It's crime, not politics

- Norman Grindley

Troubles in the inner city have forced residents to take security measures of their own, like blocking roads to keep gunmen out.

Lloyd Williams, Senior Associate Editor

THE political directorate - Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and the People's National Party (PNP) - particularly those who control garrison communities in the inner cities, need to step back some paces and look at what they preside over - and with such patent pride - in the name of political power.

These politicians are for the most part the better-educated, middle-class people who foist themselves on poor, hungry, uneducated, deprived people in the name of representational politics. They represent themselves as virtual messiahs pre-ordained to rescue the underprivileged from the squalor of the inner cities and give them a better life free, in exchange for the mark of an "x" on a ballot paper. To a man (including woman), they have done precious little for the people they profess to serve, except to con them every election year out of their votes with largely unfulfilled promises.

And bear in mind that it is these very people who provide them with the good life and its trappings ­ the commercial opportunities, the fat salaries, the fringe benefits, the Pajeros, the big houses on the skyline drives or in the posh, leafy suburbs.

Review time

It is time the politicians step back and take a look at the "representation" they have been providing for their constituents ­ and ask themselves if that is all that they can do. Are they satisfied with the nature and the scope or their "representation"? Is this the only guidance that these educated leaders of people ­ role models even - can offer to the underclass?

And they continue to boast at cocktail parties, other public occasions and before microphones in Parliament, especially, of their stewardship of and benevolence to the inner-city communities in their constituencies.

They need to ask themselves if they have done as much as they could to eradicate the squalor from the daily lives of their constituents in Tivoli Gardens, Arnett Gardens, Rema, Craig Town, Federal Gardens, Hannah Town, Tower Hill, Olympic Gardens, Payneland, Torrington Park.

What have these well-heeled, well-dressed, articulate, well-educated political representatives done for their inner-city communities recently? How have the daily lives of the people in these communities changed for the better in the last 15, 10 or five years?

The troubles in Hannah Town and Denham Town in the last two weeks which have engulfed many innocent people, go to the very foundation of the state of law in this country. It is sheer criminality. There is no other explanation for it. It is not to be labelled "politics".

But it has happened there and in other inner-city communities in the Corporate Area of Kingston and St. Andrew so often in the past, and with seeming impunity. Invariably, it is forgotten after the proverbial nine days as mere "politics" and this violence-weary nation has become so inured to it that criminal atrocities are quickly forgotten and because of the label of politics daubed on them, go largely unprosecuted.

If I have said it once, I have said it 100 times. The basis and continuation of a large percentage of our embarrassing crime problem in Jamaica is party politics camouflaging underlying criminality.

"How can men be walking around with guns and shoot people, murder them, fire-bomb their houses and burn them out and this be excused as 'politics?'", asks a veteran officer who spent many years policing volatile inner-city communities in the Corporate Area of Kingston and St. Andrew. "It is sheer criminality.

"The politicians must isolate these men because once you start labelling those crimes as 'politics', it gives comfort to those and other criminals. The word 'politics' should never be allowed in the vocabulary describing these actions. It is straight criminality.

"And remember, when these men do not have anybody to shoot under the guise of politics, they turn their guns on innocent people. And many innocent people suffer from their wrong-doings in the name of politics anyway."

From all indications and investigation of the Hannah Town-Denham Town flare-up, it seems to have been sparked by straight criminality and has nothing at all to do with the murders of William "Willy Haggart" Moore et al of the Black Roses Crew on Lincoln Crescent, Arnett Gardens, April 18, 2001. The fact is that none of the gunmen, fire-bombers and arsonists engaged in the Hannah Town-Denham Town war comes from Willy Haggart's "corner". The people who are from Willy Haggart's Black Roses Crew have not been involved in the conflict.

Solid sources swear that the PNP faction in the Hannah Town-Denham Town "war" had been urging the Matthews Lane community (PNP) to join the fight on its side, but so far good sense has prevailed and Matthews Lane kept out of it.

Ostensibly, Tivoli Gardens has not been involved, but people with eyes and ears for these situations say Denham Town could hardly have sustained a fight alone without assistance from Tivoli Gardens.

Growing hostilities

The Hannah Town-Denham Town fighting resulted from a build-up of hostilities between various criminal gangs from the two inner cities. As it escalated, the politicians ­ PNP and JLP ­ have tried to shroud it under the mantle of "politics" and claim the victims ­ 27 dead so far, plus those wounded and others driven from their homes by fire-bombs, gunfire and threats ­ as belonging to their party.

A plain-speaking police officer defined the issue:

"Really, it is criminality that is going on and any time we start looking at this thing from the angle of criminality, then we will solve it. Real politics play a minor role in the whole thing. But the word 'politics' is used by each side as the flag of convenience for their attacks. But it really is straight criminality.

"How can young boys, little boys, be walking around in the streets with big assault rifles and 9mm pistols in their hands under the guise that they are defending turf? What happens when they don't have turf to defend? Aren't they going to attack innocent people?

"And where did they get these expensive guns? Remember, these are not slingshots. And look at the number of spent shells (cartridge casings) the police have picked up? Where did they get the money from to buy these cartridges? They don't use pebbles in the guns they are firing; they use expensive ammunition.

"Until all the politicians isolate the criminals and let them know that there is no sanctuary, no shelter for them, we will always have this problem. It is the police who are paid to defend citizens of the country, not criminals", he said.

But which politician is going to refuse to have anything to do with these gunmen, many of whom are their supporters and activists acting in their interests?"

The simple fact is that the criminality and the politics and the drug-dealing and the gun-running are so intertwined that the politician has little say but to back the criminal gunmen, in the name of politics, regardless of the origins of the conflict - be it drugs, turf or spoils not shared justly.

Nothing will change this as long as the politicians ­ JLP and PNP - continue to embrace the dons who are their alter egos on the ground and so legitimise the sometimes illegal means - including violence ­ by which the dons look after the interests of the politicians.

For years the perception encouraged was that the only "dons" and gunmen in the Corporate Area were to be found in Tivoli Gardens, West Kingston. And that it is only Edward Seaga, the MP for West Kingston, who had a responsibility to "co-operate with the security forces" to reduce the criminal activities in his constituency.

Responsibility

That responsibility should also rest with the MPs for St. Andrew Western, East Kingston and Port Royal, South Andrew South West, St. Andrew South, Kingston Central, St. Andrew East Central St. Andrew South East, and St. Andrew Eastern where there are also violent, crime-ridden garrison communities.

Now that that myth has been exposed, other politicians with no less benign garrisons in their constituencies have sought to explain and defend their associations with murderous, drug-dealing, gun-running dons by an argument that amounts to "the end justifying the means".

The politicians, in speaking about the Hannah Town-Denham Town conflict, or others past, acknowledge in calling for restraint, that their supporters are armed to the teeth with illegal guns.

They pride themselves on and take paternity for "the peace" they claim to have brokered between their inner-city garrisons enabling constituents to go about their lawful way conducting ordinary commerce, social intercourse in the manner that it is normal for the ordinary citizens outside those political enclaves. Where else in the world could it be regarded as unusual for two civilised, educated politicians with abutting constituencies, like Mr. Seaga and Dr. Omar Davies, and their wives, to attend the same football match in the areas they represent?

Who is it that has fostered and enforced these artificial divisions all these years, pitting poor, illiterate, hungry party supporters against each other on the promise of exclusive provision of political scarce benefits and spoils? Didn't these communities live peaceably before the politicians took them over and divided them?

Which politician in Jamaica has ever been known to go on a platform at a political meeting at the Parade, Half-Way Tree Square or in Sam Sharpe Square, for that matter, and exhort their constituents not to maim or kill poor, hungry, uneducated black people like themselves?

The illegal guns which have transformed some of the inner-city garrisons into enclaves for drug lords and warlords had their origins, for the most part, in consolidating the powerbase and the supremacy of the politicians.

The day the politicians and their dons say in unison and sincerity to their followers and the constituents they control that they must eschew violence and open their garrisons to whosoever may wish to enter ­ including the security forces in search of illegal guns and wanted felons ­ the people will obey.

But when will this ever be in the interests of the politicians and the dons so to do?

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