Garth RattrayON SUNDAY August 1, 2004, Gleaner columnist Kevin O'Brien Chang asked if we have too much freedom. The piece published on Emancipation Day was timely and the moot point was well taken. He referred to Cuba where, because of their communist constitution, they were able to confine persons with HIV/AIDS and so effectively contain the spread of the disease. On the other hand, especially in Haiti and the rest of the Caribbean in general, the disease has taken on monstrous proportions and threatens to devastate our people and economy.
Mr. Chang also referred to his travels to Britain, the U.S., Canada, Singapore, Japan, Thailand and especially communist (as he put it 'unfree') China and Cuba where he felt safe walking around when Jamaica (except for Knutsford Boulevard) provided no such freedom. He went on to compare figures and showed that, in absolute and comparative terms, crime here in Jamaica is killing far more people than the crisis in Palestine. He further quoted his friend, a young constable from MoBay, who proposes that we are using inappropriate anti-crime measures on an unsophisticated populace (I'm paraphrasing). The constable also labelled concepts of human rights as "foolishness" and believes that it's a hindrance to crime-fighting. He wants heavy-handed policing and the "three strikes" rule put into law where repeat offenders are automatically given life sentences. He wants more prisons built if necessary.
Mr. Chang admits that the young constable has given him much food for thought and that ordinarily he would never want the rights of our people trod upon. But, he says, "the current crime prevention programmes are definitely not working". Ironically, on the same day of the publication, Emancipation Day, I was caught up in a two-hour traffic jam on the Spanish Town bypass because 55-year-old businessman Winston 'Zatto' Henry was gunned down. Although the Chang article asked if we had too much freedom, I had good reason to ponder how emancipated we truly were. Criminal behaviour may be considered as the manifestation of mental slavery to a particular (albeit negative) environment, acculturation and lifestyle. This untenable level of crime consequently enslaves the entire society.
YOUNG CONSTABLE
A few years ago I would have fully agreed with the young constable. I too wanted widespread searches, swoops, roadblocks, cordons, curfews and even forced relocation of certain people. This was born out of deep frustration and an unrequited feeling of injustice being meted out to civil society by those hell-bent on a criminal way of life. However, since writing for The Gleaner I've come to learn a great deal through research, feedback from people in the know and through observing the exceptional activities of the Independent Jamaica Council for Human Rights. I've had the privilege of being invited to the Tower Street Adult Correctional Centre (formerly called General Penitentiary) and had the first-hand experience of communicating directly with those confined for their crimes against civil society.
I've come to learn that the inmates are not necessarily the cold-blooded, unrepentant brutes that we perceive them to be. I came to see some of them as victims of a society badly in need of urgent reform. True, I was never injured by criminals but I have been held up and robbed by two men with knives when I was a schoolboy. A machete-wielding motorist has attacked me. I have had a gun pointed at me mistakenly by a paid killer. In the past I have been the victim of robberies and very recently someone significantly damaged my car in an effort to gain entry to the cabin and trunk. I have had many close friends and patients assaulted in every conceivable way, killed or injured by felons so I'm not unfamiliar with the effects of criminal activity. In fact in today's Jamaica it's nigh impossible to find anyone who has not been touched in some way by our flagitiousness.
Amidst all of the sadness, mourning, rising panic, turmoil and confusion, many are forgetting that freedom in not free. It is not free from personal and social responsibility or from discipline and sacrifice.
To be continued...
Garth A. Rattray is a medical practitioner with a family practice.
