Garth Rattray

A friend emailed me the first-hand account of how she came to discover a murder victim in her community. He was apparently transported there and shot twice in the head. She described hearing two shots, seeing the darkness of the night penetrated by the flashes and her neighbours' frantic scurry to ascertain the identity of the victim amid fears that he may have been one of their own. Blood and grey matter poured freely from a gaping hole in the left temple of his body. The sight of the freshly murdered young man left her very frightened, shaken and running to the bathroom. She expressed it well when she said, "hearing about it every day, seeing it on TV every day, reading about it in the papers every day is very different" from the real thing.

The entire nation was stunned by the recent reprisal massacre of seven people from Glasspole Avenue in Rockfort (east Kingston). The appalling, boundless, cold-blooded, random murder of innocent human beings - fellow Jamaicans embroiled in similar existential struggles - has been escalating. Even the purity of neonatal youth failed to protect four-month-old Rana-Jay Hurd from her murderer's bullets. Perplexed and frightened by the magnitude of barbarism, such aforementioned events have us wondering if monsters that kill (especially wantonly) have a conscience.

Hopelessness

Secularly, conscience is viewed as the "awareness of the moral right or wrong of one's own acts or motives". Murderers, therefore, have a conscience; however, it's not the same one that God-fearing, law-abiding people possess. Their 'morals' (standards of appropriate behaviour) are askew. Gunmen/knifemen/murderers are bred and nurtured within a subculture of hopelessness, ignorance, acrimony, violence, abuse, vengeance and a lack of respect for life. In their bizarre world, it is 'morally' acceptable to commit violence against people who disrespect them, get in their way, possess something that they want or those (even loosely) associated with people that wronged them or their community.

From a religious perspective, conscience is dictated by God's command for everyone to love his/her neighbour. It remains silent if we do something good for others but 'speaks loudly' if we consider or actually do iniquity to another. However, even this view of conscience presents a dilemma. Heinous murderers do not revere the same 'god' (the object of worship and obedience) as we do; they worship power and all the manifestations thereof. Their master operates within an evil realm and commands them to impose their will on all who offends or opposes them.

Cocaine

Inexplicable acts of cruelty and gratuitous killings once spawned the rumour that perpetrators of such atrocities were using cocaine to numb their conscience and embolden themselves before committing unspeakable crimes. It is, however, becoming clear that what emboldens killers is the emerging culture of limitless bloodletting. They appear to be competing to see who is more capable of murderous mayhem.

Our protectors can't be everywhere all the time. One answer to our rampant criminality is to implant in our errant youth a (good) conscience - our brand of conscience - which will follow them wherever they go and 'see' whatever they do or plan to do.

Whether or not there is an innate capacity for conscience, it can be learnt. Whether we view it secularly, religiously, psycho-analytically, bio-psychologically or as a society-forming instinct, we need to dedicate a lot of our resources to the welfare of our vulnerable inner-city communities. We need to provide wholesome, nurturing environments for them to grow in peace and love.

Next week: Hanging and the con-science vote.