“Wow ” This May Be A Damn Good Tool In The Fight Against Crime In Jamaica

The theft of a Motorcycle from a Police Station would nor­mal­ly evoke scorn and dis­dain by Jamaicans who hate every­thing about Police. However the theft of a motor­cy­cle from the Junction police sta­tion in St Elizabeth Jamaica did not gar­ner the nor­mal diar­rhea of dis­dain­ful com­ments from them this time, the fact is that police vehi­cles have been swiped from Police precincts all across the Globe.

In the mean­time accord­ing to some reports Supt of Police Landford Salmon has tak­en the deci­sion to sus­pend all dance par­ties and round robins in the Parish until the person/​s who stole the Motorcycle return it to the station.
I must say that it’s kin­da sad that the Police are forced to resort to mea­sures like these to bring about the return of the motorcycle.
It says the police real­ly has no intel­li­gence sources . And it says the police have no idea who took it. That aside, as a young detec­tive I have told peo­ple to return stolen mer­chan­dize to a cer­tain spot or else.….…..
One case involved a stolen Kawasaki motor­cy­cle which turned up on Knutsford Boulevard in New Kingston.
The sec­ond instance was when a fur­ni­ture fac­to­ry at the cor­ner of Grant’s Pen Avenue and Morgan Lane was bro­ken into and emp­tied of every piece of furniture.
I vis­it­ed the cor­ner grabbed a cer­tain guy and told him the fur­ni­ture bet­ter turn up in a place where I can find them in a cou­ple of hours or else.….…

Of course after return­ing to the sta­tion I received a phone call and yes an open lot in Grants Pen became an open air fur­ni­ture store.
Not only was the fur­ni­ture returned but I received addi­tion­al infor­ma­tion on one man who decid­ed to try his luck and not return his ill-got­ten din­ing Room furniture.
Because he was well know to me he prob­a­bly expect­ed that I would look the oth­er way. I did look away as he was sen­tenced to two years for receiv­ing stolen property.

Today Superintendent Salmon prob­a­bly does­n’t have the pow­er to deliv­er on or else .…..
God knows there are more than enough shit-heads who pon­tif­i­cate about rights and what’s legal yet they are duplic­i­tous­ly and con­spic­u­ous­ly silent as the blood of the inno­cent flows unchecked.
But he still has the pow­er to deny per­mits for dances and round robins and I salute him for rec­og­niz­ing that it is in his hands to use. There ought to be some degree of col­lec­tive respon­si­bil­i­ty for this out­ra­geous degree of crim­i­nal­i­ty on the Island.

I just watched a video of my good friend Assistant Commissioner of Police in charge of crime Élan Powell talk about his mur­der clear-up rate. Powell said over 450 peo­ple has been charged with mur­der since the begin­ning of the year. He stat­ed that the Department is bring­ing 45% of mur­der­ers to jus­tice . He promis­es to do even bet­ter by bring­ing the mur­der clear-ups to 51% by year’s end, even as he bemoans the fact that his clear-ups does not get into the media narrative.

As much as I am aware of the chal­lenges fac­ing ACP Élan Powell and his offi­cers, it gives me the chills to think that 55% of the peo­ple who actu­al­ly kill oth­er human beings as well as their asso­ciates, includ­ing those who con­tract the trig­ger-men are actu­al­ly walk­ing around with­out consequence.
Over 800 Jamaicans have been killed since the begin­ning of the year.
The Police have pre­cious lit­tle with which to fight crime and Jamaicans love to par­ty at the same time no one has a Constitutional right to hold dance par­ties and round robin tour­na­ments. I applaud Superintendent Salmon for his forth­right resolve in tak­ing this action, he will prob­a­bly bow to pres­sure soon , more than like­ly by the very peo­ple above him.

He may not be able to do it (ad infini­tum) but it is cer­tain­ly a brave move from this officer .
Cynics be damned.