Melville Cooke Adams don't like us and we don't like him
But that won't solve the problem
Why Don't We Surrender Our Guns (Ninja Man)
IT WAS inevitable that Desmond 'Ninja Man' Ballentine and SSP Reneto 'Saddam' Adams would meet, and with spectacular results at that.
Their public face-off was on Ninja Man's turf, at Sting 2002 on Boxing Day, with the deejay handing over a Glock pistol to Mr. Adams, who verified that the weapon was real and called for a gun amnesty.
It was compromise rather than confrontation and high drama as well, which adds considerably to the already considerable legend of both men.
Judging from the debate surrounding the incident both in media and personal experience, however, most people are missing the significance of what promises to be another nine-day wonder.
Ninja Man and Reneto Adams, in their public personae, represent two sides of that much beloved and admired Jamaican personality, the bad man. Ninja Man is the incorrigible, fearless bad man that the supposedly decent citizens of the country would shudder to see at their gate, while SSP Adams is presented as the fearless bad man who stands between the thugs and said supposedly decent citizens.
Make no mistake about it, though, the Ninja and the Saddam are, ultimately, rated for being 'real bad man.'
Ninja Man turning over a gun at Sting is an indication that a significant number of the 'rude boys' see no future in gunslinging; Adams accepting it and verifying the authenticity of the firearm is an acknowledgement that the police cannot strong-arm the rude boys into submission.
Unlike most of the persons whom I have heard comment (vehemently) on the saga, I thoroughly endorse the handover, be it a gesture or not. The police cannot control gun runnings in Jamaica. If fish go river bottom an sey alligator dung deh, believe him. I see Mr. Adams being a part of the handing over ceremony as an acknowledgement that not all the supposed gunmen (or 'gunyouths') are going to conveniently stick their heads out of a house in Braeton for them to be blown off.
He has seen the alligators and, while he can protect himself and trim out a few after they have attacked some hapless fish in the society, there are simply too many. And they are breeding fast, too.
I see the same thing as well and so did more than a double handful of policemen, all killed in 2002.
I fully support a gun amnesty. I also fully support the idea of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, delving into Jamaica's political past, which is inextricably linked with violence.
There are those who have been outraged that Ninja Man was not charged for the Glock 17 he handed over to SSP Adams at Sting 2002. I would have been outraged if he had been charged. Ninja Man is no better or worse than the couple fellows I have read about in the past who handed over their guns to pastors and had the blood declared washed from their hands. We cannot, as a society, hold Ninja Man to the letter of the law and not hold everyone in a similar situation to the same standards. As I have said before, there is one law for everybody or there is no law for anybody.
We cannot demand that Ninja Man be charged for that particular gun and not question why Bruce Golding was not interrogated about the political violence he said he turned his back on. He must know a lot. We would have to exhume Michael Manley, shake his corpse and ask him about his links to 'Burry Boy' and how he came to be a part of that infamous funeral.
Of course, the police bigwigs immediately came out and said that there is no gun amnesty on. They really should reconsider.
Those who just read about Ninja Man, and even some of those who go to the dancehall shows at which he performs, miss a lot of what Mr. Ballentine says. For example, when he was arrested after a particularly vitriolic showing at the Kaiser Sports Club in Manchester in August last year, I wrote a story about the whole affair. I do believe that a lot of people missed the part in the story where Ninja Man said to the lawmen present that "fi unnu money no mark police wen unnu go a supermarket."
I do not know how many people read the report of his appearance in Montego Bay last Saturday, after the Sting handover, to the part when he said to the rude boys that "one time de law was above Ninja Man," when he was not living clean. He also told the 'rude boys' that "if unnu live clean none a di police whe a come tump unnu dung caan walk inna unnu shoes."
'Is Ninja Man above the law'- THE STAR asked on Saturday last. The answer is yes. So is SSP Adams. So are all 'bad men' in Jamaica. The rule of law has been a mockery in this country for a long, long time.
Ultimately, Ninja Man and SSP Adams' little ceremony at Sting 2002, be it a charade or not, points to a realisation that if Jamaica is to step back from the brink of total anarchy towards which it is steadily slipping in the blood of over 1,000 murders (excluding numerous questionable police killings) for each year of the new millennium, it will not be at the behest of the officials.
They do not have the moral authority or, more importantly, the street respect.
Ninja Man and Saddam Adams do.
PS: I had a personal bet on that three people would be murdered in the first 24 hours of 2003, with another two dying in traffic accidents. I'll soon see how I did.
Melville Cooke is a freelance writer.
