ZOSO Unraveling:Oh Hell I Told You So

I hate to say “I told you so.”
But I did tell you so!
When the so-called ZOSO bill became pub­lic knowl­edge I wrote exten­sive­ly on the futil­i­ty of what the act rep­re­sent­ed, out­lin­ing fun­da­men­tal weak­ness­es in the frame­work of the pro­posed law, I went to great pains to tell the Jamaican peo­ple why this pro­pos­al was a non-starter.

Now accord­ing to our friends over at the Jamaica Gleaner (MoBay In Panic — 13 Murders In Six Days Spark Questions About ZOSO’s Effectiveness)

Business lead­ers, stake­hold­ers, and cit­i­zens in St James are now in pan­ic, tak­en aback at the state of crime in the parish after an aston­ish­ing 13 mur­ders over the past week.The spate of killings has left fright­ened res­i­dents won­der­ing if the calm brought on by the zone of spe­cial oper­a­tions (ZOSO) still under­way in Mount Salem is now com­plete­ly shat­tered. “We are in a cri­sis! The secu­ri­ty forces and the min­is­ter of nation­al secu­ri­ty seem clue­less of any method or process that would sup­port the ordi­nary cit­i­zen in secur­ing safe pas­sage as we go about our busi­ness,” declared attor­ney-at-law Nathan Robb, a for­mer pres­i­dent of the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MBCCI).

“We all have to tra­verse the streets day and night, and at any point in time any­where in Montego Bay, a life can be tak­en, as these shoot­ings are not tak­ing place in some remote sec­tion of the city, or our so-called ghet­to com­mu­ni­ties, it is in the cen­ter of the city.”
He added, “Our lead­ers in Montego Bay have remained silent for fear of embar­rass­ing Government and their friends, out of fear that it will dam­age tourism, but crime is already dam­ag­ing those who work in the pro­duc­tive sec­tor, so devel­op­ment is ulti­mate­ly affected.”
Read more here: http://​jamaica​-glean​er​.com/​a​r​t​i​c​l​e​/​l​e​a​d​-​s​t​o​r​i​e​s​/​2​0​1​7​1​0​2​4​/​m​o​b​a​y​-​p​a​n​i​c​-​1​3​-​m​u​r​d​e​r​s​-​s​i​x​-​d​a​y​s​-​s​p​a​r​k​-​q​u​e​s​t​i​o​n​s​-​a​b​o​u​t​-​z​o​sos

As I said after the leg­is­la­tion became law, I would step aside and be silent so that the law can unrav­el in front of the eyes of the Jamaican people.
The pri­ma­ry point I have con­sis­tent­ly made is that this law was designed to pla­cate the pub­lic with an extreme­ly low like­li­hood it could pos­si­bly have any mea­sur­able pos­i­tive results to point to.

Many peo­ple thought I was too harsh on the law, oth­ers believed I was being polit­i­cal, go figure.
As I said then I did not need to wait to see that a bar­rel rolling down­hill unob­struct­ed toward the ocean, would actu­al­ly end up in the ocean.
It is at best naive and worse case rather stu­pid to expect good results from bad policy.

Here’s the unadul­ter­at­ed fact, at this rate Jamaica is going to end up a failed state, we are extreme­ly close to it.
This is pos­si­ble because the peo­ple elect­ed to lead have demon­strat­ed their alle­giance to inter­est groups with roots over­seas, rather than attend to the safe­ty and secu­ri­ty of the country.

To those adopt­ing the talk­ing points of the clue­less class of upper Saint Andrew, talk­ing about meth­ods of polic­ing, I say many of you even as cops were at best win­dow dress­ings, “what do you know about effec­tive policing”?
There is only one solu­tion for deal­ing with these mur­der­ing scums who kill at will, tough, no-non­sense take no pris­on­ers polic­ing, their choice.
As long as the Government and oppo­si­tion par­ty con­tin­ue to give tac­it sup­port to crim­i­nals by shack­ling the secu­ri­ty forces, the lives of peo­ple will have zero val­ue in this coun­try which has become a par­adise for criminals.