Crime Beast Resurges:

Police in the Island of Jamaica have all but con­ced­ed that they are unable to deal with the mon­ster of crime in that country.

There are sig­nif­i­cant signs that the police depart­ment and the inept gov­ern­ment have no clue how to arrest the crime prob­lem, (no pun intended).

Yesterday in these blogs we dis­cussed some issues we feel are key in under­stand­ing why police offi­cers fab­ri­cate evi­dence to gain con­vic­tions. We will not re-lit­i­gate that blog what we will do is talk about what seem evi­dent to those who are inter­est­ed in knowing.

Assistant com­mis­sion­er of Police Élan Powell

Yesterday we fea­tured this man assis­tant Commissioner of Police Élan Powell in charge of crime in Jamaica. Assistant Commissioner Powell is a good man who loves his job, he means well. Both Powell and Senior Superintendent Wilford Gayle direct­ly involved in crim­i­nal Investigations are two pro­tegé of the Constant Spring CIB under the tute­lage of Noël Asphall and Rudolph Dwyer. Dwyre a superb inves­ti­ga­tor who over­saw crime and Noël Asphall a tow­er­ing ted­dy-bear who could get the lazi­est of the lazy to work for free through moti­va­tion. Your blog­ger ben­e­fit­ted great­ly from hav­ing being part of that office, and was priv­i­leged to play a part in keep­ing crime in check in our area of influ­ence. There are many more unsung heroes who will nev­er be reward­ed or remem­bered because they do not fit the nar­row prism of what cops are sup­posed to be these days in Jamaica.

The fol­low­ing is a tran­script from the Gleaner one of Jamaica’s dai­ly publications.

The Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) has released chill­ing sta­tis­tics and we are still in the mid­dle of the sec­ond month of the year. The Jamaica Constabulary Force’s (JCF) week­ly crime sta­tis­tics indi­cate that up to February 11, last year, the homi­cide fig­ures stood at 114. There have been 137 cas­es of mur­der for the cor­re­spond­ing peri­od this year. The crime sta­tis­tics fur­ther sug­gest­ed that gang vio­lence has been the motive behind the vio­lent killing of at least 50 per­sons. The gun has been used in more than 100 of the report­ed cas­es of homi­cides. Last month, 104 per­sons were mur­dered, while up to yes­ter­day, close to 40 have been killed since the begin­ning of February. 

Most dan­ger­ous places

According to the sta­tis­tics, the most dan­ger­ous places at the moment are in the St Catherine North Police Division where more than 25 per­sons have been killed.(jamaica​glean​er​.com)

Here’s what this means folks, over the cor­re­spond­ing peri­od last year less Jamaicans have been killed than this year. As a prag­ma­tist I promise you I will not over com­pli­cate this issue. Irrespective what the police and the gov­ern­ment tell you these num­bers reveals a strik­ing tale. That tale is that this gov­ern­ment attracts crim­i­nal­i­ty as flies fol­lows feces.

As I have said on so many occa­sions this gov­ern­ment is seen as a cod­dler of crim­i­nals. I opined that this gov­ern­ment aligned itself with crim­i­nals whilst in oppo­si­tion. As the oppo­si­tion par­ty they vot­ed not to allow the secu­ri­ty forces to con­tin­ue with their momen­tum in pur­suit of crim­i­nals after Christopher Coke was rout­ed from Tivoli Gardens. There were no dis­senters, they vot­ed as a uni­tary block.

This I thought was a trea­so­nous act which should have been pun­ish­able with ban­ish­ment from rep­re­sen­ta­tion­al pol­i­tics. Jamaicans being who they are vot­ed them into office.

Of course the con­ven­tion­al wis­dom on the street is that The People’s National Party then in oppo­si­tion, could not allow the police to con­sol­i­date their gains as they have sig­nif­i­cant­ly more gar­ri­son com­mu­ni­ties than the then gov­ern­ment of the Jamaica Labor Party.

The sto­ry the PNP which now forms the gov­ern­ment gave for not sup­port­ing the secu­ri­ty forces is scan­dalous, quote: “We do not want the secu­ri­ty forces to vio­late the rights of cit­i­zens”. So they sided with the criminals !!!!

Powell report­ed­ly told the Gleaner, a mouth­piece for the Government that , quote“We are fac­ing some try­ing times and all of us will have to bond togeth­er with our effort. With this col­lab­o­ra­tion, we should get on top of things,” Assistant Commissioner Ealan Powell, head of the Criminal Investigation Branch (CIB).(jamaica​glean​er​.com)

Spanish Town is excep­tion­al­ly chal­leng­ing and I am appeal­ing to the moth­ers, the sis­ters and girl­friends to come for­ward and talk to us. It is going to take all hands on deck to ensure suc­cess,” Powell told The Gleaner.

This is a SOS folks:

Assistant com­mis­sion­er Powell still a friend, clear­ly is sig­nalling a “SOS”. That is a dis­tress call for help. I have long main­tained that Police and gov­ern­ment can­not acqui­esce to crim­i­nal rights groups. I have long writ­ten that the rule of law must be sacro­sanct. I have long argued that the rule of law must be the foun­da­tion that any soci­ety is built on. After the rule of law has been estab­lished as a cor­ner­stone, then soci­ety must move to make sure that the rights of indi­vid­u­als are pro­tect­ed. Not the reverse.

Percival James Patterson and Portia Simpson Miller have mort­gaged the secu­ri­ty of Jamaica on the altar of cheap polit­i­cal games­man­ship and vote-get­ting. Groups like Jamaicans for Justice which argue that their man­date is to ensure cit­i­zens rights, have over the years thrown their sup­port to crim­i­nals at the expense of the law enforce­ment com­mu­ni­ty. As a result they have lost the sup­port of a lot of ordi­nary Jamaicans, seen as just anoth­er crim­i­nal cod­dling enti­ty in the coun­try. This group in par­tic­u­lar has been giv­en carte blanch in help­ing to shape nation­al secu­ri­ty pol­i­cy. The result is the Police beg­ging for mer­cy from Jamaica’s urban terrorists.

Let me just say this, Assistant Commissioner Powell well-inten­tioned though he may be, is a sup­port­er of the par­ty in Government . He most cer­tain­ly will be pro­mot­ed before they are removed from office even if they are only allowed a sin­gle term. This sug­gest Powell and some close to him, have a bright future in the JCF . The prob­lem with that is that it offers a dim future for Jamaica.

Powell and oth­ers came to promi­nence as the way for­ward for the JCF. The coun­try was told that the police is a para-mil­i­tar force that must be mod­ern­ized, that we agreed with. What we do not agree with is that the JCF should be made into a paper tiger that is reduced to beg­ging crim­i­nals to behave 

PS: Assistant Commissioner Powell and I passed the accel­er­at­ed Examinations togeth­er, we worked togeth­er at Constant Spring. Powell was a guy who loved the Office , I loved remov­ing crim­i­nals from the streets. I knew where they lived , I knew where they dined, I knew where they slept, I knew where they pro­cre­ate, I caught them where they procreate.

“Shottas” love sex and that is where I caught them, where their girls lived. 

Powell stayed I left.