THE EDITOR, Sir:LLOYD WILLIAMS' article, "Jamaica's ongoing killing spree," details the disturbing statistical history of the murder rate in Jamaica from 1960 to the present, concluding that "The missing essential of the curb-the-murders equation seems to be just how to engage civil society to ensure their co-operation with the forces of law, to bring the murderers to book."
While Williams highlights an important dynamic, changing community-police relations, his conclusion does not provide all the essential ingredients to changing the dynamics of violence in Jamaican society. An example of a community actively working against the violent and destructive forces at work in Jamaica is the August Town community.
In 1996 a small group of citizens from August Town formed a community organisation called the August Town Sports and Community Development Foundation. As the name implies, sports, especially football, have served to bring the various neighbourhoods of August Town together through various community competitions. The August Town Youth Football Programme, working with children and men between the ages of eight and 28, uses football as a magnet to draw young men in and then takes a holistic approach in developing its young men as footballers and citizens of Jamaica through training sessions and education sessions in law and order, conflict transformation, and community-based policing.
The foundation has also engaged the August Town Police Station in a series of peace-building activities and community-based policing initiatives, under the foundation's Crime Watch Education Programme, and Incentive for Peace Programme. In 2001, the chairman of the foundation, Kenneth Wilson, and Inspector Budhoo of the August Town Police Station travelled to Eastern Mennonite University in Virginia, U.S.A. and participated in the Summer Peace Building Institute, learning the principles of restorative justice and conflict resolution. In the summer of 2003, the foundation sent five community leaders from Hermitage, Goldsmith Villa, August Town proper, and another member of the August Town Police Station to the Summer Peace Building Institute at Eastern Mennonite University.
Together, these community members have brought back to their communities the principles of peace-building and community development that they acquired at the Summer Peace Building Institute. In addition to these programmes, members of the August Town Police Station, in co-operation with the August Town Sport and Community Development Foundation have embarked on a Crime Watch Education Programme. As part of this programme, leaders of the foundation put on presentations in each of the neighbourhoods in August Town proper, Hermitage, Bedward Gardens, Goldsmith Villa, and African Gardens.
These presentations educate the citizens as to their rights, and show the citizens the right and wrong way of policing. They are led with a member of the August Town Police Station present to answer questions by the citizens in the various neighbourhoods. The foundation also has a Leadership Training Programme built into its philosophy of community development. The idea of this programme is to expand the base of educated leadership within the community and it currently finances the education of five community members at the University of the West Indies and the University of Technology, including a member of the August Town Constabulary Force.
Since the Foundation's inception in 1996, the crime rate and murder rate in August Town has continually decreased. As the foundation has grown in its programmes and influence over the years, it has been an active agent of change in the August Town community. Its inclusion of members from the August Town Police Station as part of the community and not a separate, opposing entity is definitely a factor in the foundation's success in reducing crime and building positive relations between the police and citizens. But it is not the only ingredient in transforming the violent dynamics at work in August Town.
The foundation members, especially Kenneth Wilson, have worked tirelessly in their efforts to improve their community and provide positive, constructive avenues for their youth to take. The foundation leaders have educated themselves, members of the Constabulary Force, and members of the community in peace building, restorative justice, and community development. The result of the foundation's efforts has been a reduction in crime and murders and change in the dynamics within the August Town community. If Jamaica is searching for examples of how to curb the violent components that have been characteristic of this nation, than taking a closer look at August Town, the August Town Sport and Community Development Foundation, and the August Town Police Station should be a starting point.
I am, etc.,
STEPHEN LEAMAN
leaman@villanova.edu
