Delroy Chuck THE SO-CALLED battle against crime will never be won without justice. Justice is the conclusion, the ultimate redress, and the satisfactory closure of human errors. Where there is no justice, it is rightly postulated, there can be no peace.
And, if we ask what is wrong with Jamaica today, one simple answer is that there is no justice. The cry for justice reverberates throughout the nooks and crannies, the corners and lanes, the mountains and plains, and the inner sanctuaries of our fair island yet, those in authority seem deaf to the wailing cry.
Human society will always be error-prone. It is in fact the very nature of human progress that errors, difficulties and problems will occur. Progress is never a straight line, there will always be twists and turns, but how a society straightens up after the wrong turns will surely determine its fate. Indeed, progress becomes possible, after the chaos and confusion, if the society takes full responsibility and responds with better intellect, superior strategy and collective satisfaction. That is the nature of progress, when things go wrong, the society finds better ideas to right the wrongs.
BEST RESPONSE
Justice, I contend, is the best response to criminal wrongs. The whole justice system with its due process of law was created to ensure that the state delivers justice, instead of allowing individuals or rampaging gangs to dispense their own forms of justice. Interestingly, the history of state justice is a story of unimaginable brutalities, of correcting excesses and restraining human passion. The fathers of modern criminology theory, Jeremy Bentham and Cesare Beccaria, postulated that whether human beings voluntarily committed crimes or were genetically inclined, the punishment must fit the crime, which was a far cry from the brutal and excessive punishment of the state, even for minor infractions. Justice has always been one of the cornerstones of a good society which is surely what we hope to achieve.
Curiously, as we seek to participate in the Caribbean Court of Justice, our justice system is slowly falling apart. The main problem is in the investigation and collection of evidence, which is now tainted with indiscipline, corruption and injustice. Far too many innocent persons suffer injustice from unprofessional policemen who corrupt their vocation and/or fail to properly investigate cases. Nowadays, from a witness or victim of an alleged crime makes a report, the alleged offender is booked, locked up without thorough investigation, and suffers much injustice, when on proper investigation many innocent citizens could be spared the indignity of the process.
CREDIBILITY AND
SENSE OF JUSTICE
Can we trust the police's investigations, credibility and sense of justice when we consider the case of the two men, recently freed by the Court of Appeal, after the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council asked to see a video tape that was in the possession of the police that could easily have exonerated both men? How can we expect to solve crimes when so many innocent persons suffer in the judicial process? How can persons, like the former Campion Headmaster, Mr. John MacKay, feel, and I can name many others, when they have been the victims of misguided criminal prosecution?
At the same time, how can the families of Michael Gayle, Patrick Genus, the Braeton Seven, the Tivoli Twenty-Seven, Andrew Stevens o/c Andrew Phang, and so many others, victims of state violence, have faith in the justice system, when after their loved ones have been brutally killed, there is no proper investigation, no prosecution and no satisfactory closure to their cases?
When the justice system fails to deliver justice, the citizens will find it elsewhere and many criminal acts can be traced to the failure of the state to deliver justice. Sadly, as the crime wave reaches our doorsteps, the cry is for more drastic measures, surrendering of rights and freedoms, and a free hand to the security forces not for better intelligence, efficient investigation and for the pure stream of justice to respond.
Unthinking citizens believe hard policing, knocking out the criminals, and sending the message of fear and apprehension to potential criminals will solve the problem. It has never done so, and will never solve the crime problem.
PUBLIC RELATIONS MACHINERY
During the two years of the Crime Management Unit, its public relations machinery gave the impression that crime was under control, but as the Commissioner of Police demonstrated, and the figures confirm, murders and gang warfare were at the same or higher level than before or even now. To be sure, citizens like the public relations spin that gunmen have been killed and guns have been recovered when it is true, we can rejoice, but how can we be ever sure when so many blatantly false reports have been given?
In any event, can we safely hand over the dispensation of justice to the police, for them to determine who lives and who dies? I acknowledge the sense of frustration experienced by the police force when they see criminal gunmen, wanton killers and other gangsters walk freely from the courtroom through lack of evidence or lack of co-operation from witnesses. It is a fact that many communities have been taken over by dons and gangs, thieves and extortionists, drugs and addicts, etc. but good intelligence, superior strategy and better intellect are more likely to solve the problem than abuses, shoot-outs and death.
In a nutshell, when things go wrong, it is time to think and to find better ideas, strategies and policies to redress the wrongs and restore the peace. We can solve crime and bring justice by thinking at a higher level than the criminals. In truth, human progress was never achieved and maintained by thinking at the same level. With crime seemingly out of control, now is the time to reach a higher level of thinking to dispense and deliver justice, it could be our sure salvation in the battle against crime.
Delroy Chuck is an attorney-at-law and Opposition Member of Parliament. He can be contacted by e-mail at delchuck@hotmail.com.
