Yesterday I talked about the role women play in Jamaica’s crime culture. It wasn’t my first article on this phenomenon.
Over the years I have sought to add some context to the dynamic, of the every evolving crime cancer which has taken over our country.
Most Jamaicans will recall when crime discussions were centered around Kingston , parts of St. Andrew and parts of St. Catherine and to a lesser extent St Thomas.
Today, once sleepy parishes like Portland and Hanover are ground zero of gang activity ‚resulting in number of deaths once unimaginable.
HOW DO WE APPROACH THIS ?
So we are where we are , we cannot nostalgically wish away our present reality.
What do we do in resolving this issue ?
We begin by divorcing ourselves from the misguided thinking that if we give everyone a job they will put away the guns and become good law abiding citizens.
To begin with the young men and women who have these high powered weapons have already tasted the power these weapons of death gives them over others.
There is no going back from that adrenaline rush. Many have the blood of several murdered people on their hands, that to them is the ultimate power rush.
There is no scenario in which we can pacify crime in today’s world without a show of strength and force.
That the country is focused on so called human rights abuse potentially meted out to blood thirsty killers over the rights of crime victims is ludicrous.
Prime Minister Andrew Holness came to power talking about INDECOM is here to stay .
He never missed an opportunity to tell everyone that hard nosed policing does not work , of course he never produces an iota of evidence to back up his theory.
During the 70’s murders got out of hand under the PNP Admistration of Michael Manley , culminating in the death of over 800 Jamaicans by the 1980 general elections.
By the time Edward Seaga took over and empowered the security forces to act murders trended downward , even with the lack of resources we encountered.
Crime is not an abstract concept which is treated with a one size fit all Utopian treatment.
By the tie I left the police force in 91 after a mere 10 years , murders were hovering between 400 ‑500 annually.
By the time Percival James Patterson was finished destroying the police force in 2005 homicides were up to 1600.
That’s an over 200% increase in the space of less than a decade and a half.
The Jamaican Prime Minister a student of the liberal University of the West Indies comes to leadership with the tired old Utopian concepts he gathered there.
Those teachings prevail upon gullible recipients the nonsensical idea that being tolerant and kind to ruthless killers will turn them around.
The evidence however points in the opposite direction , killers become more emboldened when they know they will not be held accountable.
So the grand social engineering scheme cooked up by the Norman Manley law school, the Island’s trial lawyers and Jamaica’s elites including those in Jamaican’s for Justice has failed dismally.
Now as the dead bodies pile up Andrew Holness is forced to recognize that the answer to the nation’s crime problem lies not in neutering the police but a 180 degree empowerment to go after the murderous mindless scums who take innocent life .
Montague Even Though Somewhat Misinformed , Head And Shoulders Above Holness On Crime…
I am vindicated in the work I have personally put into trying to bring awareness to the fact that the INDECOM Act has had a chilling negative effect on crime fighting.”
No INDECOM is not the only driver of crime on the Island but it is a very big part of it. So too is the incompetence of the leadership of the police department ‚the inept and incompetent courts system to name a few.
I have encountered and absorbed countless ridicule and derision for daring to speak out against a law cooked up by elitists within the Jamaican society ‚which did not have a single word of input from law enforcement.
I will as along as I am able, continue to do the work of trying to bring attention to how INDECOM and a narcissistic power hungry little bureaucrat is costing hundreds of lives each year.
My commitment to this cause is in no way an indication that I do not want oversight of the Police.
If any police department needs oversight it is the JCF, nevertheless that oversight cannot be about show-boating and collaborating with outside lobby groups to militate against the police.
The moment Terrence Williams joined Carolyn Gomes to openly condemn and criticize the police was the moment INDECOM should have undergone a review.
That review should have begun with the firing of Terrence Williams.
That law enforcement input did not even have to come from Jamaican cops, since the Government has no regard for their point of view.
It could have come from law enforcement in the United States, Britain or Canada .
The Government of the day decided it did not want to hear from Police , so it came up with a piece of legislation which actually was not a law which does much toward rooting out dirty cops , it empowered criminals .
Now Andrew Holness just a few days after hamming it up at an INDECOM conference has turned around and stated that the INDECOM law needs review.
“Laws protect the innocent, laws must protect human rights, laws must never be in such a way that they can be used as a tool to protect criminals.”
“We know that there are some very hardened criminals in our society, and they act in ways that confound us. The level of savagery that we see, sometimes we wonder where is the humanity. This state cannot sit by and allow this to continue. It erodes confidence. It creates a negative outlook,”
“We have to find a way to ensure that our police are motivated, that they are willing to go out there without worry that after they try to do the right thing, they end up on the wrong side of the law.”
These statements came out of the mouth of Andrew Holness , but for all intents and purposes it may have been the words of a smarter Holness.
Juilet Holness.
Mrs Holness has stated categorically that she heard from cops on the ground , the effects INDECOM is having on law enforcement.
Her husband on the hand has chosen to parrot the elitist point of view .
What has changed?
A lot of dead bodies.
Even if Jamaica was to continue massaging , cajoling and bowing to criminals , the killers would not stop killing we have evidence of that .
That is the present strategy and it is not working .
In the end the very strategy of heavy handedness Andrew Holness seem to be repulsed by, will have to be employed to deal with the problem.
As it was in 2010 so shall it be henceforth.
It makes no sense to argue that heavy handed policing of dangerous criminals has not worked when getting rid of name-brand cops and easing up on criminals has demonstrably showed a sharp and continuous increase in violent crimes.
Crime is not static phenomenon, , there will always be crime so it’s silly to argue that certain policies hasn’t worked when the very policy of disengagement which the liberal elitists espouse have had disastrous consequences for the most exposed Jamaicans.
We must come to the realization that the concept of hard nosed policing is not in conflict with law abiding citizens.
Fundamentally also is the disinformation being fed the public that hard nosed policing means abuse of citizens rights.
I was a very hard nosed cop who had zero tolerance for crime , yet I was certainly not brutal, disrespectful or abusive of anyone’s rights.
In fact my hard nosed policing earned me plaudits and respect across the board resulting in good intelligence which resulted in the removal of more dangerous criminals from the streets.
The level of effectiveness required to get the job done will not be done with the present crop of people in the force who are using the force as a place to relax.
Earning a degree then joining the force just to get a job where they sit behind desks and give orders will do nothing to rectify the murder spree in progress.
And it certainly will not do a damn thing to neutralize the demonic and depraved killers who roam the town and villages of Jamaica without fear of ever facing justice.