From left, Adams and Williams
Leonardo Blair, Staff Reporter
DRUGS, GANG wars, reprisals and domestic violence have been responsible for more than 90 per cent of murders between 1997 and 2002.
Data from the Statistics Department of the Jamaica Constabulary Force show that drugs and reprisal killings accounted for 60 per cent of the 4,873 murders reported over the five-year period. At the same time, drug and gang activity accounted for a combined 30 per cent of the figure.
According to Senior Super-
intendent Carl Williams, head of the Narcotics division of the JCF, it is suspected that a lot more than the official four per cent of murders categorised as "motive undetermined" in the period are grounded in drug-related activity.
"We have always recognised that fall-outs in drug-related activity are prime motivations for a lot of murders that fall in the (motive) undetermined category. We have some suspicion and sometimes some evidence that they are drug-related murders," said the Superintendent. "Right now, the only way to deal with these murders is to deal with the drug problem. People and communities need to understand that when they offer tacit support to these drug dealers they are in support of murder.
"Drugs provide the income for organised crime including the purchase of weapons. A lot of these murders have their genesis in drug-related deals gone sour."
Domestic fights leading to homicides ran a close second among the list of top motives for murder with 29 per cent or some 1,401 of the total number of murders for the given period. Sergeant Samuel Taylor, officer in charge of the Mediation Unit in Kingston said the bulk of these murders took place among poor families who lacked problem-solving skills and were depressed by poverty.
"Jamaica has a culture of violence. We are coming from a background where violence is glorified. If you don't react you are seen as weak," said Sergeant Taylor. "I believe that enough attention isn't being paid to dispute resolution. Domestic murders are found mostly among the poorer classes. As a result of the pervasive hopelessness they don't have the means to deal with their problems."
The police have identified these characteristics among the poor and say they are trying to do something about them.
DISPUTE RESOLUTION UNITS
"Dispute resolution is a new concept, but it is not being taken on in the force. Even today I have to be writing letters to the Commanders of the different divisions to get them to set up dispute resolution units in their commands.
"The interest of most, however, is to solve crime the old-fashioned way. It is a mammoth task but it has to be done," said the Sergeant.
In his take on the situation, however, Senior Superintendent of Police Reneto Adams said that apart from the destruction of good social values and attitudes in society enough was not being done to deter criminals in the society.
"There is no strategy in place that is working to create a deterrence in the minds of criminals. The law says we must hang and we are not hanging. I have not been observing any long criminal sentences with restriction as I have observed in First World countries. We have gone soft.
"I have not observed any meaningful rehabilitation of criminals who have served time and are released into society. To alleviate all these problems, we will have to look at a whole reorientation of the people as well as effective and firm law enforcement with a will to achieve that objective," said Superintendent Adams.
