retaliate against critics, call opponents “enemies,” avoid press conferences and dismiss conflicts of financial interest.
I told him that, in my view, attending Trump’s inauguration gives tacit support and approval to someone who poses a clear and present danger to our democracy.
I’ve thought long and hard about what process would effectively disrupt the safety net which allows Jamaican politicians to be arrogant,non-productive and criminal even. In some democratic countries well orchestrated grass-roots campaigns are able to dislodge politicians who are lying sniveling, self-serving snakes like 99.99% of those in Jamaica.
In the United States this is becoming less and less possible because of the process of gerrymandering. This process essentially redraws congressional districts to include voters loyal to the party with control of the Congress. The result is congressional representatives who are intransigent in their refusal to do the nation’s business, giving them cover to pursue their own agendas. Ultimately voters lose their voices in this process and are subjected to the dictates of their political party. It is similar to the creation of garrisons in Jamaica in which people loyal to the two political parties are given free homes and much more freebies in return for their lifelong allegiance, depending on which is in power. It’s a form of slavish servitude which strips people of their voices and ultimately their dignity.
JAMAICA
How does one expose politicians for the lying deceptive frauds they are when the people who elected them to office have reduced themselves to mere sheep to be herded by the very same politicians?
Such is the state of our beloved Jamaica, there is no appealing to the people’s intellect, there is no alerting the masses to the dangers inherent in the trust they place in the hands of politicians. Some nations have checks and balances which offers a degree of protection against some abuse by politicians, Jamaica is not one such country.
It’s extremely difficult to convince a people whom are deemed to be 84% corrupt that their Government of either political party, is not acting in their best interest. It’s literally impossible to convince them that crime is ultimately a destructive force in their lives when they eat and live from the proceeds of crime. How do you tell them that the very laws which are supposedly designed for their protection are designed by people who are supporters of murderers and purveyors of serious crimes, and in some case are actively committing crimes themselves?
Politicians of both political parties have found a willing compliant scapegoat for their transgressions, that scapegoat is known as the police high command. Whether it was thirty years ago or today, Whether they were promoted to senior ranks through long service, news-carrying, sleeping up the ranks, being yard boys, etc . Or through meritorious service and education, their cowardice is the very same palpable cowardice.
They allow themselves to be used as templates, barometer for whats wrong in the country by both political parties. They accept drinks and pats on the back and look the other way while politicians commit all kinds of crimes without accountability. Ask yourselves this question. Why have the American Government revoked the visas of some politicians, essentially preventing them from entering the United States? A country which believes in the rule of law gets the rule of law . Countries with ethical leaders cannot have bad police departments because they ensure there are safeguards in place to trip up bad officers and protect good ones. They ensures that the law applies to each and every citizen and not just the poorer class.
Corruption is rife in the country, at the highest levels of the Government corruption is the rule, not the exception. That explain the reason why they tie the hands of the police while pretending to care about human rights. Please do not talk to me about human rights abuse by police. A government which cares about people puts in place the requisite framework for an efficient police department which is professional , caring and competent. That’s how the central issue of basic protection of human rights is guaranteed. Not by tying the hands of police and empowering criminals.
Human rights are guaranteed when we modernize our law enforcement agencies and ensure that the rule of law is sacrosanct. Placing the rights of criminals over that of their victims is stupid or inherently calculative. I am inclined to believe the latter is true in my country. To hell with the dead victims , let us ensure that no one place a scratch on the murdering scums when they are caught. Minister Montague you say a lot of silly things , God bless you , I believe your heart is in the right place even if you have no idea where that place is. In your zeal to ensure that “criminals run weh“please consult your colleague Delroy Chuck, and others , then ask the members on the Opposition benches whether they share your dream that criminals should run weh?
You see Minister Montague, therein lies the problem. Because in the highest places of our country, Jamaica’s criminals have entrenched allies. And that’s a real problem. We understand some indictments are coming in that Caricelldébâcle,we also understand some visas have already been taken away. Maybe more is to come stay tuned.
Excerpts of Robert Montague’s statements made at the Annual Devotional Exercise staged by the constabulary at the Police Commissioner’s Office.
Robert Montague national security minister.
“Whoever is the next commissioner, and whoever is the next assistant commissioner will have to sign a contract with performance standards and timelines.” “Every member going forward now who is going to the high command [will] have to sign a contract. You have to resign from your regular service and sign a contract, or don’t take the promotion, so you have a choice.” “As the minister, I am held accountable by the public of Jamaica,” he said, adding that the police commissioner is the person who has operational responsibility for dealing with crime, “so he or she has to come to the table with a plan”. “We don’t hear that over 700 men and women in the force have a first degree, we don’t hear that 320 serving men and women have a master’s degree, some have two. We don’t hear that five members of the force are currently writing their dissertation for PhDs, and we don’t hear that 20 members are attorneys-at-law, and then they tell me that there is nobody competent in the force to lead? Run wey wid dat!” http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/New-commish-must-provide-performance-targets – says-Montague_85511
You are probably as stunned as I am at this statement. On the face of it the idea of a potential commissioner of police coming to the job without a crime fighting strategy of his/her own is absolutely stunning.
It is shocking at least to me, that a potential candidate for the Nations top cop would be hired without a strategic plan on how to deal comprehensively with crime.
So what was the criteria for hiring previous commissioners of police? Additionally, what were the prerequisites for promoting people to senior leadership positions , outside the normal, nepotism, friends, yard-boys, sleeping with the boss, news-carrying, long service, yes men/women etc? For years I made the case that the so-called police high command is largely an over-bloated useless bureaucracy with no clear performance standards. I believe the Minister’s statements bore that out succinctly.
For years after leaving the Police department I have written extensively on best practices which I believed, and still do, should enhance the process of good leadership in the JCF and good policing on the streets. It is utterly disheartening to me , to now hear that there wasn’t even a strategic vision by previous commissioners of police. At least by inference.
At the risk of flogging a dead horse I must divest the esteemed Minister of National Security of the notion that people with PhD ‘s and multiple graduate degrees translate into good cops. Education is absolutely great, but a cop must want to be a cop, not a lawyer or anything else. People having graduate degrees does not naturally translate into good leaders , much less good cops. It may only mean they can’t find other vocations in Jamaica’s limited work environment.
One has to assume that a commissioner of police who comes to the job without his own crime fighting plan will not be effective executing someone else’s plan , a plan he does not believe in, or more shockingly, a plan which does not exist. There is an old saying “if you don’t know where you are going you are already there”. PhD’s and other degrees are not panaceas for effectively dealing with the Island’s crime problem. If they were, the problem would have been fixed with the hiring of Carl Williams.
As I have stated repeatedly in this medium, Former NYPD commissioner William Bratton is a template of effective cop/commissioner. He never had a degree, throughout his career he did multiple courses germane to his chosen profession. He was a beat cop who started out on the streets of Boston Massachusetts. He was a cop’s cop , a man who wanted to be a cop. Not a cop who wanted to be a Dr or Lawyer. Sure these are noble parts of the puzzle , but being a good police officer does not hinge on any of that. Jamaica needs good police officers, good middle managers, and a good commissioner of police who understands Jamaica’s unique policing complexities. Not a Commissioner and a cadre of fancy dressed wall-flowers who never made an arrest but use their positions to make life difficult for their juniors instead of providing mentor-ship and leadership.
Jamaica’s crime problem cannot and will not be solved by the police alone. Government and civil society cannot hide like cowards from the part they too must play in solving this puzzle. Norman Manley once said “there can be no real victory without a few broken skulls” . Jamaicans will inevitably come to realize that you first secure and render a scene safe before you care for casualties. Yes we must be mindful of human rights abuses , but we can never successfully do so unless we neutralize those who would do harm to the innocent. I am not suggesting that citizens rights be sacrificed on the altar of crime fighting. The two are certainly not mutually exclusive. I am merely suggesting that if the nation is serious about the existential threat crime poses , its loyalties ought to lie with the police department, flawed though it is. It will be a work in progress, Jamaicans must realize that it is the dirty corrupt Governments they tolerated for decades which led to corruption in the police department. Jamaica will have significantly less crime when the people allow themselves to be governed by the rule of law and not the rule of the jungle. It’s all in their hands.
Since the creation of (indecom)the supposed independent commission of investigations which is tasked with investigating alleged improprieties by members of the police , military and correctional department I have been in opposition to it because it is fundamentally flawed.
Over the years I have written more about this than any other subject matter impacting the Island of Jamaica. No one is naïve enough to believe that the aforementioned Government agencies do not need to be properly monitored. What I have consistently said is that these agencies are the three agencies staffed by the average person coming from the rural parishes. In other words these officers are from the poorer darker class of Jamaicans . They are being scapegoated to cover up for the incredible corruption and failings of the Island’s two political parties which are merely two criminal gangs.
No one can deny that members of all three branches of the security forces have done immeasurable harm to their respective agencies. It is equally undeniable that by their actions they created the need for oversight. What cannot be laid at their feet is the gross incompetence and callous disregard with which the elitists designers of the (indecom act) went about drafting a bill that they knew would be disastrous to members of the security forces.
It would be a stretch to assume that those elitist architects of the law had the intellectual capacity which would have allowed them to foresee the unintended consequences the law would have on the lives of innocent Jamaicans. Unfortunately for Jamaicans they ended up with a law which is so destructive that major crimes including homicides has gone through the roof. I hate to sound cavalier in my characterization , each statistic is a human life lost. Unfortunately for the police they have seen a marked increase in assaults on their persons to include lethal assaults. The end result of the (indecom) fiasco is that the elitist who run the apple cart has proven their point. There is a marked decrease in police shootings.
There is no denying that . Officers are well aware that the law is protective of criminals. They are also aware that the intent of the law was exactly to render them impotent in the execution of their duties. They are not clueless to the fact that the criminals are in Gordon House , more so than down in grass yard. What the Government and (indecom) tells you though is that the law is working . The question is “working for whom”? The police, not totally dumb have simply refused to be hauled before a criminal supporting agency , to be maligned and incriminated by a Napoleonic egomaniac. An egomaniac who wanted a high court job but did not get one. An egomaniac who wanted to be DPP but did not get that job either. So his crony Bruce Golding , supported by Seaga, James Robertson,Portia Simpson Miller, Delroy Chuck and a bunch of others came up with the (indecom) débâcle.
If the Elites want to have a superior police force over and above that which exist , let them give guns to (indecom) and let them deal with the killers since they can do a better job of apprehending them without shooting them.
The fact that these creatures supported the law should send a serious shiver down the spines of decent law abiding Jamaicans, not cause them to feel comforted. What they will never do is attest, much less admit, to the fact that less criminals are getting killed by police while more innocent Jamaicans are getting killed by criminals. So when the Jamaican Government of either side tell you that (indecom) is a success believe them, just understand that they are telling you that the lives of the bloodthirsty killers are more valuable than yours. If you fail to recognize that, then you are more stupid than they think you are.
Years ago people rose up en-mass during Barack Obama’s first term when he suggested that Americans earning half a million dollars or more should pay a little more in taxes. The T‑Party was born, people came out in the mid-western region of the country , literally with pitch forks and guns to protest the President’s proposal. Experts revealed that the median income in those areas was around forty thousand dollars annually. Not a single person earning the half a million dollar was out there demonstrating, it was the poor people out militating against their own self interest. Yes kinda like the coal-miners who voted Trump and now are petrified of losing their Obama care. They never even knew or bothered to find out who was behind the T‑party façade. Funding the T‑Party are two of the richest men in America, Charles and his brother David Koch , multi billionaire owners of Koch Industries. Men who called themselves Libertarians but are rather greedy Industrialists who do not mind destroying the planet so they can stack up zeros on their bank accounts while paying workers next to nothing for their labor.
Its never the so called upper class who are being murdered in the streets, its never they who are being murdered in their homes. Terrence Williams and (indecom)are about the protection of the status quo. When was the last time you heard one of the elitist getting shot? Yet it is always the poorer class militating for these shackles on police. You know why? Because poor people believe in crime , they see crime as a means to an end they figure they can benefit from crime regardless of the consequences. Unfortunately they never stop to think that ultimately crime diminishes and impoverishes all except a select few.
So now the Island’s clueless Minister of national security discloses that the suggested and much anticipated Memorandum Of Understanding which is supposed to alleviate the concerns of the security forces will be signed as a parting gift to outgoing commissioner of police Carl Williams.
Said Montague: “We are moving to complete the MoU with INDECOM and the JCF and I want to have it signed before the sixth, in honor of Dr Carl Williams. That is my going away gift to him.” “Understand clearly that INDECOM is part of the legislative framework of the land. It is a standing commission of Parliament, it is not going anywhere. So don’t do anything bad, you have nothing to fear.” The nerve of this buffoon !!!
So even though the details of this supposed MoU has not yet been made public we are told that lawyers will be provided for officers having to deal with (indecom), big whoopie !!! You are still at risk of being persecuted for doing your job but we will add another layer of our friends to this eat-a-food débâcle. In essence your ass may still go to jail for shooting the punk shooting at you but at least we provided you with a third rate legal defender.
The fact that the Government, or whomever, the select parliamentary committee which oversees the (indecom) débâcle agreed that there is a need for a MoU is proof that what I have stated over the years is exactly correct.What officers still serving has said is exactly correct. Here’s the facts which they will never tell you or concede. (1) A potential MoU is a concession that the law is inherently flawed. (2) Hearing of the problems as outlined by DCP Novelette Grant awhile back, one member of the parliamentary committee hearing testimonies argued ‚“maybe the problems (indecom) poses cannot be fixed with a Memorandum of understanding”. (3)If there is an intelligent assessment which concludes that there needs to be a bridge between the two agencies. And if the conclusions are that at the bare minimum there needs to be a fix , albeit an insufficient MoU ‚why not concede that the law was not adequately discussed , debated , and crafted before enactment? (4) And in lieu of the foregone, why not pass a law repealing the (indecom act) then get down to the business of redoing the act? Only this time create a law which serves the purpose of protecting innocent citizens from state abuse while allowing our law-enforcement agencies to do their jobs without the specter of prison hanging over their heads?
A Memorandum of Understanding is not a fix to a bad law, it will not encourage a single cop to go after a man with a gun and risk getting shot while risking prison for doing what he swore to do. Neither will it prevent a single emboldened criminal from rethinking his murderous ways. So whats the point of a MoU? I’ll tell you, it is an appeasement smoke-screen, intended to re-commit officers to exposing themselves to persecution for going after criminals with no change in the law, but offers up the perception of cover to cops which is merely a mirage. One which says we won’t change this bad law but when you get indicted by it we will provide you with a third rate lawyer who doesn’t give a shit about you. Sure bad cops should be prosecuted, what we do not need is the persecution of good police officers.
The rank and file of the police department must reject this affront to their intellect even before they see it . It will retain the diabolical (indecom act) while blowing smoke up their asses when they get indicted. The law is inherently bad , repeal it, no more lives needs being lost because people are too arrogant to say we fucked up.
Excerpts from the speech Deputy Commissioner of Police Novelette Grant gave to worshipers at the Boulevard Baptist Church in St Andrew.
“Please, don’t look to me to create the world in seven days. I never claimed to have that power … . And I will not be working any miracles, except that miracle comes from the people of Jamaica to renew their hearts and their minds and attitudes to become our brother’s keeper in the truest sense of the word, by following the example of the Samaritan,” Grant told worshipers at the Boulevard Baptist Church in St Andrew.
“As we see the possibilities of 2017, stand with your nation [and] pray for renewal of spirit in ourselves and in our brothers and sisters and let our lights shine, please, in cultivating an attitude of gratitude,”.
“I am commending to you, though, that you practice showing appreciation for those who serve, for those who protect, and for the ultimate sacrifice that they are asked to make on our behalf and for the families who support them, who enable them; because this was Christmas and many of us were never able to be with our families. We were out. On Christmas Day, I was out, and they were, working, working, working, and all they get is cuss, cuss, cuss. So can you tell them ‘thanks’ when you see them, and encourage them?”
I thought I would highlight these excerpts because Novelette Grant and I were at the Police training Academy at the same time, even though she entered and graduated a few months before the batch of which I was a member. I am thrilled that a female is being considered , even though she will not be the first woman to ever act as commissioner of police. More importantly than anything else,Novelette Grant spoke to the sacrifice, the challenges officers face daily and the ultimate sacrifice they sometimes make.
DCP Grant speaks to the stress cops are forced to deal with. A cops cop , Grant speaks to these challenges like none of her colleagues in the upper echelons of the force.
I may be wrong , but to the best of my recollection this is the first time I have heard a senior member of the police high command speak definitively and explicitly to those challenges and placing responsibility in the hands of the Jamaican people for their own security. Novelette Grant is an accomplished police officer, I believe she should be seriously considered for the role in which she will be thrust. If Andrew Holness has come to his senses and is finally prepared to take action against the Island killers it is important that the parliament get to work laying out a legislative framework for taking back the streets from the heavily armed and fearless killers who control them.
Key to retaking our country from the gangs is a repeal of the (indecom act). This law has been a colossal failure except to empower and embolden criminals, and feed the ego of a single individual whose intentions are to build a name for himself . Sure the police must have appropriate oversight. But that oversight cannot be an antagonistic encounter which ties the hands of police and kills their morale. The Act should be repealed and redone the correct way.
The police needs good and fair oversight. They need proper and adequate pay and benefits. More importantly they need legislative support , which must include judges and prosecutors who are on the right side of the rule of law. This means removing from the hands of these criminal-friendly judges discretion in sentencing, regardless of their howls of protest. If there is ever going to be change in how criminals behave they cannot have allies on the bench. Police officers have long complained about this problem from a generation ago . Today it is exponentially worse than it was in the 80’s and 90’s.
The courts have become a joke, the judges are far more friendly to the mass murderers than they are with the police and that has got to end. The police high command is also over-bloated. Half of the senior corp of the Constabulary does nothing to earn their pay. They should find other means to make a living. Wearing a police uniform without carrying out the functions of an officer does not make one a cop. It’s time to cut out much of the deadwood.
Everyone deserves the benefit of the doubt, though not a fan of politicians, this writer and this medium believes that the Prime Minister , though late in this recognition, deserves a chance to make good. The prime minister naively believed that there could be significant or measurable growth in an atmosphere of crime and mayhem. This medium has over the years categorically pointed out to both the former Administration and and to this new one, that crime is the single largest impediment to growth and prosperity on the Island.
With murders and other serious crimes on the rise , and the commissioner of police out of answers and stepping down, Holness now seem to have had a come-to-jesus-moment. To the prime minister’s sense of recognition that there is a problem I say “duh” . What took you so long to recognize that the killing of almost two thousand Jamaicans each year is untenable. What took you so long to recognize that this was not getting better?
This crime situation cannot, and will not be fixed by throwing more bodies at it . It certainly will not be fixed by changing the commissioner , even though there was no justification for Carl Williams’ continued tenure. The prime minister alluded to what he saw as a shift in the attitude of Jamaicans toward crime. I find it curious , because what I believe I am hearing is that the leader of the nation was waiting to hear people say they have had enough of the killings.
Is that not leading from behind? Leaders do not spit on their finger and place it in the wind to decide what direction to take. Leaders lead because it’s the right thing to do. Leaders make decisions and take action regardless of popular perceptions and opinions. There is nothing good in the deaths of hundreds of people each year. There is nothing defensible about the rape and abuse of innocent women girls and boys. Taking decisive action against depraved rapist and killers does not require a national shift in perceptions of a nation. It requires leadership from those elected to lead.
Before the inception of the (indecom) act. people of questionable characters , murderers, rapists, and other dangerous criminals were killed in confrontations with police.
A SOCIETYWHICHNOLONGERGRIEVETHEDEAD..
Terrence Williams
Jamaica has since made the decision that it will go the route of a failed state in which the Island is divided into enclaves controlled by gangs who trade in guns, drugs , murder for hire, extortion and lotto scamming.
Funerals have since taken over as a means for people to survive. Grave diggers make good money as they are kept busy keeping up with the demand for their services.
Bands and sound-systems make money as they are contracted to play at wakes , known locally as set-ups.
Funeral parlors make a killing from the macabre culture of death. Word is that some of the owners of these establishments actual contribute to the kill-culture as a means of enhancing their bottom lines.
Jerk vendors and others selling everything imaginable adorn the environs of the home in which a descendant lived.
The traditional norm of grieving the deceased is replaced with a carnival like atmosphere of decadent celebration and money-making.
In order for this culture of killing to get to this the police had to be rendered impotent. Both political parties saw to that through the creation of control, manipulation, interference, and overlaying of oversight it has used to tie the hands of the police.
The public, never one sold on the rule of law has taken on the grisly acceptance of eating and drinking from the proceeds of the dead whose blood lay splattered on literally every square yard of the Island’s villages and towns.
So now the police have stopped actively engaging these bloodthirsty killers because they have no desire to be pursued by a lunatic with too much power intent on incriminating them. Why should they? And the people cheer for the existence of (indecom), because in a twisted way when the police exterminate the blood thirsty demons who kill the innocents business is bad for the funeral director, the sound system man, the jerk vendor, the bandsmen, the handcart vendors and the grave diggers. Children have to go to school, these people all depend on the kill culture to survive. In a way it is a macabre way for a country to devour itself without realizing it.
Sure today is for that person but tomorrow it will be someone else and ultimately you! None of this matters in this crime infested criminal paradise. Death is good business and (indecom) ensures that the killing of the innocent will continue . People have to eat.
This year so far over 1300 people have been murdered on this tiny Island of 4411 square miles and 2.8 million people. The people at the top crow like the true vultures they are at the dramatic lessening of murderers who meet their just deserts at the hand of the police. But they are deafeningly silent at the over 1300 killed by the demonic bloodthirsty gangsters. Of course (indecom) is a raging success»>
Yesterday’s incident at the Hunts Bay police station in which a gunman thought that he would kill another on the grounds of the Hunts Bay police facility sends several messages. The Island continue to ignore them at it’s peril.
According to Jamaican media the man who was attacked was reporting on condition of his bail agreement arrived at after he was charged with murder. This in and of itself is a huge part of the problem which has driven the Island’s murder rate and has helped it to continue to metastasize. It matters not how many people you are alleged to have killed you are almost assured that the courts will slap some silly conditions to a piece of paper and you will walk out of jail almost immediately. This blatant abuse of the bail act leaves conscientious observers who are unafraid of speaking out to conclude that several of the Island’s judges are on the take.
On reaching the entrance to the station he was pounced upon by a lone gunman who opened fire at him. The police officers who were on the compound challenged the gunman and a shootout ensued. The gunman was shot and injured; he was taken to the Kingston Public Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Separate and apart from the many and varied attacks on police stations over the years , is the lack of fear that the criminal-underworld has, knowing that the police are not allowed to go after them. Over the years criminals attacked the Olympic Gardens Police station and killed police officers. They have on more than one occasion opened fire on the Cross Roads Police Station, Denham Town , Rockfort and many other police stations. Additionally they have burned the Darling Street Police station and several others to the ground. Every year several police officers are murdered on and off duty on the Island. Every year hundreds and hundreds of Jamaican citizens are murdered with the slaughter reaching critical mass in the year 2005 when over two thousand homicides were reported to police.
In 2010 after the Military and Police department went into the mother of all garrisons , (Tivoli Gardens) to extract wanted gangster Christopher (dudus)Coke , notorious gangland overlord, hundreds of mercenaries took up arms against the state. In the ensuing process leading up to the entry of the security forces into the community, police officers and members of the military were murdered. Police stations were destroyed, members of the public were murdered. Heavily armed members of the criminal underworld loyal to Coke through their associations and the entreaties he made to them with the promise of money, openly displayed their weaponry as they awaited the assault of the security forces.
In the end the security forces went in and kicked ass as they should. Soldiers and police officers lost their lives in the process of annexing the then criminal epic center Tivoli Gardens ‚to the Island. According to estimates some 74 combatants lost their lives. Several weapons were recovered, but as they could be counted on to do, the tough talking mercenaries slithered away like the cockroaches they are when the sheer force of the security forces entered the enclave. The untouchable state within the state was once again part of Jamaica.
The sheer weight of Christopher Coke’s power toppled Bruce Golding the Labor Member of the Parliament for western Kingston and Prime Minister at the time, and in whose constituency Tivoli Gardens lie. The PNP was swept into power after the demise of Golding. What the PNP did should have relegated that party to the dustbin of history forever, but not in Jamaica.
Instead of honoring the members of the security forces and their families for their sacrifice. Instead of joining hands with law abiding citizens and declaring once and for all, that from that day onward, Jamaica would eschew political violence as a strategy toward achieving state power.
The PNP commissioned and impaneled an elitist panel of know-nothings to conduct an expensive witch-hunt against the security forces ‚to see if and where they went wrong, in the process of annexing Tivoli Gardens to Jamaica.
Heading the panel was David Simmons a Barbadian Jurist who clearly came into the process with a chip on his shoulder and a total disdain for the security forces. As reprehensible as Simmons and the other two monkeys on the panel were, they paled in comparison to the treasonous actions of the PNP and its sad excuse for a leader, the incredibly intellectually challenged Portia Simpson Miller.
There is no evidence which supports any theory that Jamaicans are ungovernable or incapable of governing themselves. The vast majority of Jamaicans who move to other countries are hard working , progressive members of their adopted societies, to which they make significant and meaningful positive contributions. Those who steadfastly refuse to adhere to the rule of law which exist in their adopted homelands find themselves back on the rock in short order. The common thread which runs through those adopted countries ‚which just happen to be missing from Jamaica, is the rule of law.
Sure Jamaicans are able to obey and respect laws. When they are made to. When penalties are attached to breaking laws , Jamaicans do the right thing like people from other places. Jamaica has become a circus in which politicians. judges. lawyers. pastors and police are on the take. Our country is on a collision course with destiny , the solutions are in the hands of the people as it was with the Colombian people. The newly installed Prime Minister Andrew Holness reminds me of the vain Emperor in the Hans Christian Andersen’s classic, the “Emperor’s new clothes”.
He believes he will preside over a growth agenda in which criminals roam the street heavily armed with weapons capable of snuffing out multiple lives in a nano second. He naively envisions a prosperous Jamaica in which a large sub-set are allowed to keep their weaponry in poverty, even as they somehow ignore lavish excess of others living next door. In that society will also exist a Labor party installed Terrence Williams and an agency which stands between law-enforcement . Effectively terrorizing police officers in the courts which are bought and paid for by the criminal underworld while protecting the murderous blood-thirsty killers who kill when they feel like it.
Can crime be corralled in Jamaica? You bet your ass it can be. But in the same way criminals burned and destroyed the vestiges of power which stood between them and their goals, the good people remaining in Jamaica will have to decide for themselves what their critical mass is. They will have to decide as the Colombian people did against the Medellin and Cali Cartels. It will have to come from the people. The leaders are too tainted by corruption and the trappings of power to care about the pain the murders and rapes cause.
It’s all up to them to decide when enough is enough !!!!
Measurable performance is the metric used in determining success and of course the lack thereof determines failure. Truth be told if you are offered a job and you know you do not possess the requisite skills for the job you should have the honesty and character to say so . You should only take a job if you are given the tools to get the job done.You must say “give me these tools (laying out whatever those tools are), allow me the freedom and latitude to get the job done without interference”. If you take a job in which the blame and responsibility rests with you , you must be given the tools with which to get the job done. If you fail to ask for the tools and latitude you need ‚then you make the tragic mistake of taking on a situation in which you were destined to fail. Common sense must trump raw ambition. If your ambition to hold the office is greater than your desire to succeed then you are responsible for the failure which occurred on your watch.
It came as no surprise to me when I learned that Dr Carl Williams, Jamaica’s Police Commissioner had decided to call it quits. Williams decision comes amidst rising numbers in murder and other serious crimes. It was no surprise because I have personally been calling for him to step aside because he had not demonstrated that he had a grasp of whats needed to figure out the Island’s burgeoning crime epidemic.
I have no sympathy for Williams as he exits the stage as other serving and past members seem to have for him. My loyalties lie with the nearly 800 or so officers who leave annually after seeing the total and utter bullshit that the JCF has become and make the tactical and calculated decision to leave before it consumes them,. That’s character, that’s bravery. A man who decides to accept the job to sit atop a shit pile should expect to see turned up noses at the stench emanating from him..
Williams leadership of the JCF may be summed up in one word,“FECKLESS”. I wanted to allow a few days to pass before I said anything about the commissioner’s decision to step aside,I did not want to respond impulsively even though it was the news I wanted to hear. One of my dear friends opined to me that “say what we want, Williams was a clean Commissioner who had good character”. Incidentally the Commissioner has also reportedly said he is leaving with his character intact. As I said to my friend, it is remarkable if the best thing one can say about William’s, and trumpeted by him, is that he was of good character, then his tenure was an even bigger flop than anyone imagined. Saying ice is cold is redundant. Saying the fire is hot is no compliment to fire, fire is supposed to be hot. Police officers are supposed to have good character. Good character is not a measurement of one’s success. The office demanded it before he was even hired. The office demand that each constable so too must have good character. As chief constable it is critical that the commissioner have impeccable character.
Carl Williams has been the most eminently educated person to become commissioner of Police on the Island. What seemed to have slipped by the decision-makers is that supremely educated does not necessarily mean the best person for the job, or even the most qualified. But since Jamaica is ‚and has always been a nation with leaders with their heads up their collective asses they do not get that. I have nothing against Williams the man. What I had a problem with is Carl Williams the Commissioner of Police who failed to protect the people who work under his command from persecution by those who would use their perches to build names for themselves. I am opposed to Carl Williams the commissioner who failed to do the things he could do to make the JCF better and more respected as a law-enforcement agency.
Carl Williams did not create the problems which plague the JCF but he damn sure didn’t make the force better in the time he presided over it. He saw the video clips of police officers being assaulted in the streets. He saw the clips of people in the face of officers with cell phones. He saw people who were promoted under his watch walk away leaving junior officers to struggle with offenders they are attempting to arrest. He never did a damn thing to ensure that officers are adequately taught the proper techniques to effect arrests regardless of protest. He never made them understand that the entire force would stand behind and alongside them when they do their jobs. He never told them that no fly by night piece of ass-wipe could prevent the police from doing their job and whomever has a problem with that would find themselves in cuffs before they figured out what happened. He saw female officers standing by like window dressings as their male counterpart struggle to make arrest. He saw people stepping in to take offenders being arrested away from young officers doing exactly what they are told to do. Williams did nothing. Williams said nothing. Williams changed nothing.
If Carl Williams was a product of the streets he would have gotten his ass out of 103 Old Hope Road and get into the streets like Joe Williams and Herman Rickets did and see what the young men are facing. He would have told criminals there is no hiding place. He would have told them without equivocation, that “we will use whatever force necessary to bring you to justice”>Or we will bring justice to you . “You resist we will take you to the ground and we will pile on you until you stop resisting”. “you pull a weapon on a cop and you are dead, we will met force with commensurate force” . Whether the likes of Terrence Williams and his criminal loving cronies like it or or not, that what police brass do they stand with their officers until they are proven to be in the wrong. That is policing, period. It’s not always pretty but it does not have to be always ugly, if you break the law we are coming after you. That’s what police do. Issuing empty threats only reveal how pathetic you are. Where is Duppy film mister commissioner? Williams lacked the backbone and the necessary understanding of leadership to effectively lead, and because of that he had to go.
In the same way that the members of the PNP paid lip service to crime in office, while actively supporting parts of the criminal under-world and in some cases engaging in criminal activity singularly and collectively, the administration of Andrew Holness no more intend to do anything about crime. Where else but Jamaica would an agronomist be chosen to head a security apparatus? I mean seriously, what is he going to do grow crime? Well he certainly has. Why has Holness not come out and categorically denounce crime and throw his unmitigated support behind law-enforcement? The simple answer is that they have police protection, they believe fundamentally they can accomplish their narrow political goals in the madness of mayhem and murder without rocking the boat.
There is no grey area in this cavalcade of murder which has so frighteningly become a part of Jamaica’s popular culture. Either you abhor and condemn it, or you tacitly support it because it furthers your end game. We know that the entire PNP with the exception of a couple of it’s principals cannot condemn crime and murder, that political party is too far gone, enmeshed in the slimy morass of the Island’s criminal underworld and corruption. The Prime Minister has had every opportunity to take a principled stance against the scourge of crime. What he has done instead is make the most basic peripheral comments, effectively brushing it aside. As I said before his pick to head the critical National Security Ministry spoke volumes about his commitment to the eradication of crime from the get go.
No knock on Robert Montague he may be a good man, but he is a lousy Minister of National Security , through no fault of his own. You simply do not ask a butcher to perform brain surgery. How in hell do you do the best job possible if you have absolutely no training in national security or have an understanding of policing and law enforcement challenges? Juxtapose that with a Commissioner of Police who sees his officers under siege in the streets and cower in fear of Terrence Williams and you get a fucked up situation in which crime can only increase. Carl Williams abdication of his duties to protect the young men and women under his command , by allowing them to be wrongfully persecuted is treasonous to them and their families.
In the ensuing period leading up the selection of the next person set up to fail by the cowardly and criminally complicit political structure on the Island, there will be much comments coming from past members of the high command. Many of whom could not investigate their way out of a brown paper bag, but wants to be commissioner. This is not time for cartoon characters and clown shows. I suggest those past members take a seat. The Police high command is a colossal failure, has always been.
Sadly I must conclude It is time that a Commissioner of police be chosen from overseas, one who is unconstrained in his abilities to go after criminals wherever they are .Whether they are in Jamaica House , Kings House or any other house. The Island’s crime epidemic is made possible because some people have placed themselves above the laws. This must come to an end.
A shopper has been banned from a Louisville mall for life after berating two other women, telling one of them to “go back to wherever the f – k you come from.” Mayor Greg Fischer apologized to the women on Wednesday after video of the disturbing rant at the Jefferson Mall was viewed more than 5 million times. Renee Buckner, who posted the video, told the Courier-Journal that the woman became unhinged when one of the pair sneaked in line at J.C. Penney to add items to the other woman’s cart. See more here : http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/louisville-shopper-hurls-racist-insults-women-article‑1.2919050
A party promoter and another man were shot dead Tuesday on Spanish Town Road in Kingston while three others were injured in the incident. Dead are 24-year-old Akeem Brown, a promoter of Denham Town, Kingston and 25- year-old Dane Kerr. Reports from the Hunts Bay police are that about 1:50 am, Brown was at an event when armed men entered the premises and opened gunfire at the crowd. They were taken to the hospital where Brown and Kerr succumbed to their injuries and the other three men were admitted in stable condition. see more here: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Five-shot – two-dead-at-party-in-Kingston
On October 22, 2015 a young mentally disabled high school student was sexually assaulted by his classmates on school property. The 18-year-old victim, who was adopted as a toddler, was one of the lone African-American students in the nearly all white Dietrich High School in Idaho. John Howard, 18, Tanner Ward, 17, and one other unidentified member of the football team lured the victim into a school locker room, promising him hugs, stripped him, forcefully inserted a clothes hanger into his rectum, then kicked it deeper into his rectum — causing internal injuries.
When this case was initially reported, and it was announced that John Howard was being charged with felony rape, the possible penalties were as severe as life in prison. It seemed like some semblance of justice was imminent. The school superintendent interviewed 30 witnesses and confirmed that the teen was sexually assaulted. Prosecutors agreed with their investigation — which also determined that the victim was also called “Kool-Aid,” “chicken eater,” “watermelon,” and even “n — -r” by students at the school.
In spite of all of this evidence, this week John Howard was given the break of his life. Instead of getting life in prison for what he did, he won’t be going to jail for 10 years or five years or a year or six months or even a day. Instead, he’s getting two years of probation and 300 hours of community service. With good behavior, the judge said his record could be expunged. He’ll also be allowed to do his community service in his new home in Texas where his family peacefully relocated.
Tanner Ward, who was said to initially insert the hanger into the victim’s rectum, was initially charged as an adult, but conveniently had his case sent to juvenile court instead.
How could a man who did something so heinous, so cruel and demented, so horrific and barbaric, get probation and community service for it? American jails and prisons are full of men and women who did far less and had the proverbial book thrown at them. For several years, I worked full time in prisons and youth detention centers all around Georgia and met thousands and thousands of middle and high school students who were sentenced to hard time in adult prisons for far less.
This sentence is the living embodiment of white privilege.
Such is also the case of John Franklin McGraw. At a Donald Trump rally this past March, while Rakeem Jones was being escorted out of the rally, surrounded by police, McGraw, who is white, walked right up to Jones, who is black, and through a vicious elbow right to his face, knocking him onto the ground.
After throwing the blow, McGraw, in full view of police, walked right on back to his seat. Even though police witnessed the attack, they seemed to have no interest whatsoever in arresting McGraw for it. Later, in an interview on national television, McGraw openly said of Jones, “the next time we see him, we might have to kill him.” Speaking of the assault, McGraw said “You bet I liked it. Knocking the hell out of that big mouth. We don’t know who he is. He might be with a terrorist organization.”
John McGraw (l.) is accused of hitting Rakeem Jones (r.) as deputies were removing Jones from the Trump rally.
After a bystander’s cell phone video of the attack was released, and a national outcry for justice followed, police, days later, located and charged McGraw with felony assault.
Then, last week, white privilege struck again. McGraw basically beat it all — in spite of the assault being on camera, in front of thousands, including the police, and in spite of his death threat being filmed and aired around the world, the judge had mercy on McGraw. He was given “a suspended 30-day jail sentence and a year on unsupervised probation.”
Normally, as a part of such probation, someone would have to surrender their firearms, but the judge also “removed a provision from the probation that would have kept McGraw from owning a gun.”
In other words, McGraw pretty much got everything he wanted, including extra provisions to keep his guns, in spite of the fact that he threatened to kill Jones on national television.
While Rakeem Jones was being escorted out of the rally, surrounded by police, McGraw, who is white, walked right up to Jones, who is black, and through a vicious elbow right to his face, knocking him onto the ground.
It’s all so damn ludicrous. That McGraw even felt the confidence and peace of mind to go up and assault Jones in front of police, then take his seat, tells us that he knew full well that law enforcement and the justice system would have little interest in holding him accountable for his actions. It turned out, McGraw was absolutely correct.
Again, I personally know men and women who are spending hard time in prison right now for doing far less, but McGraw was given break after break after break.
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