Who’ll make Jamaicans in South Florida feel safe here?
Over the last few days, my friends in South Florida – Danny and Hall in particular – have been quizzing me about Jamaica’s crime problems.
Although they have also questioned the readiness of the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) to govern, their main bone of contention appears to be the country’s runaway crime rate.
Danny and Hall, now in their early 40s, were born in western Jamaica, but migrated to South Florida more than five years ago. The country’s crime situation was not as worrying to them when they departed.
Now they say they are fearful of returning home for a vacation because of the intolerably high level of crime. While Hall has returned on a few occasions, he chose neither to stay out late at nights nor to venture into crime-prone areas.
Danny, on the other hand, has not been back since he migrated in 2001. He tells me he wants to visit, but is afraid he will be harmed once he arrives. He believes Jamaicans who return home are targeted by hoodlums.
Danny’s fear has been echoed by many Jamaicans who I have come across in South Florida over the past week. And after listening to the various talk shows in South Florida, it is not hard for anyone to get the impression that Jamaica is the murder capital of the world.
The stories that are related to the hosts of their programmes make me believe the country is in a hopeless state. Trying to convince my friends and relatives in the “sunshine state” that the crime situation is not “that bad”, and that it is concentrated in some geographical areas, has proved a Herculean task.
They tell me that apart from listening to the talk shows both in Jamaica (online) and in Florida, they monitor the news online on a daily basis. They are also armed with numerous “hard luck” stories of people claiming to have visited the island in recent months, and who have had some unfortunate experiences – most of them crime related.
Whether the crime problem is grossly exaggerated or not, the fact is that many Jamaicans living in South Florida are afraid to return home because of crime. The government, in my view, must lead the effort to ensure that Jamaicans living in South Florida feel safe enough to return home to the island.
But to do so, it must arrest the runaway crime rate. If this is not achieved quickly, Jamaicans living abroad will remain reluctant to return to the land of their birth. Meanwhile, a 20 per cent reduction in major crimes last year will not appease those Jamaicans. A drastic reduction is what is needed.
