As another year draws to a close, Jamaica is once again saddled with the dubious distinction of being one of the most violent places to live on this planet.
We must examine ourselves with clear-eyes and figure out whether the violence may be attributed to Jamaicans having a greater propensity for violence, as against whether people commit crimes because they believe with a high degree of certainty, that there will be no consequences for their actions, even if they are caught?
I think both scenarios are true; I also believe that the latter controls the former, but there is a lack of will to do what is necessary.
Additionally, Jamaican authorities act as though our laws have to pass muster with the American, Canadian, and British Embassy.
Their continued fealty and docile subservience to their old colonial masters have greatly hampered the nation’s crime-fighting efforts, even as those countries legislate and execute their policies without care or concern about what any other nation thinks, least of all Jamaica.
The United States State Department is quick to judge how other nations enforce their laws, even as the United States has one of the worse records in law enforcement and human rights.
On the one hand, American made guns continue to flood the Island unabated, yet on the other, the United States routinely issues alarming [travel advisories] when those guns are used in violent acts.
The United States cannot have it both ways, and the larger question remains, why is Jamaica acting as if it is the 51st state of the United States anyway?
As for Canada and Great Britain, why we care what they think is a mystery to me? Please enlighten me, someone!
The sad reality, is that Jamaica has become like the man accompanied by his son, who took his Donkey to sell it.
The hapless man listened to every comment people passed made; he even ended up tieing up the donkey and carrying it between him and his young son.
Jamaica is either a sovereign nation, or it isn’t. As a nation that has to fend for itself like every other, we have the right to determine autonomously, how we legislate, and effectuate policies.
We borrow money like everyone else; however, as a largely Black country, Jamaica does not receive the aid that other smaller nations receive from the big powers that like to push their agendas on us.
The state of Israel rose out of the desert in 1947; Jamaica gained it’s [so-called independence] in 1962; Jamaica has fewer than 3 million citizens. Conversely, the state of Israel has a population of 8.884 million as of (2018).
Israel is a nuclear-armed, nation that sets policy in the middle east.
It is so because the same powers to whom Jamaica is heavily indebted, the same powers that like to dictate to Jamaica what is right and wrong, have funded Israel’s growth even as they turn a blind eye to its war crimes across the middle east from its inception.
No nation should surrender its autonomy to another because it borrows money from that other country. However, as the Bible teaches, the borrower is a slave to the lender, which is what Jamaica has become, a slave to America and others from which it continues to borrow.
The sad truth is that the nations that dictate to Jamaica how it may enforce its laws, know full well the consequences of crime to jamaica’s economy.
As I have said repeatedly, it is up to Jamaica to see through these big powers’ strategy. A nation engulfed in crime is a nation that cannot fulfill its potential. A nation that cannot fulfill it’s potential is a nation that will forever be a debtor nation.
As a nation, Jamaica must stop being pretentious; we are not a Scandavanian nation; we must deal with our violent killers in decisive ways, and end the pretentious appeasement policies.
A nation that negotiates with, and begs violent murderers to obey its laws is a nation that has surrendered to terror.
Some branches of the Jamaican Government has all but become lobbying firms for the Island’s most violent criminals, none more so than the so-called Justice Ministry, and the tax-payer paid Minister who heads that Ministry.
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Mike Beckles is a former Police Detective, businessman, freelance writer, a black achiever honoree, and publisher of the blog mikebeckles.com.
He’s contributed to several websites.
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