IF JAMAICA IS SERIOUS ABOUT REDUCING CRIME

Whose grand idea was it to inves­ti­gate where there are no alle­ga­tions of impro­pri­ety ‚or crim­i­nal mis­con­duct? The Jamaica Constabulary Force cer­tain­ly needs over­sight. No one could rea­son­ably dis­agree with the idea of over­sight of Police Agencies and cer­tain­ly not the (JCF). Oversight how­ev­er should not be a witch-hunt with per­son­al agen­das . Why waste time and scarce resources look­ing for wrong-doing where there is none. Interestingly as is cus­tom­ary in Jamaica where every­thing is done incor­rect­ly, that is exact­ly how they do busi­ness. The for­ma­tion of the neo­phyte Agency , the Independent Commission of Investigation (INDECOM) does exact­ly that. The Agency’s head Terrence Williams the first to head the Agency has been lit­tle more than a pow­er-hun­gry Media whore whose bid to become the Director of Public Prosecution fell flat. Since becom­ing Commissioner of this vir­gin Agency Williams seemed to rel­ish in the idea of cre­at­ing a rift between the new Agency and the JCF, to show Independence and prove his bona fides. In fact Williams made that point clear by attend­ing a Press Conference with Carolyn Gomes then head of anti-police Antagonist group, Jamaicans for Justice(JFJ). That deci­sion cre­at­ed much angst and con­ster­na­tion among mem­bers of the police depart­ment. If Terrence Williams want­ed to delib­er­ate­ly cre­ate ene­mies , he suc­ceed­ed beyond his wildest dreams. That did not seem to both­er Williams who has con­tin­ued to seek out the media in a push for more pow­er. Because of it’s lack of objec­tiv­i­ty Jamaicans for Justice, is not tak­en seri­ous­ly by objec­tive observers. The group is large­ly sup­port­ed and embraced by crim­i­nals and their supporters.

Despite Williams rapa­cious hunger for pow­er and his piti­ful pleas for more, INDECOM has been forced to con­cede that in the major­i­ty of cas­es it inves­ti­gat­ed, there was no wrong-doing on the part of offi­cers. Now let me be clear, I am elat­ed that this Elitist Agency is look­ing into police con­duct. If INDECOM has the trust and con­fi­dence of the pop­u­la­tion then all the bet­ter for the blue-col­lar mem­bers of the JCF, who actu­al­ly pro­duce results for the pit­tance they are paid.

The dif­fer­ence in coun­tries like the US , Canada and the UK is that these coun­tries believe in the rule of law. Their law-enforce­ment over­sight takes noth­ing from the process it enhances the process. Officers get to do their jobs safe in the knowl­edge that as long as they fol­low the laws they are insu­lat­ed from crim­i­nal pros­e­cu­tion. Can mem­bers of the JCF say the same? INDECOM snoops around every police shoot­ing scene, this is a waste of time and scarce resources which could be more judi­cious­ly used. It cre­ates the impres­sion of wrong-doing , even when there are no alle­ga­tions of any. Police Officers are removed from front-line duties on the flim­si­est alle­ga­tions made by any one police-hat­ing wit­ness. Many times these wit­ness­es are man­u­fac­tured. Anyone privy to the crime sit­u­a­tion in Jamaica must gasp at this notion con­sid­er­ing the lev­el of sup­port crim­i­nals get in this nation of 2.7 million.

PERSPECTIVE

1) Organized crime and oth­er crim­i­nal ele­ments are preva­lent and extreme­ly active. Most of the crim­i­nal activ­i­ty is gang-relat­ed. The police have only resolved (make arrests) 44 per­cent of homi­cides annu­al­ly, and they only con­vict per­pe­tra­tors in five per­cent of the homi­cide cas­es. This leads both the pub­lic and police to doubt the effec­tive­ness of the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem, lead­ing to vig­i­lan­tism, which exac­er­bates the cycle of vio­lence. Based on their past expe­ri­ences, most civil­ians fear that, at best, the author­i­ties can­not pro­tect them from orga­nized crim­i­nal ele­ments, and, at worst, are col­lud­ing with crim­i­nals, lead­ing cit­i­zens to avoid giv­ing evi­dence or wit­ness testimonies.

2) Kingston is rat­ed “Critical” for crime by the Department of State due to a high fre­quen­cy of crim­i­nal activ­i­ty through­out Jamaica. Violent crime is a seri­ous prob­lem, par­tic­u­lar­ly in Kingston. In 2012, Kingston saw a reduc­tion in the mur­der rate and oth­er vio­lent crimes. This reduc­tion may be attrib­uted to proac­tive police actions. There were 1,083 mur­ders, 1,218 shoot­ings, 763 car­nal abuse, 833 rape, 2,679 rob­beries, 3,094 break-ins, 691 lar­ce­ny cas­es record­ed in 2012. With a pop­u­la­tion of approx­i­mate­ly 2.7 mil­lion peo­ple, the num­ber of mur­ders and oth­er vio­lence places Jamaica in the top five tiers of the high­est per capi­ta homi­cide rates in the world. https://​www​.osac​.gov/​p​a​g​e​s​/​C​o​n​t​e​n​t​R​e​p​o​r​t​D​e​t​a​i​l​s​.​a​s​p​x​?​c​i​d​=​1​4​289

The inept Administration in Kingston is inca­pable of get­ting any­thing right. Crime is eat­ing away at the fab­ric of the Country. It is believed even in International cir­cles that crime is being sup­port­ed by peo­ple who ought to be work­ing toward its elim­i­na­tion (not the police). Someone in the Administration with a lit­tle brain, Peter Phillips now hold­ing the Finance Portfolio maybe, please impress upon the Prime Minister in the sim­plest terms pos­si­ble, that pass­ing IMF tests is good for the IMF , but bad for the people.

The dai­ly depre­ci­a­tion of the dol­lar is proof pos­i­tive that things are not get­ting bet­ter. This econ­o­my is even­tu­al­ly going to crater, when it does the blame will be hung around your neck, despite the years of harm Omar Davies did. If you believe crime is high now wait a lit­tle longer when the coun­try is forced to apply even more aus­ter­i­ty to sat­is­fy the pup­peteers at IMF Headquarters. Peter Phillips you bucked the sys­tem before. Maybe you need to do it again for Country.