Ian Boyne, Contributor
I can't count the number of times we have been in national emergency mode as a result of a spike in murders, or the times when there have been loud, anguished calls for the Government to "do something" about the escalating crime; or the number of national broadcasts made on security and the number of crime plans launched.
Every time the Government is pressed by the media for some indication that it is ready to 'get rough with crime', the Government responds in an equally sombre tone about some new initiative or thrust. And then things cool off a little, which for us means that fewer than 22 are killed in a weekend.
We keep lowering the normality bar. A few people killed a day is not alarming - that's par for the Jamaican course - but when gang warfare breaks out in several communities, well, we have to get on to that. Will we ever be able to tame the crime beast? Can we even hope anymore?
National consensus
And yet, there is no other area of national life on which we have so much information - good information - and so much consensus as to what is really needed.
I have read a number of the crime reports done over the years and they are excellent. The work done by our university lecturers on crime and its causes in Jamaica is first-rate. People like Anthony Harriott, Barry Chevannes, Bernard Headley, and Herbert Gayle have done solid work. Horace Levy admirably combines scholarship with activism.
Besides, the place where you have perhaps the greatest storehouse of information is on Duke Street, where the members of Parliament for the various garrison communities sit. They know the 'runnings'!
Real challenges
We are not short on knowledge and we have no reason to be bewildered. But there are real challenges to our solving our crime problem because it is multi-pronged and will take a level of resources and focus that no government has managed to muster so far.
We need no new commission on crime, no new crime study or crime plan. The former government had done a lot of good work in terms of preparing the ground for a really serious assault on crime. In terms of a strategic approach and direction, the former People's National Party (PNP) government has to be strongly commended.
In good stead
Its hot-spots policing strategy is on target (glad to see the acting security minister utilising it in this crisis), and so was its strategy of targeting gangs and working to stop the inflow of arms into the island. The former government's justice reform programme and emphasis on social intervention have stood us in good stead. But, in my view, if the former government had adopted some of the key proposals from the MacMillan crime report, officially titled 'A Road Map to a Safe and Secure Jamaica', we would have been further down the road to treating this crime monster.
I praised this report highly when it appeared in 2006, and going back over it again has only reinforced my view that it makes some conceptual breakthroughs which makes it unique among crime reports in Jamaica.
Worthy recommendations
There are two recommendations which, by themselves, are worth the entire effort. The proposal for an executive agency established under the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) "with cross-cutting authority" that would "bring the various actors inside and outside government together for collaborative action and to mobilise resources both locally and internationally" is supremely important and, structurally, would make a world of difference. As the report puts it, "coordination of the various agencies is a necessary condition for successful results. The OPM is the best authority to ensure this".
The report, dubbed by some, the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) crime report because it was commissioned by then Opposition leader Bruce Golding, also recommends a national council for community transformation, which would coordinate efforts toward addressing "the vexing economic and special problems that give rise to crime and violence, reconstruct the fractured relationship between government and civil society and strengthen capacity toward meeting the United Nations Millennium Development goals".
Special focus areas
The report calls for special focus to be given to the eight political constituencies identified in the political tribalism report as garrisons and which account for high percentage of crime in Jamaica. We would now add some communities in Clarendon and Montego Bay.
The report places strong emphasis on the need for social intervention and, interestingly, fingers the problem of inequality. The MacMillan report rightly points out - as is stressed by all the reports - that a narrow security focus in dealing with crime is bound to fail.
Lack of resources
The report notes that while governments have seen the importance of social intervention, "resources have typically not been made available for the implementation phase. This is especially telling in areas of social interventions where relevant government agencies have tight budgets tied to work programmes".
Significantly, a part of the thrust of the National Council on Transformation would be to "mobilise state and international resources, philanthropy and volunteerism" to get the resources to fund the social intervention programmes. Excellent idea.
Despite our strong consensus on the need for social intervention programmes - thank God we are agreed on that - the harsh reality is that the Government simply does not have enough resources to make the inner cities into winner cities.
It is not that the PNP Government was wicked why they did not do it, and it is not that this administration is not committed to poor people why more social programmes have not been announced. The PNP Government, as the present JLP Government, was faced with certain objective constraints imposed by external factors.
I used to warn people not to politicise the issue of crime or the economy for whoever is sitting in Jamaica House is powerless in the face of market globalisation. (We have only a little wiggle room for manoeuvre.) We have to start educating our people about these realities rather than inflating their expectations with foolish political propaganda and messianism.
Little money, time
Let's get it in our heads; we simply don't have the money to do all the things which are necessary to rescue our youths from the clutches of crime. Besides, social intervention programmes take time to work. We have a crisis on our hands and there are things which we have to do this hour, not next year.
This is where policing strategy comes in, and here the society is bitterly divided. We have no consensus here. My position has been clear over the years; some hard policing is needed. Gunmen and terrorists have to fear the security forces.
The hands of the police can't be tied behind them while criminals are free to roam the streets with their high-power weapons killing one-year-old babies, 85-year-old grannies and people coming from church.
Telling the police to recite beatitudes and to pass out T-shirts and Bibles to hard-hearted criminals and terrorists are suicidal for a society. The police need to know that in any encounter with dog-heart criminals bent on killing them, that they have our support in defending their lives. Have the investigations and let the law take its course, but we must give critical support to our police force.
In his excellent and revealing paper, 'Justifiable Homicide: Explaining the Bad Blood Between Garrison Youth and the Police', delivered at a recent UWI symposium on garrisons, Dr Herbert Gayle deftly highlights the problems with hard policing in the garrisons.
Worsening relations
He ends by warning that "the data clearly show that raids, overnighters and extra-judicial killings worsen police-community relations and provide an excuse for garrison youths to store an arsenal of weapons to use against the police".
But when those 'youths' are terrorising people, some way has to be found to lock off their activities, even for a while. That can't be done, in those circumstances, by community policing. I suggest that with all the social intervention programmes, all the values education in the world, all the re-socialisation, there will be an element in this society which has to be dealt with by hard-policing methods. The people who suffer under the hands of these persons whom Mark Wignall once called "animals" will tell you that.
More than policing needed
I agree that policing alone can't solve our crime problems. Shooting down ghetto youths is certainly not the answer, and the police assuming the roles of judge, jury and executioner reduces all of us to barbarism. But they have to be allowed to go after the criminals with force and determination. If the dog-heart shottas start seeing the police as cowards, then, mark my words, 'dog nyam we supper'!
No one has written more about the importance of values and attitudes and resocialisation than I have. No one believes more in the capacity of inner-city people - even hardened criminals - to experience transformation than this preacher. I know the importance of social action, social legislation and economic empowerment of the masses. All I am saying is, don't go to the extreme of neglecting the need for hard policing.
Consult JLP manifesto
Another matter, which needs urgent attention, is the de-garrisonisation of our communities. In this regard, Bruce Golding and the JLP have made the most meaningful recommendations. Indeed, I urge the Government to consult the JLP Manifesto for some excellent ideas on tackling crime and violence!
"The political ombudsman will be required to monitor the conduct and activities of political representatives, especially in garrison constituencies, and report to Parliament. He will also be entitled to refer the matter the director of public prosecutions." This must be done now.
"Any report made to Parliament by the political ombudsman which reflects negatively on the conduct of any elected member might constitute grounds for impeachment or removal from office." Contractors with criminal convictions will get no government work. The country is ready for this. We, indeed, know what to do. Just do it!
Ian Boyne is a veteran journalist who may be reached at ianboyne1@yahoo.com.
