Bandaging A Gunshot Wound Without Removing The Warhead And Fixing The Damage It Did, Is A Death Sentence For The Victim.

The ever nagging question of crime continues to dominate the news in Jamaica, even as it remains topical in conversations across social Media.
In recent times the Jamaican Prime Minister was forced to address this serious issue because of the much-heightened instances of women and teenage girls being abducted, raped and murdered.

BAND AID ON GUNSHOT WOUND APPROACH.

Among the tiny pin-prick ini­tia­tives announced by Prime Minister Andrew Holness are (1) the use of pre­ven­ta­tive deten­tions of poten­tial offend­ers among mea­sures to help to con­tain crime.( I believe this has to do with domes­tic situations).
(2) That tints should be removed from all pub­lic pas­sen­ger vehi­cles. (This will be a process which in some cas­es will take up to a year for all to be brought into full compliance).

In addi­tion to the ini­ti­ates announced recent­ly, the Prime Minister announced just yes­ter­day that addi­tion­al anti-crime mea­sures are coming.
Without being too much of a smart ass, announcements.I dare­say that the mur­der­ers must be quak­ing in their announcements.

This admin­is­tra­tion, the one it suc­ceed­ed, like oth­ers before dat­ing back to 1962, have played fast and loose with the Jamaican peo­ple on the issue of their secu­ri­ty and more so in mak­ing the island a nation of laws.
To solid­i­fy their holds on the pow­er, they have used scarce pub­lic funds to cre­ate zones of polit­i­cal exclu­sions with the sole intent of keep­ing them­selves in authority.
This process has ren­dered our elec­tions in many cas­es opti­cal exer­cis­es with the out­comes hav­ing no rela­tion­ship with what hap­pened in reality.

These zones of polit­i­cal exclu­sions (gar­risons) have become breed­ing grounds for crime and a sig­nif­i­cant pow­er base against the rule of law.
The shock­ing mur­der sta­tis­tics must be viewed with angst and shock, but what’s even more fright­en­ing is the refusal by so many with­in the soci­ety to be gov­erned by the rule of law.
This law­less­ness occurred as a result of the inter­min­gling of politi­cians in crim­i­nal con­duct while tying the hands of law enforcement.

Throwing inad­e­quate­ly trained, poor­ly equipped, poor­ly sup­port­ed and com­pen­sat­ed police offi­cers into this bub­bling caul­dron of anar­chy does noth­ing to ame­lio­rate crime.
It places the lives of offi­cers in seri­ous jeop­ardy while cre­at­ing a false impres­sion that some­thing mean­ing­ful is being done.
Again, pan­der­ing to the opti­cal with­out doing any­thing worth­while and lasting.

Fixing crime requires new leg­is­la­tion which puts mur­der­ers in prison and keep­ing them there. It requires pro­vid­ing jobs so that young peo­ple can have alter­na­tive options to lives of crime. It requires a change in the Bail Act which pre­vents judges from giv­ing bail to peo­ple accused of mur­der. It requires fix­ing the crim­i­nal jus­tice system.
It requires throw­ing out the train­ing man­u­al of the police acad­e­my and putting in its place a train­ing pro­gram which reflects the tasks and dan­gers offi­cers face on the job today.

NEW COMMISSIONER OF POLICE…?

There is so much that has to be done, that is not being done.
If recent media reports are any­thing to go by, Police. Deputy Commissioner of Police Novelette Grant will be tapped to be the next CommissiPolice. According to the Jamaicadailygleaner​.com The Police Service Commission is poised to announce that Acting Police Commissioner Novelette Grant has been select­ed to lead the Force. That announce­ment is expect­ed short­ly. “Ms. Grant was appoint­ed to act in the post, but it appears that it was a test run and she has passed with fly­ing colors.”

Novelette Grant is supreme­ly qualified.
Supremely skilled was a char­ac­ter­i­za­tion used to describe her pre­de­ces­sor (assum­ing that reports of her appoint­ment are true).
The dif­fer­ence with Novelette Grant in my esti­ma­tion is that she is not only book smart, but she is also ful­ly in tune with the day to day chal­lenges offi­cers on the streets face.
She has head­ed the tight police Area 5 which com­pris­es St Thomas, St Catherine, and St Andrew North.
But beyond that, she is one of only a tiny group of senior police offi­cials with­in the JCF who believe they are police officers.
Novelette Grant should gar­ner much sup­port from the men and women under her com­mand. She is total­ly deserv­ing of this oppor­tu­ni­ty to lead the JCF.
Not because she is a woman, the nation can ill afford to have a quo­ta dri­ven approach to policing.
She deserves the job because she has earned the oppor­tu­ni­ty to lead.

Regardless of the wealth of knowl­edge and skills Novelette Grant brings to the table, it will be all for noth­ing if she is not giv­en strong leg­isla­tive backing.
Her efforts will be thwart­ed, ren­der­ing her tal­ent and skills redun­dant as that of so many oth­ers have been before her.
That can change if polit­i­cal lead­ers put the inter­est of the coun­try over their own and make the hard deci­sions which once and for all demon­strate to those inclined that they will not be able to break laws with impunity.

The Government will have to tell those who make a liv­ing from human rights advo­ca­cy that they are appre­ci­at­ed, but they should to sit down and shut up.
Placing a ban­dage on a gun­shot wound with­out remov­ing the war­head and fix­ing the dam­age it did, is a death sen­tence for the victim.
So too is the present approach to crime.
The Nation is dying a slow but sure death, even as it’s lead­ers insti­tute incon­se­quen­tial and mean­ing­less fixes.