I have always won­dered what exact­ly it was that impressed Jamaican author­i­ties about Mark Shields, Les Green and the oth­er British Cops who emi­grat­ed to Jamaica, sup­pos­ed­ly to help trans­form the Jamaica Constabulary Force into a mod­ern police force, or so they say. The truth of the mat­ter is that from what we have heard, Mark Shields got him­self a Jamaican bride, secured him­self a secu­ri­ty com­pa­ny in our coun­try, or so we are told.  Never mind that even if they do not stay, they end up spend­ing sig­nif­i­cant amounts of time before leaving.  And what is it about these white men going out to the Colonies being referred to as [Expatriates] while Black peo­ple head­ing to England are mere [immi­grants]? So you nev­er thought about that? Okay, then it’s just me.  None of those [immi­grant cops]have fas­ci­nat­ed me more than Hamish Campbell who arrived as over­seer and sec­ond in charge of INDECOM. And I will talk a lit­tle about Hamish Campbell a lit­tle lat­er but I want­ed to just high­light some things which Les Green said about the local cops he was forced to encounter out there in the colony. We all know how the Colonial mas­ters view the lazy sub-human peas­antry. But I rather pre­fer to let Les Green speak for Les Green and you can decide if he even both­ered to hide the old tropes and big­ot­ed attack lines which they have always used when they speak of black people. Never mind that at the time the unin­tel­li­gent Jamaican media gob­bled it up and saw noth­ing unsa­vory or dis­gust­ing­ly offen­sive in those tropes. Instead, they used the oppor­tu­ni­ty to pile on the police, their black coun­try­men and women.

Said Green: “When I first went there, the foren­sic capa­bil­i­ty was very poor and inef­fec­tive. There it still takes up to two years to get DNA results, unlike in the UK where you can get them in two days.“He added: “In Jamaica, there is noth­ing like the sense of urgency I had in the UK where I would send some­one out to take a state­ment and they would do it imme­di­ate­ly. There, I could send some­one out for weeks on end and even­tu­al­ly they would come back with a state­ment. “If a pret­ty girl walks past, they will look at the pret­ty girl instead of what they are doing. There is always tomor­row, always anoth­er time to do some­thing. There’s always a drink or a pret­ty woman to dis­tract them.” Green, is cred­it­ed with bring­ing about sig­nif­i­cant improve­ments to Jamaica’s crim­i­nal inves­ti­ga­tions, par­tic­u­lar­ly homi­cides, described his eight-year tenure as frus­trat­ing because of the lev­el of vio­lence and weak sys­tems of inves­ti­ga­tion. (Gleaner)

I do share Les Green’s frus­tra­tion with the colonists after all, why would­n’t he be annoyed at the time? They shook us from the Queen’s broke and des­ti­tute frock-tails over 57 years ago. Battered and in sham­bles after the blitzkrieg of Hitler’s Luftwaffe, England want­ed some­one to give her hand­outs, instead of being respon­si­ble for anyone.  Since then, we haven’t man­aged to stand on our own, we still insist on call­ing her “our sov­er­eign lady”, even though I can­not imag­ine why? We refuse to write a con­sti­tu­tion which demon­strates that we can gov­ern our­selves with­out depend­ing on the British to medi­ate our dis­putes, and deter­mine our most seri­ous crim­i­nal cases.  What we have demon­strat­ed, is that when the rub­ber meets the road we can­not trust our­selves to decide on our own with­out “Massa”, decid­ing for us. Green’s broad­side was the typ­i­cal racist trope of the lazy, over­sexed blacks who have no intel­li­gence or sense of urgency. Unfortunately for the politi­cians and media, couched in his insults was the lan­guage which spoke to their inad­e­qua­cies as well but it com­plete­ly went over their heads and they curt­sied, bowed and agreed with “Massa”.

I had one slight con­cern about Les Green’s com­ments at the time and still to this day I still have those con­cerns. You know out­side the Overseer/​Natives thing he had going on there. When Les Green said the fol­low­ing, did he think that because we are back­ward natives,[sic] we did not know what goes on in drea­ry bleak Old England?  “In Jamaica, there is noth­ing like the sense of urgency I had in the UK where I would send some­one out to take a state­ment and they would do it imme­di­ate­ly. There, I could send some­one out for weeks on end and even­tu­al­ly they would come back with a state­ment. “If a pret­ty girl walks past, they will look at the pret­ty girl instead of what they are doing. There is always tomor­row, always anoth­er time to do some­thing. There’s always a drink or a pret­ty woman to dis­tract them.” Wait just a minute there, accord­ing to… (https://whathappenedtomadeleinemccann.blogspot.com/2014/04/a‑biography-of-hamish-campbell-man_28.html Hamish Campbell the [British Immigrant] inves­ti­gat­ing our police offi­cers was actu­al­ly the lead offi­cer in a mur­der case in which evi­dence was alleged­ly plant­ed in order to gain convictions.

Hamish Campbell — was the (IO) Investigating Officer- placed in charge of the day-to-day inves­ti­ga­tion into Jill Dando’s mur­der in 1999. He was pri­mar­i­ly respon­si­ble for the arrest and charg­ing of Barry Bulsara, known also as ‘Barry George’, with the mur­der of Dando. Bulsara was sen­tenced to life impris­on­ment for mur­der­ing Jill Dando but sub­se­quent­ly acquit­ted, sev­en years lat­er, on appeal.  Prior to the appoint­ment of Moore and Campbell to run the case, the inves­ti­ga­tion had found noth­ing of inter­est, despite over 7 months on the case. The Met had thou­sands of reg­is­tered infor­mants. Not one of them had come up with any infor­ma­tion at all about who might have killed Jill Dando and why. A reward of £250,000 for infor­ma­tion (about £½ mil­lion today) had pro­duced noth­ing. Operation Oxborough had inter­viewed in depth Dando’s fam­i­ly, friends, lovers (of whom there had been many) and col­leagues. As Gillard and Flynn cor­rect­ly observed in their book (p. 428), “The mur­der inves­ti­ga­tion was at an impasse”. Then Campbell took over. The only foren­sic evi­dence against Bulsara was a speck of firearms residue said to have been ‘found’ in his coat pock­et. Hamish Campbell appeared on Crimewatch to rein­force in the public’s mind that it was an obses­sive lon­er they were look­ing for. He asked for the public’s help in iden­ti­fy­ing such a person.  It was a full 15 days after the Cecil Gee coat was seized that it was tak­en to a Mr Robin Keeley of the Forensic Science Service on 2 May 2000. That 15-day delay has nev­er been explained. He then found a sin­gle speck of firearm residue inside the left pock­et, and said that it was con­sis­tent with the type of firearm used to kill Dando.  D. Cliff Richard, a friend of Jill Dando, was inter­viewed ‘a num­ber of times’ by the police inves­ti­gat­ing Dando’s killing. Barry Bulsara spent 7 years in prison before he was released after win­ning his sec­ond appeal.

The pat­tern was evi­dent in an ear­li­er case this time it was the case of Ira Thomas a black man, who was quote [fit­ted up with a mur­der charge]  The Appeal Court heard the appeal on 13 February 1992 and quashed the jury’s major­i­ty deci­sion. Thomas was imme­di­ate­ly released from prison. See The fab­ri­ca­tion of evi­dence against Ira Thomas/​at the link pro­vid­ed above.

But there is more, it is impor­tant to bring some of these facts to light after the for­mer Immigrant Les Green attempt­ed to slime the natives in the for­mer Colony. According to the report­ing, there was a sig­nif­i­cant amount of at least low-lev­el cor­rup­tion at Begravia Police Station at the time. Belgravia Police Station is close to Harrods, owned by Al-Fayed. Al-Fayed did favors for Begravia-based police offi­cers. Police offi­cers returned the favors. Indeed, there was already an anti-cor­rup­tion inves­ti­ga­tion at that time into the so-called ‘Hamper Squad’, a group of Belgravia-based offi­cers who would arrest and harass any­one, includ­ing his own employ­ees, sus­pect­ed of aid­ing and abet­ting his bit­ter busi­ness ene­my, Lonrho tycoon ‘Tiny’ Rowland. The greedy offi­cers had a con­tin­u­ous sup­ply of free ham­pers and huge dis­counts on Harrods goods. Indeed, one hon­est offi­cer, Bob Loftus, gave the anti-cor­rup­tion unit the actu­al names of police offi­cers who had accept­ed these bribes. No police offi­cer, how­ev­er, was ever pros­e­cut­ed for these crim­i­nal offenses. At the time, Al-Fayed owned the now-defunct satir­i­cal mag­a­zine, Punch. Officers also leaked details of the Dando inves­ti­ga­tion to Punch, prompt­ing a leak inquiry.  .….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….….…… I won­der how Les Green could have missed these acts of cor­rup­tion? Even more sig­nif­i­cant, how could Hamish Campbell not be aware of these crimes being com­mit­ted by his col­leagues at the Begravia station?

But Hamish Campbell, whose career has more ques­tion marks than answers, is in Jamaica as we speak. His job as Assistant Commissioner of INDECOM is to weed out dirty cops from the JCF.  Now, remem­ber that as the Investigating offi­cer, Hamish Campbell’s inves­ti­ga­tions sud­den­ly turned up a speck of firear­m’s residue said to have been ‘found’ in a coat pock­et that oth­er offi­cers had already searched thor­ough­ly in a case which was seven(7) months old when he took over the Investigations. Either Hamish Campbell is a supe­ri­or super sleuth or Hamish Campbell has skele­tons in his clos­et we need to unearth. If the Jill Dando inves­ti­ga­tions are any­thing to go by, the arrest and con­vic­tion of an inno­cent man and his sub­se­quent exon­er­a­tion, then the lat­ter inter­pre­ta­tions about Hamish Campbell is more on point. Barry Bulsara was alleged­ly [fit­ted up], British lex­i­con, for fram­ing an accused, in a case in which Hamish Campbell was the chief inves­ti­gat­ing offi­cer. Barry Bulsara was acquit­ted after spend­ing 7 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. What part if any, did Hamish Campbell play in fit­ting up Barry Bulsara?

Hamish Campbell is now a Deputy Commissioner of INDECOM, one of the many agen­cies tasked with over­sight of Jamaica’s Security Forces. I fun­da­men­tal­ly believe Terrence Williams is a pseu­do [tit­u­lar] head of INDECOM. I believe that he is at the helm of INDECOM because it would seem too much of an, in your face insult to the nation to bring in an immi­grant(Hamish Campbell), and make him head of a gov­ern­ment agency. Terrence Williams polit­i­cal affil­i­a­tions and his bel­li­cose anti-police per­sona, makes him the ide­al can­di­date to be a tit­u­lar head. Nevertheless, we have seen noth­ing in the Career path of Hamish Campbell which would cause the Jamaican Government to bring him in and make him an inves­ti­ga­tor and deci­sion mak­er over our police sol­diers and cor­rec­tions officers.

The recent deci­sion of a sev­en-per­son jury in the supreme court last week to free two police offi­cers inves­ti­gat­ed and charged By Terrence Williams and Hamish Campbell seems in line with Hamish Campbell’s history. Which is to man­u­fac­ture evi­dence, coerce wit­ness­es to lie and to con­coct false evi­dence on which to [fit-up] inno­cent peo­ple for crimes they have not committed.  Quite inter­est­ing­ly INDECOM seems to now have a fas­ci­na­tion with firearm residue and have gone to great lengths to bring in for­eign so-called experts. While the police defen­dants and their legal teams have no pow­er or resources to vet their resumes.  With close to 2’000 homi­cides each year in Jamaica the Jamaican Government brings in zero for­eign experts to con­vict the murderers. INDECOM brings in for­eign experts to tes­ti­fy in an effort to try and con­vict our hard work­ing poor­ly com­pen­sat­ed police officers. Long before the so-called [death squad] case was even brought, we received numer­ous reports that INDECOM was induc­ing and coerc­ing alleged wit­ness­es to lie in order to con­vict the officers. Clearly, a jury saw through the lies and those sev­en Jamaicans sent a pow­er­ful mes­sage for jus­tice and the rule of law. Unfortunately for Jamaica, Terrence Williams and Hamish Campbell are still in their jobs. Neither of these hacks has been sched­uled to answer for what occurred with the evi­dence in this case. This Administration and the one it suc­ceed­ed has insist­ed that INDECOM is answer­able to a select com­mit­tee of the Parliament.  We have seen no evi­dence that either Terrence Williams or Hamish Campbell will be hauled before that com­mit­tee to explain the alle­ga­tions which have swirled around this par­tic­u­lar inves­ti­ga­tion from day one. The jury has done its job, but don’t hold your breath for the politi­cians to do theirs.

Solving Jamaica’s Crime Epidemic

Jamaica’s crime epi­dem­ic, par­tic­u­lar­ly vio­lent crimes such as homi­cides, pos­es a sig­nif­i­cant chal­lenge to nation­al devel­op­ment. The coun­try con­sis­tent­ly ranks among those with the high­est mur­der rates glob­al­ly, fueled by gang vio­lence, eco­nom­ic inequal­i­ty, cor­rup­tion, and a strug­gling jus­tice system.
A Justice sys­tem in which Judges ignore the laws and sup­plant them with their own lib­er­al bias­es that are sym­pa­thet­ic to mass mur­der­ers. A sys­tem in which tax-pay­er fund­ed pub­lic ser­vants who are sup­posed to look at impro­pri­ety with­in pub­lic sec­tor agen­cies fail at their jobs but band togeth­er with anti-police agi­ta­tors to cre­ate the impres­sion that mur­der­ers who shoot at police are being sum­mar­i­ly executed.
A sys­tem in which politi­cians of both polit­i­cal par­ties are too heav­i­ly invest­ed in the crime econ­o­my to pass ade­quate laws geared at stem­ming violence.
A crim­i­nal Justice sys­tem that caters to the con­cerns of crim­i­nals and ignores their vic­tims. A sys­tem in which we plat­form sup­port­ers of gang­sters and ‘Dons’, but have no con­cern for the peo­ple they abuse includ­ing lit­tle girls they rape and the boys they ini­ti­ate into their gangs.
While this cri­sis is com­plex, it is not insur­mount­able. A com­pre­hen­sive solu­tion must involve a com­bi­na­tion of social inter­ven­tion, police sup­port, eco­nom­ic oppor­tu­ni­ty, and com­mu­ni­ty engagement.

Social Intervention and Education

One of the most effec­tive long-term solu­tions to crime is invest­ing in edu­ca­tion and youth pro­grams. Many young Jamaicans turn to gangs due to a lack of oppor­tu­ni­ty and a sense of belong­ing. By expand­ing access to qual­i­ty edu­ca­tion, voca­tion­al train­ing, and men­tor­ship pro­grams, the gov­ern­ment can pro­vide alter­na­tive path­ways for at-risk youth. Initiatives such as the Citizen Security and Justice Programme (CSJP) have shown promise, but more invest­ment is need­ed to scale these efforts.
Additionally, social ser­vices must be strength­ened to sup­port fam­i­lies in vul­ner­a­ble com­mu­ni­ties. Many young men involved in crime come from unsta­ble homes, where pover­ty and abuse are preva­lent. Expanding men­tal health sup­port, par­ent­ing pro­grams, and ear­ly child­hood inter­ven­tions can help break the cycle of vio­lence before it begins.

Police and Judicial Reform

Jamaica’s police force has long strug­gled with issues of cor­rup­tion, inef­fi­cien­cy, and a lack of pub­lic trust. To effec­tive­ly com­bat crime, law enforce­ment must under­go sig­nif­i­cant reform. This includes improv­ing police train­ing, increas­ing account­abil­i­ty for mis­con­duct, and fos­ter­ing bet­ter rela­tion­ships between offi­cers and com­mu­ni­ties. Programs like com­mu­ni­ty polic­ing, where offi­cers work close­ly with res­i­dents to pre­vent crime rather than just react to it, should be expanded.
The judi­cial sys­tem must also be strength­ened to ensure swift and fair jus­tice. Many crimes go unpun­ished due to back­logged courts a lack of resources and peo­ple on the bench who sim­ply do not belong there.
Expanding foren­sic capa­bil­i­ties, increas­ing the num­ber of judges, and imple­ment­ing tech­nol­o­gy-dri­ven case man­age­ment can help cre­ate a more effi­cient legal system.

Economic Growth and Job Creation

Crime thrives where eco­nom­ic despair exists. Many young peo­ple engage in ille­gal activ­i­ties sim­ply to sur­vive. Addressing the root cause of crime requires cre­at­ing legit­i­mate eco­nom­ic oppor­tu­ni­ties, par­tic­u­lar­ly in inner-city com­mu­ni­ties. This can be achieved through invest­ments in small busi­ness­es, entre­pre­neur­ship pro­grams, and indus­tries that pro­vide sta­ble employ­ment, such as agri­cul­ture, tech­nol­o­gy, and tourism.
Additionally, the gov­ern­ment should pro­vide tax incen­tives and grants for com­pa­nies that hire from high-crime areas. Public-pri­vate part­ner­ships can play a cru­cial role in cre­at­ing sus­tain­able jobs and reduc­ing depen­dence on illic­it economies.
Jamaica has many pris­tine beach­es and forests that belong to the peo­ple. It is time for the Government to devel­op beach­es and oth­er nat­ur­al won­ders in our coun­try into nation­al parks which will employ young peo­ple and increase the tourism product.

Community Involvement and Cultural Change

Solving Jamaica’s crime epi­dem­ic is not just the respon­si­bil­i­ty of the gov­ern­ment — it requires a nation­al effort. Community orga­ni­za­tions, church­es, and local lead­ers must work togeth­er to instill pos­i­tive val­ues and medi­ate con­flicts before they esca­late into vio­lence. Encouraging civic engage­ment, pro­mot­ing con­flict res­o­lu­tion train­ing, and reviv­ing com­mu­ni­ty cen­ters can help rebuild trust and reduce crime.
More impor­tant­ly the idea of men hav­ing chil­dren they can­not afford to sup­port must be dis­cour­aged and penalized.
Furthermore, there must be a shift in cul­tur­al atti­tudes towards vio­lence. Music, media, and social influ­encers play a pow­er­ful role in shap­ing soci­etal norms. Promoting mes­sages of peace, respect, and per­son­al respon­si­bil­i­ty can help chal­lenge the glo­ri­fi­ca­tion of crime and cre­ate a cul­ture of lawfulness.

Conclusion

Jamaica’s crime epi­dem­ic is a deeply root­ed issue that requires a mul­ti-pronged approach. Social inter­ven­tion, police and judi­cial reform, eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment, and com­mu­ni­ty engage­ment must all work togeth­er to cre­ate last­ing change. While progress will not hap­pen overnight, a com­mit­ted effort from all sec­tors of soci­ety can lead Jamaica towards a safer, more pros­per­ous future. The key to suc­cess lies in address­ing both the symp­toms and the root caus­es of crime, ensur­ing that young Jamaicans have hope, oppor­tu­ni­ty, and a rea­son to choose peace over violence.(MB)

I love my coun­try, that is the rea­son I will not be silent on the gang infes­ta­tion and acts of crim­i­nal­i­ty that have tak­en over our country.
Jamaica, our beloved land of wood and water, is at a cross­roads. Once cel­e­brat­ed for its rich cul­ture, breath­tak­ing land­scapes, and vibrant peo­ple, it is now grap­pling with a dev­as­tat­ing surge in crime that threat­ens the very fab­ric of our soci­ety. As a proud Jamaican, I refuse to sit idly by and watch as fear and vio­lence engulf our com­mu­ni­ties. Silence in the face of such tur­moil is not an option, for it is in speak­ing out and tak­ing action that change begins.
Crime has seeped into every cor­ner of our soci­ety — rob­bing fam­i­lies of loved ones, dis­rupt­ing liveli­hoods, and sow­ing dis­trust among neigh­bors. Every act of vio­lence chips away at our col­lec­tive hope and steals oppor­tu­ni­ties from future gen­er­a­tions. This is not the Jamaica we dream of; this is not the lega­cy we wish to leave behind.

But I will not let despair win. My voice, your voice, and the voic­es of every con­cerned Jamaican must come togeth­er to demand bet­ter. We must hold our lead­ers account­able, advo­cate for stronger poli­cies, and push for invest­ments in edu­ca­tion, job cre­ation, and social pro­grams. Tackling crime requires address­ing its root caus­es — pover­ty, inequal­i­ty, and lack of opportunity.
Moreover, we, as cit­i­zens, must also play our part. Community uni­ty is our great­est weapon against crime. We must fos­ter a cul­ture of respect, rebuild trust, and stand togeth­er to pro­tect what is ours. Turning a blind eye to crim­i­nal activ­i­ty or accept­ing it as “just how things are” can­not con­tin­ue. Jamaica is more than its chal­lenges. We are resilient, inno­v­a­tive, and deeply con­nect­ed by our shared iden­ti­ty. The road ahead will not be easy, but I believe in our abil­i­ty to reclaim our coun­try from the grip of crime. I will not be silent, for silence is com­plic­i­ty. I will speak out, act bold­ly, and fight for a Jamaica that is safe, just, and pros­per­ous — for all of us.

The time to stand up is now. Let us not wait until it’s too late.

Amidst idle chat­ter by mouth­pieces at INDECOM about police fatal shoot­ings, gang­land com­mu­ni­ties con­tin­ue to try to turn our coun­try into anoth­er iter­a­tion of a law­less Haiti.

A tense stand-off erupt­ed in Elderslie Pen, also known as Capture Land, in Spanish Town, St Catherine, ear­ly this morn­ing fol­low­ing a police oper­a­tion tar­get­ing want­ed men.
Residents, angered by the oper­a­tion, report­ed­ly attacked mem­bers of the secu­ri­ty forces with stones and bot­tles, forc­ing them to fire warn­ing shots into the air.
The pro­test­ers esca­lat­ed ten­sions by block­ing roads lead­ing into the com­mu­ni­ty and slash­ing the tires of police vehi­cles, ham­per­ing the mobil­i­ty of law enforcement.
Sporadic gun­fire has been report­ed as police and mil­i­tary per­son­nel work to regain con­trol of the volatile area. 
The oper­a­tion, report­ed­ly car­ried out by the Fugitive Apprehension Squad, failed to cap­ture its intend­ed tar­get, who man­aged to escape amid the chaos. (As report­ed by one local publication)

This is not a new phe­nom­e­non in our coun­try, this usu­al­ly hap­pens with the media act­ing as will­ing cheer­lead­ers to the anar­chy in depressed com­mu­ni­ties across the coun­try where bleached-out skin ema­ci­at­ed-look­ing thugs hold sway under the pow­er of the gun.
In these com­mu­ni­ties, many res­i­dents who ben­e­fit from the chop­ping, extor­tion, mur­der, and rob­beries are will­ing to put their lives on the line to defend the bleached-out skin mon­sters who rule like kings in the rusty zinc fief­doms of despair and degradation.
Adding to the may­hem are the many groups of sym­pa­thiz­ers pre­tend­ing to be human rights orga­ni­za­tions. Their pro­pa­gan­da cam­paign rivals Hitler’s Goebbels in effectiveness.
Worst yet, are the tax­pay­er-fund­ed ones at INDECOM, an Agency formed to offer police over­sight which off the bat mor­phed into an inef­fec­tive par­a­site on law-abid­ing tax­pay­ers and anoth­er acces­so­ry to the nation’s crime epidemic.

Was this the first time this kind of thing hap­pened in these com­mu­ni­ties that should be bull­dozed for all intents and pur­pos­es? No, and it will not be the last. One fact remains con­stant and that is the silence by the fraud­u­lent crim­i­nal sup­port­ing pro­pa­gan­dists that give aid and com­fort to the anar­chists, includ­ing the leech­es liv­ing off tax­pay­ers at INDECOM.
It is very dif­fi­cult to find anoth­er coun­try where a Government Agency ignores its job and spends time crit­i­ciz­ing anoth­er Agency. 
The present Government allows this to hap­pen and the oppo­si­tion PNP that craves pow­er is worse. Among its ranks are peo­ple worse than those slash­ing the tires and attack­ing the police.
How does this kind of unchecked law­less­ness work with the lofty goals of the gov­ern­ment to pro­pel the coun­try into devel­oped nation sta­tus through what it calls Vision 2030″, which aims to achieve devel­oped coun­try sta­tus by the year 2030 through a com­pre­hen­sive nation­al devel­op­ment plan focused on improv­ing the econ­o­my, social cohe­sion, and envi­ron­men­tal sus­tain­abil­i­ty; essen­tial­ly posi­tion­ing Jamaica as “the place of choice to live, work, raise fam­i­lies and do busi­ness.”. 

A few road­ways built by the Chinese do not a devel­oped coun­try make, amidst a rot­ting, crum­bling social struc­ture. If the nation is to ever remote­ly begin that upward path it must dis­en­tan­gle itself from the cheap parochial par­ti­san pol­i­tics that has suf­fo­cat­ed the progress we deserve just so that low-life politi­cians can attain power.

Jamaica’s author­i­ties have grave­ly erred by suc­cumb­ing to the loud and mis­guid­ed rhetoric of far-left anti-police reac­tionar­ies. These indi­vid­u­als, cloak­ing their agen­das in the lan­guage of social jus­tice, have long mil­i­tat­ed for “soft” laws and lenien­cy that embold­en crim­i­nals while dis­man­tling the deter­rents that once kept vio­lence at bay. The trag­ic result is a nation where police offi­cers are gunned down with impuni­ty, their killers rev­el­ing in cel­e­bra­tion, and a jus­tice sys­tem that is increas­ing­ly com­plic­it in this descent into lawlessness.

The People’s National Party (PNP) bears sig­nif­i­cant his­tor­i­cal respon­si­bil­i­ty for this cri­sis. Under the guise of cham­pi­oning the poor, the PNP has con­sis­tent­ly aligned itself with crim­i­nal ele­ments, exploit­ing them as a polit­i­cal strat­e­gy. For decades, the par­ty has care­ful­ly cul­ti­vat­ed a nar­ra­tive of faux con­cern for mar­gin­al­ized com­mu­ni­ties while using these same com­mu­ni­ties as a breed­ing ground for vio­lence and intim­i­da­tion to secure votes. This cyn­i­cal exploita­tion has done noth­ing to alle­vi­ate pover­ty or empow­er the vul­ner­a­ble. Instead, it has cre­at­ed a cul­ture in which crim­i­nal­i­ty is tol­er­at­ed, if not open­ly cel­e­brat­ed, while gen­uine law enforce­ment is under­mined at every turn.

The cur­rent Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) admin­is­tra­tion has fared lit­tle bet­ter. While it osten­si­bly rejects the PNP’s pro-crim­i­nal lega­cy, it has failed to draw a deci­sive line of demar­ca­tion between itself and its oppo­si­tion on the issue of crime. The JLP’s inac­tion has per­pet­u­at­ed a cul­ture of weak gov­er­nance, where the state is unwill­ing or unable to stand up to both vio­lent offend­ers and the élite enablers who roman­ti­cize them. The line sep­a­rat­ing jus­tice from chaos has blurred, leav­ing a void where once the rule of law prevailed.

Two or three decades ago, such brazen­ness as the mur­der of police offi­cers would have been unthink­able. Perpetrators would have been swift­ly brought to jus­tice, serv­ing as a stark warn­ing to oth­ers. Today, how­ev­er, Jamaica has degen­er­at­ed into a soci­ety where crim­i­nal­i­ty is nor­mal­ized. Far-left elites — lawyers, aca­d­e­mics, and even polit­i­cal rep­re­sen­ta­tives — have worked tire­less­ly to erode pub­lic con­fi­dence in law enforce­ment, all while empow­er­ing crim­i­nals. Their rhetoric has borne bit­ter fruit: a Jamaica where the killers of police offi­cers, the lat­est being Corporal Christopher Smith of the Kingston Western Division, drink and cel­e­brate with impuni­ty, mock­ing the very con­cept of justice.
The police high com­mand, a prod­uct of new-age polic­ing, has zero con­cepts of how to attack the killers who roam the streets, and nei­ther does its sup­port­ing cast of men and women who serve under it. Frankly, they make me sick.
Press brief­in­gs promis­ing thor­ough probes into the deaths of police offi­cers are not worth the paper they are writ­ten on. There was a time when we brought cop-killers to jus­tice or brought jus­tice to them; their choice.

This is not the Jamaica that once stood firm against vio­lence and law­less­ness. The cur­rent state of affairs reflects the tri­umph of a dan­ger­ous ide­ol­o­gy that pri­or­i­tizes the rights of crim­i­nals over the safe­ty of cit­i­zens and the jus­tice sys­tem’s integri­ty. Until Jamaica’s lead­ers reject the influ­ence of far-left reac­tionar­ies, dis­man­tle the net­works of crim­i­nal enablers, and restore account­abil­i­ty to both offend­ers and the elites who shield them, the island’s descent into anar­chy will con­tin­ue unabated.
It is time for Jamaica to reclaim its lega­cy of law and order — not mere­ly as a polit­i­cal talk­ing point but as a foun­da­tion­al prin­ci­ple. The lives of police offi­cers and the safe­ty of all Jamaicans depend on it.