Dennie Quill, Contributor
IT IS difficult to quantify the costs involved in enacting new laws, taking into account the technical and legal expertise that have to be employed, to the time spent by the legislature to turn bills into laws and subsequent education campaigns, printing costs etc., but one thing is sure, the burden naturally falls on the shoulders of the taxpayers.
I will cite two examples of how some laws are being treated as national jokes. The first has to do with night noises, a law that has been packaged by Parliament as the Noise Abatement Act. Bearing in mind that the Government has a duty to make sure its citizens' rights are protected and not infringed on, one cannot understand why the police are not even pretending to uphold this law.
According to the act - "No person shall, on any private premises or in any public place at any time of day or night -
(a) sing, or sound or play upon any musical or noisy instrument; or
(b) operate, permit or cause to be operated, any loudspeaker, microphone or any other device for the amplification of sound, in such a manner that the sound is audible beyond a distance of one hundred metres from the source of such sound and is reasonably capable of causing annoyance to persons in the vicinity".
FECKLESS
The police are particularly feckless when it comes to dealing with the selfish people who continue to make life miserable for their neighbours by turning up their noisemakers to intolerable levels. I can speak from personal experience; some houses actually vibrate under the pressure from powerful music boxes.
The practice is that neighbours call the police, depending on their mood; they may hang up the phone as happened to a friend last weekend. Other times they may visit the premises and ask that the music be turned down.
As soon as their backs are turned, however, the levels soar again and sometimes the disc jockey will mockingly assure their patrons that "no-one gwaine stop dis music tonight."
There was a time when someone hosting a party had to seek permission from the police station in the area and there were certain conditions attached to the permit. Has this practice died?
It is happening all over the Corporate Area of Kingston and St. Andrew every night. Public and private functions from which loud music emanates are kept going all through the night. Who is going to put an end to this climate of impunity? Should habitual law-breakers whose actions cause distress to their neighbours be constantly patted on their wrists instead of being prosecuted? And how many warnings should one person be given before there is punishment?
The other area of concern is the Litter Act. Imagine 60 members of Parliament and their colleagues in the Senate spent an inordinate amount of time repealing this law and framing it as part of the National Solid Waste Management Act, for they in their wisdom considered it important, only for it to be ignored.
PEOPLE SPIT ANYWHERE
I cannot recall how many times I have seen passengers throwing garbage from moving vehicles. Yet, no one is ever arrested. So people continue to throw their garbage wherever it suits them. Men with all their faculties together urinate on street corners and spit anywhere. Why is oversight so weak in this country? Is it that the police are not aware of what the law says? If there is no vigorous enforcement, laws will not serve the purpose for which they were intended. Is there any wonder why Jamaica is such a filthy place right now? Our beaches tell an eloquent story of flagrant disregard and lack of enforcement.
A FARCE
One may say the police have more important things to do with their time than to be enforcing the Litter Law. I say when we start to ignore law-breakers they become emboldened and continue to flout the law in other ways. No wonder mob-killings are on the rise and the persons who commit these acts feel confident to confess to their crimes without any fear of prosecution.
It is a farce to spend valuable resources enacting laws that we have no will to enforce. Maybe we should do what the Somalis do. In their country law-breakers are required to compensate their victims, so persons who suffer as a result of night noises could get their medical bills taken care as the fines would be paid to the victims instead.
Dennie Quill is a veteran journalist who may be reached at denniequill@hotmail.com
