Having your neighbour’s back to fight crime

WE know that Justice Minister Mr Delroy Chuck is not naïve when it comes to the realities surrounding crime.

How could he be?

Since 1997 he has been Member of Parliament for St Andrew North Eastern — a constituency which houses a few of the tougher neighbourhoods in Jamaica.

We are drawn down this ‘road’ by the minister’s announcement in Parliament that the Government intends to impose penalties on those who can be proven guilty of “misprision”.

That’s a term defined by the Oxford Dictionary as “…deliberate concealment of one’s knowledge of a crime”.

Mr Chuck said: “If we can demonstrate that persons in communities are aware of these killers, then those persons may well be charged with misprision.”

And further that: “Far too many communities are really protecting the killers and the violence producers, and it is about time that communities recognise that in protecting the killers, and believing they are Robin Hood, they are really engaging in a suicide pact; because in protecting the criminals they are encouraging people to attack that community, which is exactly what is happening across Jamaica.”

Mr Chuck was reported as saying that residents must be bold enough to use the appropriate channels to report murders and other acts of criminality, including scamming. Parliament, the minister argued, is doing its part, and so should ordinary citizens.

He said all that even while noting that the society is being “overwhelmed by heartless criminals”.

Therein lies the rub, for Mr Chuck knows that of the approximately 1,500 people murdered in Jamaica last year, some — even if we are not sure how many — died because they were suspected of giving information to the police.

Jamaicans need not “guess and spell”. They know that’s the case.

For that reason Minister Chuck’s suggestion that parliamentarians are doing their part, and so should ordinary people, misses the mark.

For, while Members of Parliament have some degree of security by virtue of their jobs, Jamaica’s poorest people have none whatsoever.

For those living in the zinc fence lanes, on the gully banks, and other impoverished communities, the ‘informa fi ded’ culture is real, alive and kicking.

Opposition member Mr Phillip Paulwell appears to be contending that, given the fear factor, there should be more emphasis on resources allocated to “detecting, investigating, [and] in the use of the tools that are now available in modern society…”

Without doubt, cutting-edge forensic science and technology would be a big help.

Beyond that, though, we reiterate our belief that, for the medium to long term, there must be a societal coming together to facilitate planned, proactively decisive leadership training and community organisation to help people stand as one, in support of law and order. Such a programme should be twinned to social and economic enhancement for those in our poorest communities.

People need to believe that when they stand against criminals in defence of law and order, their neighbours and wider society have their back. Sadly, as the situation now stands, far too many feel like hopelessly lost sheep wandering on their own in the dark.

Except for the views expressed in the column above, the articles published on this page do not necessarily represent the views of the Jamaica Observer.