Devon Dick

Last week Tuesday was the 30th anniversary of the One Love Peace Concert held at the National Stadium. This concert was organised by the leaders of the communities divided into JLP and PNP camps. It was at that concert that Prime Minister Michael Manley and Opposition Leader Edward Seaga at the instigation of Bob Marley held hands as a gesture of peace. In 1977, 409 persons were killed (Gleaner, April 22). The society was outraged at 409 but today we would be glad to have 409 murders for the year, which would be a massive 60 per cent decline for 2007.

Interventions

In my book Rebellion to Riot, it states that in the 1970s, there were 2,686 murders, in the 1980s, 4,870 and in the 1990s, 8,186. This decade is not finished and we have passed the figures for the decade of the 1990s. How long will we have to suffer while we stand aside and look?

Persons will claim that many inter-ventions have occurred. Billions of dollars have been spent in inner-city areas. The Church, civil society and service clubs have been working hard. However, we need to work smarter and engage in activities that woud lead to a sustainable reduction in the murder rate.

I am aware that the minister of national security promised that murders would decline by 40 per cent this year, and that the deputy commissioner of police with responsibility for crime promised a reduction for 2008, and that a minister of religion prophesied that 2008 would witness a fall in the murder rate. However, the monthly figures suggest otherwise.

The truth is the society has got callous about these murders, possibly because it is mainly persons who are financially poor who are being killed. The Emancipation Park Accord and the establishment of the Gun Court were reactions to the killings of prominent persons.

Be our brothers' keepers

Let us be our brothers' keepers and do something for all Jamaicans. On Sunday, my church members told me of about five killings that happened in two different areas. These might not make the news but there are people, including children, whose existence is on a knife edge. Therefore, let us engage in radical sustainable initiatives that go to the heart of the problem.

Let us support the police by granting them access to the fingerprinting data base.

Just as how the local police were given a free hand to use Operation Kingfish to tackle the drug trade, a similar initiative is needed to tackle the murder rate. However, politicians still control the police and the police are still fearful of politicians. The police have information about who are involved in the gun trade and facilitating it. However, how come we never see any politician being charged? How come these poor communities are armed to the teeth?

The nexus between politics and gunmen and drugs needs to be cut. Pastors, police, people in the media and youths on the corners have information about politicians and the gun and drug trade. During the last elections there was a documentary on the link between Jamaican politicians and guns.

The prime way of cleaning up politics and its links to the underworld is to have the political parties declare the sums and sources of money they receive.

Politicians and gunmen

It is amazing and commendable that Red Stripe could cut links with Sumfest because of the utterances from our artistes, but our private sector continues to fund political parties and politicians with links with gunmen and drug men.

The day we adopt those measures, the murder rate will drop significantly. Otherwise, in 30 years' time, we will look back at 2008 as the good old days and nothing would have changed for the better.