Clive Mullings, Contributor
MULLINGS
THE ISSUE of security continues to be uppermost in the minds and on the lips of every Jamaican. The Government's inability after being in office for sixteen years to make Jamaica a prosperous and safe nation state is beyond debate. The solution to any problem must be rooted firstly in an accurate assessment of the nature of the problem, its root causes and what is necessary to solve it. This simple approach becomes complicated when other considerations are brought to bear, which only serve to postpone the solution or to explain away the problems, or merely to give a reason for its existence without more.
KEY TRANS-SHIPMENT POINT
The present Minister of National Security has occupied the position since late 2001, replacing Hon. K. D. Knight. Minister Peter Phillips has indicated a link between the country's high crime and violence and 'narco-terrorism'. To date, no evidence has been put forward to support any narco-terrorism threat or a link between high crime and violence and this "threat".
Professor Bernard Headley in his book, 'Essays on Crime and the Politics of Jamaica' in the preface stated: "With Jamaica having in recent years become a key trans-shipment point for much of the illegal drugs entering the United States and Great Britain, this has pushed conventional criminal activity in the island in a whole other realm, according to the Minister of National Security, Dr. Peter Phillips. The high homicide numbers is the most glaring manifestation of this troubling new dimension, Philips has repeatedly argued.
"But, curiously, the Jamaican police's own homicide data hardly confirm the view of a narco-
terrorist menace. Of the 887 murders committed in 2000, the police attributed less than 13 per cent to drug and gang-related activity to use the police's rather imprecise designation. The greater numbers were for robbery, 25 per cent, and for domestic and reprisal killings 32 and 33 per cent respectively. A similar trend holds for the huge 1,139 murders committed in 2001, and to take it a step further, of the more that 500 murders reported in the first six months of 2002, less than 12 per cent have been linked to so-called 'gangs and drugs'.
"Unknown portions of these 'gangs and drugs' homicide for the years 2000, 2001 and early 2002 then, might easily have been related to usual gang activity only having to do with politics or other non-drug conflicts leaving a similar unknown but certainly smaller number relating specifically to drugs. In other words, the overwhelming number of all homicides in the country has had more to do with domestic and other inter-personal and inter-group conflicts than with narcotics trafficking." (Headley's 'A spade is still a spade, Essays on Crime and the Politics of Jamaica').
The crime data up to early 2005 continue to reflect this trend in percentage breakdown, as outlined by Professor Headley. The question therefore arises as to whether Dr. Phillips has deliberately given a wrong diagnosis of the crime problem, and the murder rate in particular, for public consumption, to explain the Government's failure to bring down the murder rate.
So desperate is the minister and the Government to forward a thesis for the problem that the Minister of National Security continues to engage in political spin, to the point of being nonsensical. The minister now claims that it is the success in dismantling narcotics-based criminal networks which has resulted in increased criminal activity. In other words,
Success = Failure!
I challenge the Minister to present the empirical data for this assertion, bereft as it is of any data, analysis or common sense. The minister, no doubt feeling a sense of relief that maybe this line is gaining some traction, now predicts the society should brace for possible "big-ticket robberies and increased attempts at extortion, before crime begins to trend down." So mired on failure is this minister and, by extension, his government that they have psychologically ceded authority to the criminal elements and unwittingly reinstated the fear in the society.
Some months ago I had called for the removal of the then Commissioner of Police, Francis Forbes for, among other things, his claim that even after he is gone the murder rate will continue to rise. This indicated in my opinion an acceptance of failure. I also called for the removal of Dr. Peter Phillips for his continued failure to have a proper functioning
ballistics machine in place since 2001, as I believe it indicated a lack of focus, as 80 per cent of the homicides are gun-related on a weekly basis. The increasing murder rate and the continued failure of the minister to have this crucial piece of equipment in place, as well as his most recent utterances, cause me to repeat this call.
The game is up, the minister now engages in public relations and even that is becoming a
disaster.
