At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I will say this to the Jamaican Government again.
For years after leaving the JCF I have assiduously studied crime patterns and looked at data involving crime in developing countries.
As a consequence, I have written hundreds of blog posts and have produced countless pages of data in support of my theory that crime cannot be contained without a firm hand.
(QUALITY OF SERVICE)
In the 27 years since I left the JCF after a brief ten years stint, I have seen the quality of service offered by the JCF deteriorate and distrust of the Department increase exponentially.
This two-fold event has created the perfect opportunity for crime to flourish resulting in the unnecessary deaths of tens of thousands of Jamaicans and the entire nation now completely traumatized and desensitized to the horrors of the daily bloodshed.
(THE EVOLUTION)
The approach by both political parties combined, both in administration and in opposition, have left much to be desired and may logically be argued to be one of the reasons which have caused the continued explosion of violent crimes across the Island.
For years I have warned that the approach [must] be a two-fold approach which(a) delivers a heavy hand to violent criminals, but(b) uses a velvet glove to massage the rest of society.
This approach is exactly what other societies have used successfully and it is the approach safer societies (not totalitarian societies) uses today.
Crime cannot be solved unless the appropriate resources are appropriated and directed to the cause of law enforcement.
It is not a liability, it is an investment in our survival, literally and economically.
When we make the decision to ignore the needs of law enforcement we have by default given license to the creation and expansion of underground economies which only benefits a few criminals.
Those decisions frighten away legitimate investors and returning residents and embolden criminals to set up extortion rackets by creating more fear.
(THE REAL ISSUE)
Administrations of both political parties have maintained a curious indifference to this burgeoning problem which is now threatening the very viability of the Jamaican state. (see the Tivoli incursion of 2010) and events thereafter.
The incompetence and corruption within the JCF is not an isolated case of simply people corrupted by power taking advantage of the system.
It is a much deeper across the board rot, not a stranger to other parts of the public sector. This rot has been made to fester from low wages, lack of resources, lack of respect, insufficient training, insufficient support legislatively and structurally and a host of other neglect.
The extremely high attrition rate within the department
(THE #1 MISTAKE)
Instead of looking aggressively at the problems in the JCF, if not out of love for the rule of law but out of a recognition that no society can grow and survive in crime, Government’s actions have been to take steps to exacerbate the problem.
Instead of creating a structure of support to address the problems of the police, administrations of both political parties have shown open disdain and disrespectful hostility to members of the force.
Instead of fixing what’s wrong with the force they went a full one hundred and eighty degrees by installing in place other agencies which have demonstrably created hostile relationships with the JCF.
See (INDECOM & Office of Public Defender).
(CUMULATIVE EFFECT)
The fact that the small Island of 2.8 Million people is losing well over 1600 of its people to violence annually though ghastly, does not tell the whole story.
The raw death total regardless of the numbers, will certainly not be the worst-case scenario for the country.
The existential threat to the nation’s solvency and sovereignty will be far more consequential.
For years we have seen the number of violent crimes rise and remain high with the exception of 2010 when the security forces were forced to use overwhelming force to put down what the country [refuses to accept] was a [militia uprising] against the authority of the state.
Immediately after that event criminals largely kept their heads down, unsure of the security forces next move and not wanting to draw their ire.
This was a clear indication that force absolutely is the only thing they understand and will bow to.
After the Government signaled to them that it would be the security forces which would be on trial for the Tivoli event, crime began a steady and determined climb and has continued to today.
I want to warn the Governing authority that the declaration of States of Emergency (SOE) and declaring Zones Of Special Operations (ZOSO) are not panaceas for the nations crime problem.
Let me be clear, you not only have a crime problem.
What you have is a metastasizing militia problem, which is completely different than gangs.
Criminal gangs do not operate together to challenge the authority of the state. Militias do.
We saw that this concept has been on the table since 2010 when hatred for the duly constituted state far outweighed political and other differences.
In 2010 loose actors from differing political persuasion found common cause around a singular figure(Christopher Duddus Coke).
Unperturbed by what the state may do they came together in Tivoli Gardens and stood up to the state.
Eight years later those actors are more closely aligned and more sophisticatedly armed.
It is no longer just guns, its grenades and silencers, scopes and other more devastating paraphernalia of warfare.
Notwithstanding, the Government has not coördinated a cohesive strategy around that reality, neither has it demonstrated that it understands fully the danger these well-armed criminals pose to the state despite the mass killings.
Right here in our hemisphere. Mexico, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua offers case studies on the danger of ignoring these trends.
Yet the Jamaican political class which has a responsibility first and foremost to protect the country from harm refuses to confront that existential threat.
Rather than seek the necessary expertise to once and for all end this problem, administrations of both political parties have embarked on a systematic head-in-the-sand approach which largely ignores the danger of the bullet in the body as long as they can hide the blood.
That fallacy included bringing British police who know nothing about our culture, environment or crime-fighting needs.
They sit in offices pushing paper, making press statements and fattening themselves at our expense.
On the other hand, Government looks to their cronies at the University of the West Indies for solutions on how to resolve these critical issues, an institution which has a tenuous relationship with police and
(SOLUTION)
These mass killings in Jamaica are different than the mass killings in the United States. In the US mass killers are usually mentally deranged individuals, or killers with deep racial or religious animus. Either way, when they rear their heads they either kill themselves, are captured if they surrender or are put down with overwhelming force by the state.
In Jamaica, the killings though tied to particular motives are designed to drive fear into the society. The actors intend to derive more control for themselves by paralyzing the population through fear.
It is working.
A cursory look at the Spanish-speaking countries I named above will give an idea why Jamaica’s Criminal [gangs/militias] are more in line with those countries than they are with mass killers in the US.
It behooves the administration in Kingston to address this issue today with a decisive military response.
That response must be a full-throated no holes barred response which leaves no question that their actions will not be tolerated.
Jamaica is only 4411 square miles.
Under no circumstances, should militias be terrorizing entire communities and wiping out entire families while there are soldiers at Up Park Camp playing dominoes.
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