Can’t drag your feet on crime fight, PM
Around a flowering tree there are some weeds. — Malinké proverb, Guinea
We are at a crossroads of severely tough choices in this country. We have been standing here for a long, long time. While we delay taking an inevitable path, the majority of well-thinking Jamaicans, who diligently and legally toil hoping to catch the increasingly elusive Jamaican dream, scream in agony because the merchants of misery are rapidly being emboldened by rancid victories. More than a spoke is needed in their wheel. We cannot dillydally and shilly-shally any more.
Prime Minister Andrew Holness was given a second mandate just over three weeks ago. It was a historic trouncing of the Dr Peter Phillips-led People’s National Party (PNP). A resounding triumph could quickly turn out to be a double-edged sword if extremely high expectations are not met. Landslide political victory must result in landslide representation and results at all levels.
The first 100 days in the life of an Administration are usually the most crucial. Will the Administration choose the road not taken? Think Robert Frost. Or, the one more travelled.
Attack on the State
Two members of our security forces were viciously killed on consecutive days last week by fiendish criminals. Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) Private Reneil King was shot and killed during a narcotics operations in Clarendon, and a day after Constable Kemar Francis of the Hunt’s Bay police received a fatal shot to the head while on patrol on Pretoria Road in Kingston 11. These brave men lost their lives in circumstances in which they were clearly attempting to secure ours.
Some will not bat an eyelid, at what is a brazen attack upon the Jamaican State. Some among us have become so accustomed to foul deeds that the cruel deaths of these two brave sons of the soil will not be strong enough to prick their consciences. They will not even spare a thought for the men’s families who must be reeling in emotional pain.
Reggae legend Bob Marley, in one of his seminal songs, and one of my favourites, warns that we need to “Wake up and live.” We cannot continue to close our eyes and ears to the biting realities around us.
In clear contravention of the Noise Abatement Act and the Disaster Risk Management Act, around 200 patrons, according to reports in the media, attended a party at a venue in Seaview Gardens, St Andrew, last week. Some of the partygoers stoned the police team who attempted to shut down the illegal event. Headline: ‘Partygoers attack police after refusing to go home’. (Jamaica Observer, September 24, 2020) The news item said, among other things: “One of the officers suffered head injuries and received several stitches. He was treated and released.” A number of people were arrested.
“In the same incident, a group of women attacked a female police officer and tore off her uniform. Four of them were arrested and charged with the offence.”
We have had numerous incidents like this over many years. I believe last week’s attack upon the police is simply more confirmation that something is awfully rotten in the State of Jamaica. Social putrefaction continues in many areas of Jamaican life.
COVID-19 restrictions currently in place prohibit party permits from being issued and limit gatherings to 15 people maximum. A daily islandwide curfew that runs from 8:00 pm to 5:00 am the next day is also in place. This means nothing to those who are convinced that it is more important to scratch their every and any individual hitch.
Last week a police vehicle was vandalised by revellers in St Ann after they ended an illegal party. This is a leaf from a tree that is producing rotten fruits with great rapidity. We can either stand and watch or begin to cut it at its roots.
Unenlightened self-interest is like a ticking time bomb in this country. The devil takes the hindmost is fast becoming the dominant theme of Jamaican life. We began to descend this slippery slope several decades ago. Today, however, we see our descent in real time via social and other media.
I believe that while blind self-interest has always been a theme in our daily relations, it has now degenerated into a suffocating millstone around our collective necks. I have pointed to this social avalanche since 2013 in my The Agenda articles.
Seven years ago, I wrote in my column that the very fabric of our society was being ripped to shreds by, among other things, “the maturing of a suffocating monstrosity” called “callous indifference”. On the present social trajectory, our society sooner than later we will be devoured if we do not stop the march of this “rough beast”. Think William Butler Yates on our shores.
Consider this: “Even in death, however, some residents are hailing Johnson.
“‘Him go out like a real top man... Him live him life and him face it, and see it deh, a nuh him alone drop... Mi nah say di police did fi dead ‘cause a him work him a do, but you know dem a go say him ting tuff. A regular police murder gunman,’ a woman said, showing The Gleaner the lens through which some inner-city elements would look at Johnson’s demise.” Gleaner, September 29, 2020.
The fetishising of gangsterism must be dealt a mortal blow once and for all. Those who have brought this plague upon our land must be smoked out of their networks of intricate holes.
According to the mentioned The Gleaner news item: “28year-old Shavaughn ‘Bunwaist’ Johnson was cut down by said police mere hours after celebrating his 28th birthday and moments after he, being part of an alleged group, shot and killed Constable Francis.”
I do not believe that social powder puffs, or forms of emotional embrace, will soothe or silence the ravenous monsters among us whose vocation is rape, robbery, murder, and other heinous acts. Those who are wedded to criminal mayhem must be hunted, captured, and put before the courts. Those who attack State personnel, so as to endanger their lives and/or the lives of other law-abiding citizens, must not be treated with kid gloves. It is a matter of us or the criminals. That much has long been clear to me.
The criminal elements today have disposed of their ‘usual suspect garb/persona’.