The stark declaration, "Get rid of the dons", which headlined last Wednesday's Gleaner front page has evoked the mixed reaction which the intrepid Reneto Adams continues to attract. For, on the one hand, there are those in favour of the strong-arm assault on crime which the Senior Superintendent of Police seems to represent; and, on the other hand, are those who decry this approach as licensing extra-judicial extremes.
The Braeton affair, now the subject of a coroner's inquest, may have sharpened the line between both attitudes.
And this because it happened at a time of heightened anxiety about the level of crime and raised questions about the capacity of the police to contain it.
A plethora of studies and recommendations have pointed to needy reforms in structure and training methods. This has happened through several years while crime grew more menacing as narco-trafficking took root.
The very West Kingston enquiry before which Mr. Adams made his declaration last week also heard that Jamaica had become the main transhipment point in the cocaine traffic between Colombia and North America. And as National Security Minister Peter Phillips says, the trafficking is what feeds the spate of murderous crime which can cause catastrophe if it is not brought under control.
We can assess Mr. Adams' analysis from the perspective of the frontline commander who has to confront violent crime. He describes the reality as he sees and hears it, apparently without deference to the political correctness or otherwise of what the "dons" signify. For in reality they represent the dreaded nexus with politics which the major political parties may want to keep at arms' length.
The reality of that nexus may come to be tested as the election season warms up. The pro- and anti-Adams factions may then have to take sides, or join together to avert the catastrophe of which the toll of 75 murders last month is an ominous signal.
