What the hell the police can do?
There were 14 reported murders in Jamaica on Tuesday, 21 June 2022, including the gruesome hacking to death of a mother and her four children at their home in Clarendon. On the day this heinous event was reported, it just so happened that I was in Jamaica, struggling to navigate the thick unruly traffic in the heart of New Kingston when the story unfolded on the mid-day news. I had no previous knowledge of the victims, yet I was overcome with a pall of grief for the affected family, unable to process how anyone in their right mind could kill a single child, worse, four plus the children’s mother.
As the day wore on, the responses on social media were filled with outrage, and naturally, the knee-jerk reaction was to blame the sitting Police Commissioner as many of the respondents chastised him for not doing anything about the mounting crime problem that continues to stalk Jamaica’s shores. I must confess that I could easily identify with some of the sentiments being expressed. After all, I too have flayed not only the parade of individuals who have donned the Commissioner’s insignia, but also dished out similar criticisms against the leadership of successive Ministers of National Security, and with good reasons. You see, political administrations compete for the chance to lead the country over five-year cycles. The trouble is that after their victories there is no effort made that goes beyond the five-year term, and for those administrations that have been at the wicket more than a single term, they have never attempted to create or implement long-term policy decisions in respect of addressing this crime issue. The result is that Jamaica’s crime and specifically its murder rates over the last 30 years has been sustained at more than 43 murders per 100,000 of population, or 1,350 murders per year.
To say that murder has become commonplace in Jamaica is a complete understatement. On average, four persons are murdered on the island each day and in 86 per cent of these cases, the victim is within the age range of 16 to 25 years, is Black and the perpetrator is the same age as the victim. By extension, any assessment of our crime statistics will show two glaring issues. First more than sixty per cent of our murders are committed by youth (primarily young men) within the same 16–25-year-old group. Often these murders are gang related but originate from disagreements between the parties, feelings of slight or disrespect which trigger killing responses which are followed by waves of reprisal killings. Second, nearly 30 per cent of our murders result from domestic disputes between family members or otherwise, individuals who were familiar with each other, yet unable to resolve whatever conflict may have arisen within the relationship.
Dr Herbert Samuel Gayle is a social anthropologist and a senior lecturer at the University of the West Indies who has conducted extensive studies on violence in Jamaica and the wider Caribbean. According to him, our approaches to violence can be likened to a leaking sewage tank, where, instead of turning off the valve and repairing the damage, our solutions are geared to mopping up the leakage to prepare for arriving visitors. No one wants to close the valve for fear of the effort such a response requires. According to Dr Gayle, it isn’t that Jamaican administrations are unaware of the factors that have led us to the deluge of crime and murder in Jamaica as studies have been conducted and research papers produced over the last 60 years outlining the causes and effects of crime and violence. What has been lacking, is an active, meaningful response.
The fact is that crime and violence in Jamaica has basically been treated with knee-jerk, band-aid responses. At points there are talks about social interventions, but a lack of commitment backed by the inadequacy of required financial resources ensures that these needed interventions are never implemented. Had there been a meaningful effort at interventions we could quite possibly have discovered that there is fracture within the existing family unit(s). Such interventions would expose the presence of mental health issues, a challenge identified by the late Dr Freddy Hickling more than a decade ago when he jolted policymakers with findings from research which revealed that up to 40 per cent of Jamaicans, (between three and six times the global norm) exhibited personality disorders. In 2016, Dr Hickling argued, further, that when a broad range of conditions, such as personality disorders, psychosis, and dementia are considered, the prevalence of mental illness in Jamaica would exceed 70 per cent.
Most Jamaicans scoffed at Dr. Hickling’s postulations at the time, and still do. However, when his pronouncements are merged with Dr Gayle’s findings they do provide a decent roadmap of why we are where we are at this point, and unfortunately, increased policing will not address those problems.
It is undeniable that every increased crime wave is met with the same policy response-Zones of Special Operation (ZOSO), States of Emergency (SOE), and increased police patrols; all of which merely serves as papering over the cracks. In fact, could an increase in the police presence have done anything to prevent any of these 14 killings? Could the Police Commissioner have done anything different to avert the tragedy in Clarendon? The answer, plain and simple is #notagoddamnedthing! The reason is even simpler. Crime isn’t a problem for just the government and or the police to solve. Crime is every Jamaicans’ problem and the degree to which it has worsened belies any single individual or institution’s ability to solve.
It is now or never Jamaica. Unless we all change our attitudes, we will never change the culture. And it is only when the culture has undergone a complete change that we will see a change with the island’s crime problem, because if a man decides to kill another, unless the police is forewarned, what the hell di police can do?
Richard Hugh Blackford B.Sc., M.S (Ed). www.yaawdmedia.com
