Melville CookeCall de police for me
Tell dem it's a state of emergency
Two robber jus' jook dung me
Dem go inna me pocket tek whe mi money
- John Wayne
SO, AS you can see from that early 1980s deejay tune, the call for a State of Emergency as a response to crime is not exactly new.
I was born in 1971 and while I remember the food shortages and the violence, I remember nothing about the famous State of Emergency that I lived through up to age nine. Of course, I lived in the rural area and was born into a family certainly among the more socially respected, so I would not have felt the direct consequences.
Not so people like Pearnel Charles, whose Detained is a decent read, despite my mental block toward Jamaica's dirty politics and soiled politicians.
This call publicly by Don Robotham and Kingsley Thomas has made me reflect on how little of Jamaica's true history is taught in schools, especially about the 1970s. While we are all gung-ho about the symbolic lowering of the Union Jack and the raising of our tri-colour, there is precious little about the Manley era from 1972 to 1980.
POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT
Mutty Perkins, whatever else may be his shortcomings and virtues, has tried his very best to educate the public about the State of Emergency preceding the 1980 general election. However, his reach is limited and, in our highly polarised political environment, subject to derision as a "Labourite campaign".
There has been resistance to the State of Emergency call, notably from Bruce Golding, but there has been no reaction from the street level. It is not something that most people I come in contact with have felt strongly enough about, for or against, to bring up without being prompted. And, even when it is introduced in conversation, they are not stirred deeply one way or the other.
Such apathy is the precursor to anarchy. And, anarchy, for me, is the same whether there is no rule of law or the law rules viciously. For make no mistake about it, the bunch of thugs who pass for a large part of the police force in Jamaica are already vicious rulers, much less so under a State of Emergency, where they can do as they wish.
A little personal experience is rather instructive and I cannot forget earlier this year when two policemen framed me for speeding near the JDF camp in Moneague, St. Ann. When I protested, one said "gimme a search", proceeded to feel me up, then demanded to search my car, stating "a lock me waan lock yu up todeh, a lock me waan lock yu up todeh".
Under a State of Emergency he would not even have had to search me or the car and find something in order to do so and I have no doubt that I would have found myself in a jail cell that day at best.
At worst? The standard story "engaged the lawmen in a shoot-out, the fire was returned, blah blah blah", a funeral and my children left to grow up without a father.
Most policemen I have encountered are such decent persons it hurts to know that they put their lives on the line daily for little pay and less gratitude. However, I have encountered enough thugs with a stripe on their leg, as well as those wanting you to "talk to me" about traffic matters to know that imposing a State of Emergency with them on the front-line is tantamount to getting a child molester to take a group of Girl Guides on a long camp.
GUN AMNESTY
And would said proposed State of Emergency help get the guns off the streets? It would seem to me that the proposed gun amnesty in St. Catherine is a much better idea in that regard. And would it help stamp out the cocaine trade or the inflow of guns into the country?
Or would it cut the links between politics and gunmen? Y'see, we play a very hypocritical game in Jamaica, where the solution to crime lies at Gordon House and the history of people who have passed time there equipping their "supporters" and encouraging the use of violence to win elections, a practice which has blossomed to the culture of murder which we have today.
So would a State of Emergency affect those misleaders? Why do I doubt it?
Of course, the persons calling for a State of Emergency do not believe that they will be personally affected. I do not know how much of Jamaican popular music Messrs. Robotham and Thomas "dig", but I do believe that for them and people of like social standing a question is in order.
How would yu feel if yu wake up one mornin' an saw
A M-16 nozzle hitch up at yu jaw
Feel like yu waan disappear but yu naw
Cause a police an yu no trus' Missa Law
Babylon wi shot yu fi a straw
- Beenie Man
Melville Cooke is a freelance writer.
