The PNP was pathetic on crime, former minister of National Security Peter Bunting in exasperation and totally clueless, infamously stated, that the Island’s crime situation needed divine intervention.
That comment was not only stupid, it demonstrated that they were out of their league.
Nevertheless, the Andrew Holness Administration has been in office for three years.
He and his Government owns this mess, there can no longer be the narrative that they inherited this. Regardless of what the JLP inherited, it is in Government. It was elected to fix the problem, this is not the Opposition party’s problem, it is the Administration’s problem, and it is going the opposite direction of where it needs to be.
One can easily understand the condemnation which came down on the head of Ackaisha Green who was inside the ATM at Central Police Station on East Queen Street in downtown Kingston when she found a bag filled with money and turned it over to the police.
After all, even financially well to do people could hardly be expected to do what Ackaisha did.
According to reports the young mother had every reason to take the money, being of very modest means herself, but she chose to do the right thing.
The most difficult thing for Ms. Green must have come from her own mother who berated her for returning the millions having earlier asked her for $200.
Thankfully a flood of pledges of support has been coming in for Ms. Green both locally and overseas.
There is still something to celebrate in Jamaica, even more, consequential in my opinion, the honest 24-year-old is from the rugged inner city and not from uptown. Read the story here;
https://caribbeannewsden.com/2019/05/08/jamaica-honesty-pays-off-for-woman-who-handed-over-millions-in-cash-found-at-atm/
In the Book of Matthew Chapter 13 vs 1 – 9 Jesus narrated the parable of the sower who went out to sow seeds. According to the story “A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop — a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. 9 Whoever has ears, let them hear.”
I always marveled at the alacrity and effectiveness with which Jamaica’s teachers picked up the pace after independence, effectively doing a terrific job of educating the Island’s children making our people who wanted to learn, second to none across the globe.
Accordingly, we have excelled in the areas of Athletics and culture, even though it could be argued that culturally we are on the wane.
In all of the good things which we have accomplished, we have made some horrible mistakes even as we claim to make them for the good of the nation.
It is stunning that we continue to place the cart before the horse. Even when people with the power of perception say, “hey you got it all wrong’, collectively, rather than turn the thing around we double down on stupid.
I always marveled at the sower in Matthew 13, why didn’t he wait until he found good soil? Why did he flail away hoping for the best with the precious seeds he had? Could it be that he too did not understand that in order to reap a harvest, certain things had to be done right, beginning with finding good fertile soil on which to scatter his seeds?
As the sower carelessly scattered the precious seeds, so too have Jamaica’s political leaders squandered scarce resources supposedly in the quest to end violent crimes across the nation.
Whether it be (SOE’s) State Of Emergency, (ZOSO) Zones Of Special Operations, the Creation of (INDECOM) The Supposed Independent Commission Of Investigations, (OPD) Office Of Public Defender, and the long litany of other catchy Acronym’s we have become so enamored with, the cart has been counterintuitively placed before the horse.
As we have seen in the parable, the sower wasted precious resources by not following any meaningful process. So too has Jamaica decide to demolish the police department’s ability to effectively deal with the terror threat on the Island.
Before you sow seeds the land must be cleared, plowed, fertilized and watered. After that, the seeds should be covered, because make no mistake about it, the birds will eat the seeds if they are left uncovered, regardless of where they are sown.
Only then can there be a reasonable expectation of a good harvest commensurate with the investment.
Both the past PNP and present JLP administration have in some case unwittingly, and in other cases arbitrarily, gone about dealing with the nations crime problem as the sower did.
They did so carelessly, naively and in the case of the Andrew Holness Administration, maliciously, recklessly and surreptitiously gone after the police department under the guise of creating a new police force.
Without doubt, this half-ass strategy has emboldened criminals to step up their activities with the full knowledge that the Government will not tolerate the police going after the nations killers.
The strategy of using ZOSO’s and SOE’s are half-ass strategies designed to flood communities with the bodies of security forces personnel, creating a faux-peace with the sole intent of using whatever benefits are derived from it as political fodder.
ZOSO’s and SOE’s do nothing to stop the killings in general, they do nothing to lower crime across the board. At best they are unsustainable geographical band-aid which lessen the massive bleeding in that Geographical area temporarily, while increasing it in other areas.
How can a Prime Minister tell law enforcement officers that the days of kicking in doors are over? That kind of rhetoric is a governmental license to criminals to rest assured they are protected.
Yet, that has been Andrew Holness’ mantra and the criminals are watching in glee. The criminal underworld cheers their legal arm INDECOM, which works overtime for their protection.
In a shocking departure from past protocol, Andrew Holness has created in our country, a perception that a hard-nosed approach to enforcement is tantamount and similar to abuse of citizens rights.
It is ignorant, it is hyperbolic, and it is dangerous coming from that office.
Not only has Holness compromised the ability of the police to do their jobs, but he has also enhanced the ability of the mongrel attack dogs like Terrence Williams and Hamish Campbell to further frustrate the efforts of the police to do their jobs.
And now we are seeing that through that strategy criminals are more emboldened to attack and murder police officers.
This Government must take responsibility for this and there is no hiding from what they created.