By Phyllis Thomas, News Editor 
THE ISSUE of crime took up much of the news last week but there were two particularly disturbing items out of that plethora of crime news the police admitting yet another failure to get a grip on crime and that gangs are forming more organised unions that broaden and strengthen their criminal network.
Commissioner of Police, Francis Forbes said that aspects of the crime initiative had failed gone out the window and Deputy Superintendent Cornwall "Bigga" Ford said that a new trend had developed where former rival criminal gangs were pooling their muscles and resources to control areas and operate multimillion-dollar extortion rackets.
Those are reasons for us all to be concerned and one question that arises immediately is what had happened to the machinery to monitor the plan? There ought to have been periodical evaluation of the project to ensure that all the sectors involved are pulling their weight and that targets were being met or, if there are difficulties, that these could be dealt with.
It is common knowledge that the anti-social behaviours have become a threat to the survival of the country. These include: drug trafficking and networking, fighting for turf not just the geographical space but for the people within the space their minds and actions, corruption of some members of the police force and public officials. Also, issues like social and economic decay and weak policing, have all but sounded the death knell for the country.
But it was the crime factor with its symbiotic relationship to the social and economic decay of the country that forced the Government into yet another initiative to bring order to the land. Why has it failed?
Civic leaders last week blast Government's inertia in delivering the necessary technology and resources to fight crime. It was also reported in The Gleaner Tuesday that the Government was tardy in providing the police with a $40 million grant to improve its mobility. A new fleet of vehicles promised in April has still not materialised so that the police are unable to respond as they should, when needed.
And importantly, as we have reported elsewhere in this section of the paper, the police are blaming some of the partners in the anti-crime plan who have failed to carry their responsibility. For example, one high-ranking policeman indicated that it was the police who had been bearing the bulk of even the aspect that called for social intervention. He said that they had been going into communities initiating those aspects which Government ministries were to have been involved in.
The crime initiative was supposed to have had multi-sectoral input but it is quite obvious that whatever evaluation machinery was put in place to monitor the progress had collapsed or they would have seen that it was not working. Members of the public saw it. People are being killed on rapid. They are being cut down like flies.
What has become of the oversight committee that should have been established to monitor the operations of the National Crime Plan? What has become of the move to have the police and the military report to Parliament regularly, on the measures they are taking to fight crime?
Why did the plan fail? After 41 years we're still not ready. That's why!
ESCALATING CRIME PROBLEMS
Last year Minister of National Security, Dr. Peter Phillips, told the nation that the Government's crime plan would break the back of the escalating crime problems. The crime problems are instead breaking the back of the country. What an embarrassment!
What kind of Government can allow crime to become so deep-rooted in a country to the extent of threatening that country's existence? The answer to that question must be a weak and spineless Government whose tolerance threshold for crime and corruption must be very high.
At the same time, no matter how much work the police say they have done they allow some of their colleagues to be obstacles to their own success in crime fighting.
There is a saying that it takes a thief to catch a thief. However, in this case, when both collaborate that spells disaster. We will never be able to fight crime with the corrupt cops still in the force. And I am not just talking about those who "jook" down motorists for their "supermarket money". I am talking about those, for whom the "supermarket money" is chicken feed, who are so steeped in corruption that they are beyond salvation. We ignore those cops at the expense of the country's survival.
Many of us feel overwhelmed by the situation and feel like sitting ducks but I do not accept that we have done all that we can do. If we are totally committed to reclaiming the country then we have to ensure that we are always ahead of the
criminals.
Some persons might scoff at this analogy but to me it tells that we don't have to be sitting ducks. I came face to face with a huge croaking lizard on the wall in my bedroom one night. Being terrified of the creature I decided that both of us were not going to stay in that room that night and so I grabbed a broom.
I started poking at the lizard who had been trying to get away from me when in a flash it spun around, not on its belly but on all fours, with its tail curled over its head like a scorpion and with its mouth wide open. I dropped the broom and took off so fast. That night I slept in the same bedroom. With the lizard. I know it was still there because I had kept a watch for hours and it had not left the room.
Moral of the story: I was the big bad guy with the ammunition. My broom is deadly weapon to a lizard. But when the lizard felt cornered it felt that it had to do something to defend itself.
Our defence against what is happening in the country is action. Tomorrow, Dr. Phillips, police and military heads are to review the crime plan. Prime Minister P.J. Patterson issued that instruction Friday saying that the plan must be the subject of adjustments and fine tuning.
He also instructed that a registry be compiled of all the projects being undertaken by the agencies involved in the Government's Social Intervention Programme, outlining specific projects, targeted communities, number of persons to be assisted and time frame for implementation. This is to be presented to the next meeting of the National Security Council.
Well, let's watch and see what happens nuh!
I will be on vacation leave for the next four weeks.
