Orville Taylor"Boom bye bye!" Don't panic! That is the sound that police and other members of the security forces have to deal with daily. "Bloody Hell!" shout the Brits, as they got stuck in a crack on the prime minister's recent interview. That is an accurate description of the spate of murders in recent days.
While our Labour prime minister was visiting the 'mother country', which is also headed by a Labour party, two policemen, labouring in the sun on Labour Day were cut down here.
We all felt 'outrage', and not the sort Peter Tatchell, the hetereophobe heads. All and sundry began once more to clamour for the death penalty, because it seems as if violent crime is running out of control. Since the new millennium, we have been averaging close to 1,300 homicides annually and since Driver took control of the bus, it has not stopped at all. In fact, in just over the eight months since the new Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) government has taken over, around 1,100 Jamaicans have been slaughtered like cattle.
These data are even more frightening because of the cold-blooded and barefaced approach of the perpetrators. Life imitates art and the late crackhead entertainer, Baby Wayne, predicted the emergence of these icy-veined villains. More than a decade ago, he warned that wicked men, "nah spare nobody life; dem wi murder you mumma wid a big kitchen knife ... " These criminals are apt to, "murder di big bull weh deh ina di pen, murder the she-goat, murder the hen ... ina di housing scheme not even a puppy nah breathe." They are fearless; killing a bus driver at the gate of the Central Police Station and killing scores of persons in central Kingston, including a daylight murder almost in the presence of the police in Allman Town last week.
SECURITY FORCES NOT EXEMPT
Our security forces have not been exempt either, as some 15 policemen and one soldier have perished at the hands of criminals since September. For the record, the period from September to December 2008 was the bloodiest quarter for the cops in our history, as 10 members of the constabulary were murdered. If we are to use the same paradigm espoused by the human- and gay-rights activists, then there is little doubt that this is a 'policeophobic' country.
Add to that the anti-informer songs, the anti-police lyrics and the glorification of violence against them, and being a cop here in Jamrock is much, much more perilous than being gay.
Turning his back on that issue, while focusing on the priorities of his organisation, Corporal Raymond Wilson, chairman of the Jamaica Police Federation, has called for stiff and swift punishment for criminals. Reflecting the majority opinion of Jamaicans, he has demanded the reactivation of the death penalty. Of course, this puts us in direct conflict with the European Union (EU), Amnesty International and our own Jamaicans For Justice (JFJ).
Indeed, any country that seeks to have improved relations with the EU cannot actively utilise that sanction even for the most heinous of crimes, such as those being perpetrated by a callous and heartless set of young men in this beautiful land of wood and water. Moreover, the EU uses the withdrawal or reduction of economic and other forms of assistance against nations that execute its convicts.
Despite the overwhelming evidence that the death penalty is not a deterrent, it takes no nuclear science to know that an executed murderer cannot escape and kill again. More importantly, kingpins can direct hundreds of murders from their cells, but they cannot give even a minor order from their crypt or grave. One clearly understands the frustration of the lawmen and women who are in the firing line and their temptation to take the law in their own hands. And, indeed, some of them do. Let's not be hypocritical about it, just as in Star Wars, the 'Force' has evil elements as well.
police murders
This brings us to another issue in the prime minister's interview, the unanswered allegations regarding police murders. There are too many clashes and alternate versions regarding police killings for some of them to not be executions. The commissioner, the police, you, 'me' and God know this.
However, as Wilson correctly declared in his too-long address to his delegates, there are seven agencies with responsibility for the investigation of police excesses. Add to these the Independent Jamaica Council for Human Rights, JFJ and the media, and there are dozens of eyes on our police.
It is amazing how the priorities of activists, both local and international, can miss the critical germane issues in a discussion by a head of government from the developing world. Wilson and his colleagues are justifiably livid over the fact that the British interviewer inquired about the more than 400 police 'murders'. The prime minister has apologised for the oversight, but he is not the only one at fault.
The human-rights spokespersons and my media colleagues jumped on the back of the 'brief' remark regarding gays, but totally ignored the fact that our constabulary was being portrayed as a set of murderers out of control who have killed 400 innocents. Nobody sought to point out that in a violent society, we have the highest rate of attacks against police personnel among democracies at peace in the hemisphere. No one observed that of the 276 police killings last year, only around 27 were in circumstances that were deemed warranting investigation or simply put, 'controversial'. That is approximately 10 per cent; clearly not a majority.
Nonetheless, even one is too many and we have to continue to 'weed' out the criminal cops. But let's not demoralise the good ones.
Orville Taylor is senior lecturer in the Department of Sociology, Psychology and Social Work at UWI, Mona. Please send feedback to orville.taylor@uwimona.edu.jm or columns@gleanerjm.com.
