JAMAICANS have not reacted with the kind of sense of purpose or stridency required to show the brutal gunmen running rampant in our land that the entire country is prepared to stand against them. The killing of three cops in just over a week would have triggered national outrage in any country serious about letting criminals know that their vicious activities would not be accepted or be allowed to go unpunished.
The usual argument is that the country has been numbed by the large numbers of murders — averaging over 1,000 a year — or that the populace does not think the police have the credibility to motivate them to work with cops to solve the crime problem. There is also the view that our ‘informer fi dead’ culture is all pervasive in crime-infested areas. We think the time has come to put an end to all these excuses and for the country to unite against criminality and these wanton killers who spare none, not even babies or old ladies. You know things are bad when INDECOM, the Independent Commission of Investigation, has joined the two major political parties and the Ministry of National Security in condemning the recent activities of gunmen.
INDECOM has been hard on the police to reduce extrajudicial killings, with some success to show for their efforts. In a perverted sense, this is the ironic reward that the Commission gets for its human rights approach to crime. Imperfect as the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) is, it is what stands between the gunmen and anarchy in our society. If gunmen feel they can kill policemen and women with impunity, that would embolden them in their criminal activities generally. We are heartened to see the improvement in the tone of press statements coming from the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), which we have taken as a sign that the JLP wants to see an end to this wanton lawlessness that is crippling our country. It would go a far way in setting the example for the rest of the country, we believe, if both major political parties agreed to de-tribalise their approach to crime-fighting, including cutting their links to criminal supporters. Crime-fighting needs the full support of the populace to succeed. People have to tell the police what they know and where the criminals are hiding. The question asked by Police Commissioner Dr Carl Williams, who will be brave enough to stand up and declare that they will not yield their sovereignty and freedom of conscience to gunmen, must not go unanswered.
Jamaica must respond in a resounding and decisive way. All of us!
STORY ORIGINATED HERE: Resounding response necessary to police commissioner’s question!