Dr Orville Taylor, Contributor
It might have been my imagination, but the starter at the national schools athletics championships yesterday had a less powerful gun than at the Gibson relays. After all, he was discharging his firearm with regularity in the presence of children and recently, a policeman had inadvertently shot a toddler in March Pen, Spanish Town, setting off fireworks.
There was what appears to be a knee-jerk reaction and the news came that the M16 assault rifles would be replaced as standard issue. Actually, the jerking was a little higher, because the information was hardly known to anyone within the rank and file.
After 28 years of usage, 10 more years than the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) was in the wilderness, the 'sixpence' or 'John' will become displaced by the less potent MP5. Compared to the '16' it is smaller, lighter and fires fewer bullets in a burst. It has an effective killing range of some 75 metres; one seventh that of the 550 metres of the M16. With a more moderate warhead, when it hits the human body, it is more likely to enter and remain, injuring or killing the intended target. In contrast, the '16' can rip through one person and easily kill at least another or even two more, depending on the proximity of the shooting.
Again, another 'above the knee-jerk' reaction speaks about the psychological advantage that the criminals will have, since they have become more armed since 1980, when the '16' was introduced. Indeed, the first set of M16s found in Jamaica was used by political gangs. More recently, the Russian-originated Kafelnikov, popularly called the AK-47, has become the weapon of choice to put over the wall. Public perception, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, is that the police will be outgunned.
Substitutes for self-esteem
Interestingly, speaking of psychology, Freudian psychological research has shown that guns and hyped-up motor vehicles are often substitutes for the male sex organ by men who are less endowed or who have self-perceived inadequacies. Thus, men with low self-esteem but big guns are extremely dangerous.
There is some merit here, because most of the young men who use firearms in committing robbery, wounding and homicide, are persons who either are too young to have learnt the craft of penile dexterity, or are simply sexually immature. Furthermore, no real man can bleach his face, shave his eyebrows and dance like a go-go dancer. More so, it is impossible for a man with a normal phallus and gonads to fit into those skin-fitting nutcracker jeans called 'spangies'. Given the trend of violence where the average murderer seems to be getting younger and the guns getting bigger, it is expected that the gap between the firepower of the gangsters and the police will widen.
Any policeman or woman, in the country where more than 20 were killed by mostly little boys and youths over the past 15 months, would be more than concerned with having what might be seen as 'pie-pie' guns, when the boys have cannons. It is, therefore, of primary importance that this perception of ballistic impotence not become reality.
In his usual forthright military style, Police Commissioner Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin declared that the M16, an assault rifle used in the failed Vietnam War, is too powerful for regular policing and the risk of "collateral damage" was too great. The question is: What causes the collateral damage? Is it the calibre of the rifles, or the capability of the officers? Unlike the military, where all soldiers, including the chief of staff, have to pass annual firearm competence examinations and basic fitness tests (BFT), our cops are not as rigorously pressured.
His initiative in including martial arts training for 10 officers is surprising, because all police personnel, as in the army, ought to be able to do basic hand-to-hand combat. Anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of martial arts knows that in close quarters, if an attacker has an M16 but it is not pointed on you, then disarming him or avoiding being shot is a relatively easy prospect.
Actual proximity
Nevertheless, in evaluating the impact of the less powerful weapon, it should be noted that most shoot-outs take place well within the range of the MP5. The majority of gun murders are perpetrated within a few metres and, in fact, the killers usually have the rifles pressed on the bodies of the victims. Similarly, a large percentage of police shootings take place in circumstances where it is alleged that the persons, whose surnames are 'pronounced dead', were only a few inches away.
Still, the most damage that is potentially done by the substitution of the MP5 is that the information about its introduction was not timely. Many members of the force complain that they only heard of it through the media and the Jamaica Police Federation is also underinformed regarding this. Yet, it will begin in a month. Assistant Commissioner Paul Robinson, who is responsible for the Firearms Task Force, had nothing to do with its choice as it was on the books before his tenure began. Why then wasn't the information disseminated?
Against the background of the commissioner's correct declaration that the force is contaminated with crooks - the former coastguard should realise that the constipation within the channels of communication in the force puts him in a deeper ship.
Despite their paramilitary uniforms and organisation, police personnel are civilians. They need to be motivated and treated as persons first and soldiers after.
The commissioner is a good man who means well. However, unless the rank and file feel that he counts them, he will Hardley make a difference.
Dr Orville Taylor is senior lecturer in the Department of Sociology, Psychology and Social Work at UWI, Mona.
