Kidnapping: Threat on the horizon

To my brothers in arms, we have buried our heroes, too many of them. It has been a tragic year overall, the worst I have ever served in. This is not because of the volume of the dead, but rather the identity and the quality

I try to distance myself from hate. I do this whether I am pursuing a wanted killer or fending off an attack from one more liar in a civil court trying to take what he did not earn. I do so because I genuinely feel it negatively impacts good decision-making and clear thought.

I have largely been successful. However, I will admit I have issues with kidnappers, rapists and persons who harm children. The first may seem less obvious than the other two, so let me explain.

With every circumstance in which a law enforcement officer will communicate with a criminal, great effort is being made by the criminal to seem innocent, non-intimidating, harmless and uninvolved in crime and brutality. This differs when a kidnapper is communicating with a hostage negotiator. He is trying his ever present best to appear dangerous, cold-blooded and brutal.

This is difficult for me because I know they are one bunch of useless cowards who tremble and beg when cornered and are only effective when in combat with the innocent. I also despise arrogance and it is usually overflowing in their dialogue.

Kidnapping is a major law enforcement issue in South America and an actual epidemic in Trinidad and Tobago. Kidnapping will become a major challenge to us in the very near future. This for a variety of reasons.

Firstly, combatting lottery scamming is a priority to our international bosses and as a result legislative steps have been taken to do so. It is a declining industry as we speak. Secondly, the income from extortion rackets is splintering as the gangs splinter. The gangs know that the anti-gang legislation has found the legal connection between this industry and their incarceration. The recent anti-gang conviction is just the beginning.

Thirdly, kidnapping is made simpler by the automatic banking machines (ABMS) that allow the thugs to collect small ransoms virtually anywhere.

For a country that has consistently been a world contender for the highest per capita murder rate, why is this such an issue? Well, let me explain.

Murders are primarily carried out by gang members against persons who themselves are gangsters, or at least connected in some way. In my study, I found it to be 78 per cent. This does not make it okay, but it is useful for risk assessment.

Kidnapping for small sums is random. This is the type of kidnapping I see the growth most likely to occur. Large sum kidnapping is more surgical in its selection.

So the victim is going to be most likely unarmed, relatively weak physically and vulnerable. These are mainly adult females and children. Yours possibly.

Sexual assault is par for the course with the kidnapping of females. So this reality petrifies the families into paying quickly. Wouldn’t you?

Let me tell you something, you do not want to find yourself in the custody of those animals. Even if you are a criminal rights activist and technically on the same team, they will not care. They are cruel, selfish animals and you will never be the same again. You will just look the same, maybe.

So what can we do about it? Well, let us fight the only way we can, with the courthouse.

You cannot really stop walking or driving on the road. You can try as much as you want, but you do not live in a vault. We need to make kidnapping less attractive to gangsters.

So we should do the following:

I like to call this the American narcotics and human trafficking approach. By this I mean mandatory 40-year sentences and no bail. This may seem hard and unfair, that is until it is your sister in their cage!

The Americans use the long sentence approach for narcotics, crack in particular. Unfortunately, this is not evenly distributed to drug activity in the non-minority world. Maybe they should extend these sanctions to all narcotics. Also, minorities could consider not engaging in that negative activity to avoid long-term incarcerations.

In Jamaica, we attacked human trafficking with promises of long sentences to discourage the activity and to please the world. I believe it worked. Let us be proactive on this threat.

Lawmakers, I am warning you that this is the threat on the horizon. Let us move before the storm hits our shores. This is not about killers killing killers. It is not about foreigners being fleeced. It is not about loss of property.

It is about the dehumanisation of your mother, wife, daughter, or sister, or mine.

We do not have to act only when we are forced to act. You will get less pushback from the human rights community, because it impacts their women as well. You can actually get this law passed, and quickly, because of the horrible year and the kidnapping activity that occurred in it. Let us emulate the Americans in this respect. They respond with laws really quickly when they identify a threat they care about. Let us jump on it.

The year is over. We have wasted the taxes of the hard-working to battle the cruelty of the lazy. Our hospitals are overburdened because of their (criminals) evil intent and thankfully, their bad aim.

To my brothers in arms, we have buried our heroes, too many of them. It has been a tragic year overall, the worst I have ever served in. This is not because of the volume of the dead, but rather the identity and the quality.

This year they did not just kill each other, they killed us. And they did so in numbers not seen before. They did it in operations and on our own time.

I believe our nation can better identify who our enemies are and appreciate the value of our effort to combat them on the fallen’s behalf. But that is the only consolation. It is a pity that it required this.

To the rest of the country, identify your enemies, the gangs, COVID-19 and ignorance. Get involved in the fight. Or if not, at least get out of the way.

May God give us a better year than 2020.

Feedback: drjasonamckay@gmail.com

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.