Amina Blackwood-MeeksTHIS SOCIETY is not divided over the March 14 killings in Braeton. This society is divided. Perhaps rent asunder. The historical fissures of race and class and colour have found convenient bedfellows in modern partisan politics. And many of our people do not fit comfortably on any side of these divides. The resulting sense of alienation is palpable. Ever so often we are confronted with a symptom of that. Braeton is another symptom.
I have been meeting the families of the young men who were killed in Braeton. Eventually, I hope to meet and talk with them all. I do not want to be told second-hand. I want to be there to see and hear and breathe it all in so that I experience the conclusions I draw. I want to prepare myself for whatever truth may be revealed, regardless of how ugly. Consequently, I shall attend as many events held in connection with the case as I can.
FAST
One such event was the rally organised by Families Against State Terrorism (FAST) which was held on Saturday, March 31, in the Braeton Phase 3 car park. My expectations to see throngs of people from the community were not to be realised.
I asked a neighbour of one of the seven boys who were killed, why she thought that there were not more people from the community supporting the rally. She said, "Some a dem tink dem betta dan we cause dem nuh have no baddy who police kill. Even some a de relatives dem shame seh police haffe have any dealings wid dem pickney."
The poor operate in a society in which they have always been made to feel ashamed: ashamed to be black, ashamed to be poor; ashamed to be hurt; ashamed that our overcrowded schools do not allow them to reach their full potentials; ashamed at how easy it is to label them as drop-outs rather than to make the effort to keep them in school; ashamed that no one wants to hear their story; ashamed to be without the resources and the social connections to stand up and demand that they be treated like human beings, that they be facilitated access to justice. Ashamed that the society is so divided over the meaning and application of justice.
Need
investigation
There has been a strident insistence in many quarters that there be no investigations into what happened on Seal Way during the transition hours on the Ides of March. Yet the reasons we should be supporting the calls for a full and transparent investigation knocks you off your feet if you do not get out of the way. Let us start with the self-serving ones.
Such an investigation would have to begin with what "intelligence" led the police to Seal Way, such that they were prepared for battle in the way we have come to know. What is the status of that information now? If we truly are afraid that bigger fish remain to be caught, who are the three that "got away" and should we not be pursuing them and any other underworld connections to which they might lead?
Or are we just relieved to have the breathing space now till we start to suffocate again?
If we really believe that the seven killed were criminals, then any criminal requiring such level of force to take them down must be guilty of something bigger than one or two murders. Do we not want to know what else they were suspected of and what kinds of crime we can rest assured will not be committed again with their removal? And just so that nobody we know will ever have to have any dealings with the police, do we not want to be assured that the police operate in such a way that they are always clear about who they are dealing with and how.
I also wondered aloud about the communities in which the police had been challenged for trying to get at one "don" or another, and whether we had any evidence of how communities had responded when a "don" and the police had crossed paths. Well we can all see it now. The cries to "leggo de man who look after we". Dons have access to and dispense power - social, economic and political. In the eyes of many, justice and power are connected. We defend and support people whom we believe can "do something fe we".
Powerless poor
The poor are powerless in that regard. Their power extends to washing our cars. And after their mothers have cooked our food and set out from our house after the last bus has pulled out from the stop, we heap upon them the ultimate insult of asking whether they know where their children are? As if only the poor are unable to answer that question. As if an inability to provide an answer makes a criminal of you or your child and render you ineligible for justice.
And incidentally, all the families of the Braeton Seven I have met so far are decent, hardworking Jamaicans, who have been busy trying to make a better life for their children, accessing educational opportunities and doing all the things for themselves which this society does not do for the people it alienates or classifies as powerless.
The context of justice is social and economic fair play. This society should be ashamed that the majority of its people are denied the context for justice. This society should be ashamed that so many of its children are being raised by parents who have been thrown overboard a downsizing economy and must spend their time trying to keep from drowning. This society should be ashamed that it has entered the 21st century with no universal understanding of the meaning of justice.
The questions we need to be asking about Braeton are bigger than Braeton. The way to prevent other Braetons is as much in healing what it is that divides Braeton and keeps its citizens cooped up, still unable to come outside more than two weeks after the shootings, as it is in healing the national divides. Or, we can prepare ourselves to deal with other symptoms of the deep divisions.
Amina Blackwood Meeks is a communications specialist.
