Lone Sick Bird Caught.….

The Jamaican Government said it is work­ing to secure more con­vic­tions in Human Trafficking in the Courts. Chairperson for the National Task Force Against Trafficking in Persons (NATFATIP), Carol Palmer, who made the dis­clo­sure to JIS News, said the Government intends to deal harsh­ly with per­sons engaged in human trafficking.
Palmer made the com­ments against the back­drop of Jamaica gain­ing it’s very first con­vic­tion in the Courts for Human Trafficking.
Palmer laud­ed all the enti­ties , includ­ing the Police and Prosecutor for their work in secur­ing the Conviction of Indian busi­ness­man, Rajesh Gurunani, who oper­at­ed gar­ment stores in down­town Kingston and in St Catherine, was found guilty of traf­fick­ing in per­sons, facil­i­tat­ing traf­fick­ing in per­sons, and with­hold­ing trav­el doc­u­ments between May 2008 and March 2011.

As a lit­tle boy we used to go bird shoot­ing using cat­a­pults (sling-shot), I was a hor­ren­dous shot. Any Bird I fired at was sure to escape I was that bad a shot with a sling-shot. Usually I end­ed up shoot­ing parts of my own hand rather than hit­ting the bird.
I was such a hor­ri­ble shot that on the one occa­sion I actu­al­ly did shoot a bird my entire fam­i­ly laughed at me so bad­ly I was embar­rassed. Everyone said that the Bird must have been sick, on it’s way home from the Hospital in order for me to actu­al­ly shoot it. I was so embar­rassed that I believed that maybe the Bird was indeed sick, I did not eat it despite my love for Bird-meat.

With the Incompetence of the Criminal Justice System in Jamaica it is incom­pre­hen­si­ble that they would actu­al­ly show their faces to cel­e­brate the Nation’s first con­vic­tion in the Courts for some­thing which has been going on for years.
Mister Rajesh Gurunani was the prover­bial sick bird. His lev­el of care­less­ness, incom­pe­tence and maybe arro­gance must have been mon­u­men­tal for the Jamaican sys­tem to fig­ure out his transgressions.
All of these peo­ple Jamaicans or oth­ers, regard­less of where they come from under­stand the inher­ent weak­ness and utter incom­pe­tence of the Jamaican Security and crim­i­nal appre­hen­sion apparatus.
Chairperson Carol Palmer was quick to point out that the Government will be seek­ing to secure more con­vic­tions. This prompts me to ask,“Why does the coun­try need a Task-Force Against Trafficking in Persons”?
Aren’t these Police Responsibilities?
Palmer brags that the Government intends to deal harsh­ly with per­sons engaged in Human traf­fick­ing. How exact­ly will the Government do this?
Will there be an edict from Jamaica House with the Queen declar­ing (“off with their heads”) ? Or are there clear, deci­sive and unam­bigu­ous laws which sends offend­ers to prison?
This is real­ly much to do about noth­ing. It real­ly is not that com­pli­cat­ed to inves­ti­gate these mat­ters. The Ministry of National Security’s Website states that For the peri­od April 2012 to March 2013, two hun­dred and thir­teen (213) police raids were con­duct­ed and 23 human traf­fick­ing vic­tims were res­cued. Over 100 per­sons have also been inter­viewed by the JCF Trafficking in Persons Unit in rela­tion to human traf­fick­ing, 90 of those being since January 2013.

If you thought I was being unrea­son­able in my crit­i­cism of the sin­gle con­vic­tion this alone ought to give you pause.
In one year 213 raids were con­duct­ed by Police.
Twenty three (23) vic­tims released.
One hun­dred per­sons interviewed.

Yet the Government cel­e­brates a sin­gle con­vic­tion in the courts. Many of my for­mer col­leagues in law-enforce­ment crit­i­cize me for being too hard on the JCF with my criticisms.
Those with whom I worked under­stand full well what I am talk­ing about. If crim­i­nals broke the laws we went after them.
When we went after them ‚we got them.
When we got them, rest assured they were convicted.
What the Courts did with them was not our business.
Jamaica’s hopes for a reduc­tion in crime is not based on any real­is­tic , or rea­son­ably-attain­able met­ric beyond Divine Intervention. As a Christian I can tell you, God helps those who help themselves.
The Jamaican Government and it’s lack­eys in the Police Department chased effec­tive police offi­cers from the Force and replaced them with pen­cil-push­ing desk-warm­ing wannabes, main­ly their cronies from the University of the West Indies (UWI) who need­ed work.
Platitudes, Promises and Pronouncements are the order of the day as the Crime wave rages.
As one per­son puts it Nero twid­dles his thumb as Rome burns.