CITIZENS RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

Αs Jamaica strug­gles to bring crime under con­trol, some res­i­dents are final­ly real­iz­ing that their safe­ty and secu­ri­ty are ulti­mate­ly their respon­si­bil­i­ty and as such they have to be proac­tive in ensur­ing same. If the Authorities are seri­ous about reduc­ing crime to a min­i­mum, they must launch a media cam­paign edu­cat­ing cit­i­zens on what their respon­si­bil­i­ties are. There is no short­age of peo­ple who pur­port to know their rights, but what of their respon­si­bil­i­ties as cit­i­zens? Usually know­ing their rights means a mis­guid­ed belief that they are some­how immune from law enforce­ment action. As Jamaica reluc­tant­ly move toward becom­ing a coun­try of laws , it is imper­a­tive that cit­i­zens are made aware of their respon­si­bil­i­ties so they may not only obey the laws, but are less like­ly to be ensnared by them.

Observer photo:

Recently pock­ets of peo­ple in some crime-rav­aged com­mu­ni­ties have tak­en the bold steps to march against crim­i­nal ele­ments with­in their com­mu­ni­ties. This was evi­dent in east and west Kingston recent­ly. This is not new, from time to time var­i­ous orga­ni­za­tions have marched for peace and free­dom from crime. What is ulti­mate­ly need­ed though, is a sus­tained coa­les­cence of actions between all stake-hold­ers, includ­ing law enforce­ment agen­cies that will invari­ably send a strong mes­sage to the crim­i­nal under­world that cit­i­zens will not tol­er­ate their activ­i­ties any longer. Over the years com­mu­ni­ty Over-Lords have used demon­stra­tion against the police as a potent weapon, as they solid­i­fy their con­trol of com­mu­ni­ties. It is time cit­i­zens turn the tables using the very same meth­ods. What is need­ed from the police now, is less brava­do, less emp­ty rhetoric and more lead­er­ship. The Police depart­ment is top heavy with peo­ple who do not earn their pay, it has always been that way, it is time for these peo­ple to get up off their lazy ass­es and go into the com­mu­ni­ties and stay there. It can­not be that peo­ple are scared to report mat­ters to the police any­more because they are afraid of police cor­rup­tion and being labeled inform­ers. It is time for the stu­pid dance-hall jar­gon “infor­ma fi ded” to become a thing of the past.