COMING FAST on the heels of the confrontation between residents of Flankers and members of the security forces, another taxi driver, Andrew Wilson, has been killed by the police in St Catherine under questionable circumstances. In response the National Association of Taxi Operators has mandated its members to pull their vehicles off the road, much to the inconvenience of the travelling public. Scores of taxi drivers gathered on the lawns of the office of the Police Commissioner on Old Hope Road demanding that steps be taken against the police officers.
Nor have things returned to normal at Flankers, the residents still seething with anger at the slaying of two elderly citizens and the wounding of a woman in a police operation gone wrong. The police continued to be pelted with stones and had to use tear gas yesterday to keep the situation under control. Dr. Horace Chang, Member of Parliament for the area, was one of those tear-gassed in the melee.
Although the Flanker's killings are subject to a formal investigation, the police high command has already indicated that mistakes were made, agreeing to help with funeral expenses and giving assurances that none of the police involved in the operation will be allowed to leave the island.
Rational analysis would clearly show that violent demonstrations of the sort taking place in Montego Bay will not bring back deceased loved ones to their relatives and stand to do irreparable harm to the island's tourist industry, the only relatively bright performing sector in an otherwise gloomy economy. Be this as it may what is seen as police brutality is probably due to inadequate training to deal with stressful situations; but it happens too often to be tolerated by citizens prone to raw emotional outbursts. In that kind of mood strident demands for instant justice are clearly futile. The danger is that each demonstration will start begetting others, 'increase of appetite growing by what it feeds on' so that disorder spirals into all out conflagration.
While political leaders may feel compelled to intervene on the streets we think that such action may exacerbate the situation and be divisive. It is more appropriate for the Peace Management Initiative led by Bishop Herro Blair to proceed with establishing its presence in Montego Bay as he intimated two weeks ago when Canterbury exploded.
Ultimately clear leadership on the part of the police in planning strategies to deal with crime as well as speedy and appropriate punishment of those who insist on taking the law into their own hands is the only hope of stopping the downward slide into chaos.
THE OPINIONS ON THIS PAGE, EXCEPT FOR THE ABOVE, DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE GLEANER.
