Brink of anarchy

THE VOLATILE western section of downtown Kingston is caught in the throes of rampant criminality with undertones of political hostility.

Amid the barrage of weekend gunfire the bodies of dead men litter the streets, a police station is shot up and bombed, shops pull shutters, and vendors flee Coro-nation Market. Elsewhere fear and near panic grow.

This is no Israel or Macedonia. It is the capital city of Jamaica in pre-election year 2001.

As the police tell it, they are the targets of criminal gunmen firing at them from all sides. The political spin comes mainly from JLP leader Edward Seaga, blaming the police for inaction and supposedly hidden agenda.

Commissioner Francis Forbes says the police will not yield to gunmen who have killed a police corporal and a lance corporal from the military. At least five civilians have died; and several vehicles belonging to the security forces have been damaged.

There is no picture here of police chasing bad men; the spectacle is of pitched battle between opposing armies. It is a violent tableau of criminal defiance of the law and of security forces unable to contain it.

The public sparring between the Police Chief and the Opposition Leader must stop; it undermines the sense of public safety. The Prime Minister must take charge. A nation on the brink of bloody anarchy cries out for commanding leadership to stem the bloody rot.

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