Delroy Chuck
MORE PERSONS have been murdered during the tenure of this government than at any other time of our history. The citizens do not feel safe, secure and protected; in fact, they feel increasingly unsafe and unprotected. Jamaica is in an awful mess, even while we eke out reasons to argue we are on the right track. We desperately seek solutions to the festering problems without appreciating that governance has gone awfully wrong.
To be sure, there is no better measure or obvious evidence of social decay and social disintegration than the spiralling crime wave and increased murder rate. Even as we blame the dons and gangs for the crime wave, they are not aliens invading our communities.
The proliferation of dons, gangs and crime could easily have been predicted and, not surprisingly, it is happening everywhere. Dons and gangs are natural social phenomena that emerge in the crucibles of inner-city and urban decay, in the poverty and disorganisation of neglected communities, and in the struggle and need for young men to gain status and reputation. Gangs and gang warfare are not unique to Jamaica; they are social consequences of urban life in which there is a glaring and widening gap between the rich and the poor, and of the tension and conflict between wealth and poverty-stricken communities struggling to exist contiguously.
ECONOMIC CONSIDERATIONS
Social behaviour is not largely determined by values and attitudes, or educational input, or morality, it is more significantly affected by economic considerations and, as Karl Marx asserted 'how men organised their means of production'. Thus, while poverty may not primarily be the cause of crime, the obvious and growing economic disparity between how the rich live and how the poor survive is a major determinant of rampant criminality. "If a free society cannot help the many who are poor," John F. Kennedy warned in his inaugural address, "It cannot save the few who are rich." His words are even more germane to Jamaica where a few are getting richer at the expense of the many who are poor.
The blame must be laid squarely at the feet of this government for pursuing macro-economic policies that have deprived the vast majority of citizens of needed social services, economic opportunities and any hope of a better life, while a few well connected and well placed persons reap enormous benefits and get richer without expending any creative effort, increased productive capacity or even making a useful contribution to the national well-being. So, while a few have untold economic choices, the vast majority of our citizens are without medical and educational outlets, struggle to make ends meet, and barely survive from day to day. Where the society has left a vacuum and is unable to provide for the neglected, needy and greedy, the dons and gangs enter and fill the vacuum.
EXTORTION RACKET
As I understand it, many of these dons and gangs gain their prominence and influence primarily from the extortion racket, big criminal hits and the drug connections.
Their survival depends on the control and protection of turf or area of influence. These gangs do not need or depend on the politicians for survival even though it is impossible for political representatives to avoid or deny their presence. As a political representative, I have been vilified for even associating with the dons and gangs, yet I make no apology for doing so, and Grants Pen is probably a safer and better place for my perennial attempt to bring the wayward young men into civilised discourse and to embrace legitimate social and economic activity. Still, I struggle against the odds and dozens of young men despise my political representation, as quite rightly they feel that while I promote legitimate economic activity I do not provide enough for them to embrace and benefit.
Now, political representatives are urged to reveal and squeal on the dons, gangs and crime in their communities. In my political association throughout the inner cities, I hear many stories and get information from various sources, but none of them qualify as hard and compelling evidence.
In fact, most of the information I get and hear, when properly checked, is quite mischievous and misleading.
Moreover, when I hear from sources in Upper St. Andrew how helpers, labourers and security guards blame me for the guns, gangs and violence in Barbican and Grants Pen, every bit of which is false, I appreciate how careful and cautious one must be in relying on any information coming from unreliable sources.
Delroy Chuck is an attorney-at-law and Opposition Member of Parliament. He can be contacted by email at delchuck@hotmail.com.
