THE CHAOS which has descended upon Spanish Town after the killing of a notorious criminal is a baleful tribute to his legacy of corruption. And in the aftermath, we are left to contemplate the contrasting contentions of a senior police officer and a Member of Parliament about that dubious legacy.
On the one hand, Senior Superintendent Kenneth Wade, the commanding officer for St. Catherine North, asserts that Donovan 'Bulbie' Bennett was able to operate his criminal 'Clansman' gang with the help of the governing People's National Party (PNP).
In rebuttal, Sharon Hay-Webster, PNP MP for South Central St. Catherine, has denied even knowing Bulbie. And, the deputy general secretary of the party, Colin Campbell, has buttressed that denial, repudiating Superintendent Wade's assertion, and declaring that the PNP had not supported Bulbie or any other criminal.
And so what is left exposed to public view is the dark side of what many observers suspect is the persistent nexus of crime and politics - an association that has mandated a code of conduct 'more honoured in the breach than the observance'.
The continuing unrest in Spanish Town seems to have spawned a copycat demonstration in downtown Kingston, yesterday, demanding bail for Donald 'Zekes' Phipps who is on trial for murder. Such is the aberration of traditional attitudes to law and order. The action by the most vocal residents of the Old Capital was a combination of protest and regret. We have to presume that they were beneficiaries of Bulbie's enterprise and not only members of his gang, unless the criminality had spread so widely as to overwhelm the law-abiding residents in need of some measure of material support.
It would be strange indeed if political action in this milieu could have avoided contact with the activities of a man whose death has left such disruption in his wake. In fact, the One Order gang, supposedly supportive of the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party, has been involved in efforts to establish a truce with their rivals.
The political aspect of this episode may help to explain the failure of the police to bring Bulbie to book, in spite of the fact that they have been able to keep track of his exploits in extortion and murder for more than a decade. This is the more ominous when the governing party, in effect, stands accused of blocking police effort.
The party has spoken in apparent rebuttal. The Government must now speak unequivocally on a matter that threatens to undermine the security of the nation.
THE OPINIONS ON THIS PAGE, EXCEPT FOR THE ABOVE, DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE GLEANER.
