SOCIAL MEDIA FEEDBACK

‘Cash for guns’ (Gleaner, September 4, 2017)

Jamaican Till I Die II: Compared to the 2010 Tivoli invasion, so far zone of special operations (ZOSO) is a publicrelations stunt where the PM gets to stand in front of TV cameras and look and sound prime ministerial and look serious with his generals. The commander-in-chief! CASH FOR GUNS? Tell me that is a trick to rope the murderers in and shoot them. They can now trade in the OLD guns and buy new ones with taxpayers’ money. Any murdering gunmen still in Mount Salem community in St James is not walking around with Bibles shouting, ‘Praise the Lord and cover them Jesus. They are now innocent lambs.”

This is war! OVER 1,014 Jamaicans murdered and the terrorists are on the loose. We continue to treat them like normal human beings.

We are going into the sixth day of the zone of special operations (ZOSO) in the Mount Salem community in St James. How will we measure the success and failure of ZOSO? What are the objectives and the expected major milestones?

Is ZOSO a suppression operation or an elimination operation? ZOSOs are nothing but another name for curfews, stops and searches ... . We had all those tools already on the books and already at the security forces’ disposal, including amnesty. So why do we need to wait on ZOSO to use these strategies? What makes a curfew branded ZOSO different from curfews of the past, and those in the past were more productive? BUT these are early days of ZOSO, and maybe over the next 57 days it will be more productive. The first 24 hours of any operation like this is the most important since it is within those initial 24 hours that the security forces have the element of surprise and can be more effective. After the initial 24 hours, it becomes nothing but the usual cat-and-mouse game. Since the start of the year, Jamaica has recorded more than 1,014 murders, 24 per cent more than for the corresponding period last year.

During the 2010 Tivoli attack, 980 Jamaicans were detained during the first two days. In the two-month state of emergency that followed, more than 4,000 people were detained. Also during the two days’ operation, at least 69 people were killed and at least 54 people, including 28 members of the security forces, injured.

Travandotenacious Martin: Only knives and machetes found ... . No guns, no bullets, no conviction ... . Can’t be announcing ZOSO to the media houses. Too much info for criminals to flee. Launch in silence if you want it to be fruitful. I have never seen US doing any operations and announce it before they make a move.

Davina Allen: I keep seeing these comments saying “it’s been three days, why hasn’t more been accomplished?!?” Because it’s been three days. This problem has festered for years. Give the new initiative a chance to be deployed and improved before you declare it a failure. Honestly. People want something for nothing.

Bari Blaxx: Where are the guns? Didn’t your intelligence show you, Mr PM, that they had vanished? The success of the ZOSO will be judge by weapons recovered and criminals convicted. So far, this seems to be fruitless.

Anthony Ubuntu: Just another toothless old dog. Imagine they have wasted time, resources and tax dollars in that Mt Salem area while gunmen were burning, shooting and terrorising the community of Granville. Andrew Holness would reward murderers and thieves after they have just robbed and killed our friends and family. What a joke!

Joan M. Samuels: Lord, have mercy on Jamaicans! We pray that God will change the hearts of those who are angry. God has been merciful to Jamaica and so can you be merciful by not killing? So sad!