It’s easy to ignore a killing in Jamaica, after all we are talking about Jamaica, that’s what Jamaicans do , we kill each other.
Ever so often however, we are gripped with disgust at a killing that seem different than the others. One that tears at our being , with ever fibre of our soul aching, demanding , and craving for a chance to get our hands on the perpetrators . Whether it’s the shooting of Khajeel Mais who was just riding in a cab ‚or the little girl who was killed off Maxfield avenue a couple of years ago burned to a crisp while those who set fire to the house stood guard outside with machine guns, so no one could escape the flames.
Or whether it is the case of the two women who were beheaded in Lauriston St Catherine, and their heads dumped into the Rio Cobre river. There are more instances of these egregious killings than we care to remember or detail, sordid as they were we forget them at our peril. Once again we hear of the disappearance of a 20-year-old young man who disappeared in broad daylight in the Clarendon capital of May Pen.
shane roshane mckenzie
Shane ‘Roshane’ McKenzie often travelled to May Pen in Clarendon without any problems, but since he left his home at Paisley Avenue in the parish to go to May Pen on Monday, August 29, he has not been seen or heard from. McKenzie, 20, arrived in May Pen approximately 10 a.m. that day, accompanied by his younger sister. The two went into a bank to pay school fees, but on seeing the long queues inside, McKenzie left his sister to pay the fees and went nearby to purchase a pair of shoes and a cable for his laptop. McKenzie was then reportedly accosted by five men, who forced him on to Stork Street, en route to Duke Street. He hasn’t been seen since. The disappearance of McKenzie, a past student of the Bustamante High School, has left his family in shock, fear, and with a lot of un-answered questions. Mary Jane, McKenzie’s mother, believes her son is dead. “Me know me son, him not staying out for an entire day and me don’t hear from him, much less a whole week,” she said “A kidnap them kidnap me son and carry him go kill him. Him dead, me sure of that now. You kill him already, so give me his body, let me bury him,” she said. The woman said that when the younger child returned home without Roshane, she became concerned and began to call his cellphone, which rang without answer “How can you take away a man right under the clock, where two cameras are and nobody can’t tell me where Roshane is?” she asked. The distraught mother said that the May Pen police were investigating McKenzie’s disappearance, but had not made any significant breakthrough in the case. The family remains in constant fear. If them (killers) can take away Roshane right under the clock, can you imagine what them would come over here and do to us?” said Roshane’s mother. (courtesy jamaica gleaner.com)
You may ask “what is the difference with this boy’s disappearance? people disappear and die every day. Those are legitimate arguments to make , but reading the mother’s comments changes things for me. During my years a s a police officer , it was stories like these that kept me working when some of my colleagues gave up , or got tired. It was stories like these that made me work unflinchingly and tirelessly to the point of exhaustion, as a twenty something year old cop who got so exhausted my coffee cup would shake in my hand from total exhaustion on occasions.
No greater charge could anyone be given than to bring the killer of another human being to justice.
Surely someone saw, they were able to state that he was abducted by five men, someone saw those five men, have the police attempted to speak to these people who stated that they saw these five men, ? have they sought to get the tapes from the cameras the mother alleged to be in that vicinity. Why were there no police officers on foot and in plain clothes in a bustling town like May Pen after 10 in the morning? This is not the first time that a major crime has been committed in that town in broad daylight , with dire consequences.
Not too long ago there was a large armed robbery with people shot , as is customary there were no police around. This leads me to ask ” where are the police officers”? What are the officers doing at the station house at 10 in the morning, and not on the beat looking out for the safety and protection of the people who pay their salaries. I am absolutely disgusted by the police who seem to be worse than mall-cops at doing their jobs.Where is the proactive approach that is needed to ensure crimes like these are non-existent or kept to a bare minimum..
Without knowing the full facts as it regards the absence of cops, and any logistical inadequacies of the May Pen Police, we are still comfortable with stating that irrespective of the shortage of personnel there is simply no excuse for the mains strip of a town like May Pen not to have uniformed officers patrolling , as well as plain clothes cops mingling with the crowds.
I hope that this young man is alive, I feel the pain of this mother, I empathize with the sense of helplessness she is feeling in not knowing for certain if her child is dead or alive. And assuming as she has, that he is dead she does not even have a body. How agonizing it must be for this mother and the family of Roshane Mckenzie. Stating that she knows he is dead seem to be a coping mechanism for her. One can imagine that while she states he is dead, she still looks and listens as the father of the prodigal son did, hoping Roshane will return home to her.
One wonders where are those who say the care about the rights of the innocent,and the deprived and the dispossessed? No greater right has anyone , than the right to life.
I implore the May Pen Police to get their act together and find out where this young man is and if he was killed bring swift justice to his killers.
mike beckles;
have your say.