THE EDITOR, Sir:
ALLOW me to add my perspective to the ongoing debate concerning the recent bloodbath in Braeton, St. Catherine. Let me publicly extend condolences to the relatives of the slain youngsters as well as the families of the slain teacher, policeman and other victims allegedly implicated in this saga.
Any sense of wanton killing regardless of the motive is a blot on our claim to be a civilised society. Furthermore, it is a depletion of what should be our most treasured resource as a country, our human capital. Society could not have gained one way or the other from this gruesome bloodletting. No well-meaning or well-thinking Jamaican should therefore use this issue to gain political mileage or to pursue self-glorification.
Like most Jamaicans, I was tempted to erase this memory from my mind and deem it "a necessary evil". An understanding of the given circumstances under which the police are forced to operate rationalised this cynicism. Consideration of the present climate of fear and numbness, to which few criminal elements of society have subjected the general citizenry of this noble country, is another determining factor.
In spite of my own mistrust and misgivings towards some members of the Police Force, my initial reaction mirrored that of most law-abiding citizens. I especially refer to those citizens whose economic circumstances do not allow them the false sense of safety and protection offered by tinted vehicles or well-guarded pristine communities. I was willing to accept the death of these Jamaicans, as casualties of the ongoing war between legal and illegal gunmen.
However, despite the natural tendency to opt for self-preservation when social order is threatened and despite polls indicating an overwhelming support for the police's action, the Braeton incident should serve as a reality check for us as a country.
On the one hand, we cannot have our cake and eat it. We mandated the police to take charge of the crime situation without fear or favour. To some extent, the police have achieved some amount of successes in controlling crime in recent months but this achievement was at the expense of the loss of lives of several good policemen. Ironically, most of these policemen and women are from the same economic background as most of our criminals although they represent opposite sides of the law.
It is inconceivable for the offspring of an individual from a middle or upper class background to offer himself for service to a country as a police officer, within the Jamaican scenario.
Notwithstanding, individuals and groups who pose as advocates of the poor, only seem to advocate for those poor and weak who have grievances with the police, not the police.
Our young male population under age 25 is fast becoming an endangered species. Whenever one is slaughtered, all should grieve because our institutions have failed them miserably. The police should be forced to work within the ambit of the law.
However, until we revamp our impotent justice system and "kick some life" into all aspects of our legal framework, they will continue to mete out street justice to alleged wrongdoers. Like the victims of any brutal crime, the police need the assurance that captured alleged police killers and other suspected murderers will be expeditiously and fairly dealt with, and appropriately punished when caught.
In like manner, it is necessary to look at the general dysfunctional nature of the evolving institution of the family in Jamaica. The fact that seven young men, unrelated by all indications and mostly teenagers, were cornered in a house before daybreak and with no obvious parental figure around, points to an absence of an identifiable family structure.
Teenagers, need guidance, not bullets. If we are to move forward, we need to understand the contributing factors, that of our failing institutions which produce both these criminals and police, then seek to address them. Neither the police force nor the ruling party should be fingered out as the only sources of the problem. Instead, we need to work with the police and Government to maintain some semblance of civility while they grapple with their task of carrying water in a straw basket. If they fail we all fail as a country.
I am, etc.,
M.P. DAVIDS
Melpat59@yahoo.com
