Yes, editor, suspicious wealth must be confiscated
THE EDITOR, Madam:
IT’S REGRETTABLE that The Gleaner, in its editorial of Tuesday, March 10, 2020, expressed reservations to support the proposal of Joanna Callen, a Caribbean Policy Research Institute (CAPRI) researcher, who asked for the enactment of legislation to facilitate the confiscation of wealth that cannot be verified as deriving from legitimate sources. This hesitation to wholeheartedly support the proposal is another potent reminder that even influential opinion shapers in this country still don’t seem capable of understanding what is the primary factor driving the wanton murder on this rock called Jamaica.
At that very function where Ms Callen made the proposal, the commissioner of police, Anthony Anderson, reiterated what is nothing but his feeble excuse for the Jamaica Constabulary Force’s inability to apprehend murderers: that crime in Jamaica is a very complex phenomenon. How can crime be a complex issue when many murders are being, and have been, committed in front of police stations?
FUNERAL EXPENSES
First of all, do the police realise that on average, a funeral, especially in the middle- to lower-income stratum, facilitates the turnover of nearly $1 million? Included in this sizable sum is the fee for the funeral director and the fee for the band and sound system to host the wake/ninenight. Then at the nine-night, a myriad vendors flock the location because they know that business will be brisk. And let us not forget that there is hardly a church that does not charge a significant sum to pronounce ‘ashes to ashes and dust to dust.’ By the way, is there a correlation between the growing murder rate and the mushrooming of churches on every corner in Jamaica? (Just asking.)
So clearly, persons are benefiting financially from murders in Jamaica. And while some are doing so inadvertently, others are doing so strategically.
How much more urgent, then, can it get before the powers that be enforce present legislation, and, if needs be, enact new ones to ensure that every individual or company whose wealth has a question mark on it feels the complete weight of the law?
CASHLEY BROWN
cashleybrown@yahoo.com