Jamaica Observer
By Rev Dr Raulston Nembhard
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
The "killing fields" was a description given to sites in Cambodia where large numbers of people were massacred and buried under the rule of the Khmer Rouge regime of the infamous dictator Pol Pot. His carnage of ethnic cleansing prevailed between 1975 and 1979 until his regime was overthrown by the Vietnamese and the country liberated. It is estimated that over 200,000 people were slaughtered and another 1.4 million to two million died from disease and starvation.
It is true that our carnage of crime does not resemble that which prevailed in Cambodia. It is also true that we do not have a dictator of the nature of a Pol Pot systematically decimating areas of the population in a policy of genocide. It is true that mass graves are not turning up in several parishes throughout our beloved country. But it is true that the fear quotient is rising as a result of the murder wave in Jamaica; that as the purported murder capital of the world, people are beginning to see that Jamaica has become a killing field, where people are murdered and beheaded at will and where the security forces seem impotent to arrest the bloodletting which now seems to be fast becoming a cultural phenomenon.
On Labour Day two policemen were killed by gunmen. Since then a prominent citizen, Rev Dr George Simpson, a lance corporal in the army, and other citizens, including two teenage girls while having their dinner, have been maimed or killed at the hands of gunmen. After the two policemen were killed in Trench Town, placard-bearing protesters comprising mainly women and children came out in support of the police. Even here one has to be careful of how one interprets the protest, for it has been suggested that the citizens did not protest because they had a visceral concern for the police, but did so in fear of reprisal from them for the killing of their colleagues. It is interesting that the men in the community were missing from the protest. It is suggested that they urged on the protesters and even assisted in making the placards. But why did they not participate in the protest?
This may be a cynical view, but hardly far-fetched when one considers how the police has operated in these inner-city communities. Under the infamous Suppression of Crime Act, which was hugged by both the PNP and JLP at different times, the police operated with impunity, kicking down doors in their search for criminals, and otherwise antagonising citizens in a blatant disrespect for their human rights. I know that the police do not like to hear this. But it is true to say that one sad legacy of the Suppression of Crime legislation is the kind of distrust that inner-city communities have for the police. They do not see them as people with whom they can work or collaborate in the fight against crime.
This is unfortunate because crime cannot be fought effectively in Jamaica until we confront without equivocation the problems presented in fighting crime by the inner-city phenomenon. No further study has to be done to ascertain that the inner-city areas, many of which now boast entrenched garrisons, are the natural habitats of hardened criminals. Criminals kill with impunity because they know that the odds of their being caught is minimal, and they can retreat to their sanctuaries in the inner city content in the feeling that tomorrow they can go back out and continue with their dastardly deeds.
So the police, and the government by extension, need the support of inner-city dwellers. Many of these are law-abiding citizens and want to live a decent life without fear. But they are made to be fearful, first by the police that they have grown to distrust legitimately, and second by the dons who now control particular enclaves in these communities and demand unswerving loyalty from these residents. How you dismantle these enclaves and return a sense of law and order to these areas is not going to be easy. But it can be done, and it has to be done as a matter of political will and determination.
When we talk about massive social intervention in these areas what we are addressing is a multifaceted approach to the development of human social capital. These environments in which people live have to be thoroughly transformed. The zinc fences and board houses have to go; the sewer running in the streets have to be dealt with. People are not inspired to cooperate with government in the fight against crime where they have to live in filth and squalor and where they are bereft of any modicum of decent living or any sense of human dignity.
The problem of inner-city development has to be approached on a systematic basis with housing and job creation being the hallmarks of any such developmental thrust. People must be made to feel that they matter, that they are stakeholders in the development of their communities. Government, with the support of the private sector and all well-thinking Jamaicans, will have to resolve to take these communities back, one by one. As these communities are recovered, the gates must be closed to the criminals.
In the meantime, the police are restive, for a number of reasons. Not least among these is the disquiet over the appointment of Rear Admiral Lewin as commissioner of police. It is no secret that murders have escalated under the leadership of Commissioner Lewin. The reason for this might be purely coincidental and is certainly not an occasion for rejoicing, but for sober reflection and humility.
While the commissioner must root out corruption from the force, he must recognise that he needs the loyalty and support of the men under his command. They will not give him the unswerving loyalty that he enjoyed as head of the army. They will question his motives and challenge his arguments for such is the psychology of democracy that distinguishes a police force from the army. In the words of Roosevelt, he must speak softly while carrying a big stick. Enough said.
By Rev Dr Raulston Nembhard
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
The "killing fields" was a description given to sites in Cambodia where large numbers of people were massacred and buried under the rule of the Khmer Rouge regime of the infamous dictator Pol Pot. His carnage of ethnic cleansing prevailed between 1975 and 1979 until his regime was overthrown by the Vietnamese and the country liberated. It is estimated that over 200,000 people were slaughtered and another 1.4 million to two million died from disease and starvation.
It is true that our carnage of crime does not resemble that which prevailed in Cambodia. It is also true that we do not have a dictator of the nature of a Pol Pot systematically decimating areas of the population in a policy of genocide. It is true that mass graves are not turning up in several parishes throughout our beloved country. But it is true that the fear quotient is rising as a result of the murder wave in Jamaica; that as the purported murder capital of the world, people are beginning to see that Jamaica has become a killing field, where people are murdered and beheaded at will and where the security forces seem impotent to arrest the bloodletting which now seems to be fast becoming a cultural phenomenon.
On Labour Day two policemen were killed by gunmen. Since then a prominent citizen, Rev Dr George Simpson, a lance corporal in the army, and other citizens, including two teenage girls while having their dinner, have been maimed or killed at the hands of gunmen. After the two policemen were killed in Trench Town, placard-bearing protesters comprising mainly women and children came out in support of the police. Even here one has to be careful of how one interprets the protest, for it has been suggested that the citizens did not protest because they had a visceral concern for the police, but did so in fear of reprisal from them for the killing of their colleagues. It is interesting that the men in the community were missing from the protest. It is suggested that they urged on the protesters and even assisted in making the placards. But why did they not participate in the protest?
This may be a cynical view, but hardly far-fetched when one considers how the police has operated in these inner-city communities. Under the infamous Suppression of Crime Act, which was hugged by both the PNP and JLP at different times, the police operated with impunity, kicking down doors in their search for criminals, and otherwise antagonising citizens in a blatant disrespect for their human rights. I know that the police do not like to hear this. But it is true to say that one sad legacy of the Suppression of Crime legislation is the kind of distrust that inner-city communities have for the police. They do not see them as people with whom they can work or collaborate in the fight against crime.
This is unfortunate because crime cannot be fought effectively in Jamaica until we confront without equivocation the problems presented in fighting crime by the inner-city phenomenon. No further study has to be done to ascertain that the inner-city areas, many of which now boast entrenched garrisons, are the natural habitats of hardened criminals. Criminals kill with impunity because they know that the odds of their being caught is minimal, and they can retreat to their sanctuaries in the inner city content in the feeling that tomorrow they can go back out and continue with their dastardly deeds.
So the police, and the government by extension, need the support of inner-city dwellers. Many of these are law-abiding citizens and want to live a decent life without fear. But they are made to be fearful, first by the police that they have grown to distrust legitimately, and second by the dons who now control particular enclaves in these communities and demand unswerving loyalty from these residents. How you dismantle these enclaves and return a sense of law and order to these areas is not going to be easy. But it can be done, and it has to be done as a matter of political will and determination.
When we talk about massive social intervention in these areas what we are addressing is a multifaceted approach to the development of human social capital. These environments in which people live have to be thoroughly transformed. The zinc fences and board houses have to go; the sewer running in the streets have to be dealt with. People are not inspired to cooperate with government in the fight against crime where they have to live in filth and squalor and where they are bereft of any modicum of decent living or any sense of human dignity.
The problem of inner-city development has to be approached on a systematic basis with housing and job creation being the hallmarks of any such developmental thrust. People must be made to feel that they matter, that they are stakeholders in the development of their communities. Government, with the support of the private sector and all well-thinking Jamaicans, will have to resolve to take these communities back, one by one. As these communities are recovered, the gates must be closed to the criminals.
In the meantime, the police are restive, for a number of reasons. Not least among these is the disquiet over the appointment of Rear Admiral Lewin as commissioner of police. It is no secret that murders have escalated under the leadership of Commissioner Lewin. The reason for this might be purely coincidental and is certainly not an occasion for rejoicing, but for sober reflection and humility.
While the commissioner must root out corruption from the force, he must recognise that he needs the loyalty and support of the men under his command. They will not give him the unswerving loyalty that he enjoyed as head of the army. They will question his motives and challenge his arguments for such is the psychology of democracy that distinguishes a police force from the army. In the words of Roosevelt, he must speak softly while carrying a big stick. Enough said.
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