From all indications, the parish of St James is all set to have another record-breaking year of murders. Last year, some 230 people were killed, most of them by the gun. In 2008, it was about 215. So far this year, some 20 individuals have bitten the dust – again most of them victims of hostile gunfire. At this rate, the parish may well have another record-breaking year!

Notwithstanding the tireless efforts by the police, the carnage continues unabated. There has been much talk but very little action from officialdom. Regrettably, this writer will continue to hold the view that as long as the government perceives that homicides will not infiltrate the sensitive tourist trade, then all is well. Let the “niggers” kill off one another, who cares? After all, there will be fewer of these miscreants to deal with at the end of the day.

But just let one foreign visitor (God forbid) get seriously wounded or killed and the full backing and intervention of the government will be applied with quick and decisive action. Indeed, Prime Minister Bruce Golding and his assorted entourage, including the commissioner of police, would descend on the city with a vengeance! Remember the Fray hijacking incident?

I make no apology for writing in this fashion because I am frankly an angry Montegonian as a result of the gross lack of attention that is being shown to what has been dubbed the tourist capital of Jamaica with respect to the crime problem. In that capacity, seeing that tourism is the country’s major earner of foreign exchange at this time, then it follows that every effort should be made to protect the goose that lays the golden egg. Am I to believe that government has chosen to behave like that foolish owner of the goose who just kept collecting the golden eggs but never thought about taking care of the “producer”? But one of these days the goose may just not be able to churn out golden egg after golden egg.

Of course, every time the homicide rate goes up, ironically one of the first casualties is usually the police officer who is in charge of crime. News just in is that Superintendent Maurice Robinson who is in charge of crime in St James is to be transferred and replaced. This particular knee-jerk response appears to be the only anticipated response from the police high command as if to suggest that one man can effectively deal with this deleterious cancer. I find this action impractical as well as most denigrating as indirectly the message being sent to the wider public is that the particular officer has fallen down on the job.

Many of us are tired of this “musical chairs scenario” which in the final analysis serves no useful purpose. In any event, these officers are often given “basket to carry water”. This kind of shallow approach to crime solving must be stopped and one can only hope that the new, seemingly no-nonsense Commissioner of Police Owen Ellington as well as the loquacious National Security Minister Senator Dwight Nelson will revisit this vexing and perplexing issue of police transfers. To what end? And who really benefits? Certainly not the affected community in most cases!

Once again, this writer is calling on Prime Minister Bruce Golding and National Security Minister Senator Dwight Nelson to revisit the St James situation in a bid to implementing some major interventions. Interestingly, there is a crime plan that was done under the aegis of the St James Parish Development Committee, led by well-known developer Mark Kerr-Jarrett, and which was presented to that ministry. But to date, as far as I am aware, there has been no meaningful response. What a shame! Persons of goodwill and a fierce commitment to creating a better way of life for their respective communities give of their time and money towards a plan of action only to discover in short order that the plan is placed in File 13 indefinitely. What a shame!

It is an indictment of the Golding administration that it has three out of four members of parliament in St James – Deputy Leader and Minister of Water and Housing Dr Horace Chang; Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett, and former Minister of Energy and Telecommunications Clive Mullings – as well as control of the majority of seats in the St James Parish Council led by a well-intentioned Chairman and Mayor, Councillor Charles Sinclair, yet St James is in such a sorry state. Then there is the “western Cabinet” comprising such Jamaica Labour Party stalwarts and insiders as Chairman of the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF) and a director of the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) Godfrey Dyer and close confidant of Prime Minister Golding as well as Chairman of the Tourism Product Development Company (TPDCo) and member of the Urban Development Corporation (UDC), the all-powerful Robert Russell. What gives, gentlemen?

I know I will get little or no kudos for this my latest verbal foray on behalf of my beloved city and parish, but I believe in calling a spade a spade. Just yesterday morning after dropping my kids at school, I was crossing an intersection when a little schoolboy who could be no more than five years old ventured into the middle of the roadway and pointed at me in a menacing fashion with his fist taking on the appurtenance of a gun. He was doing so playfully which means that he has been overexposed to such an action. Some time ago, I was addressing a group of sixth-grade boys at a prominent primary school in the parish and when I asked them what they all wanted to be when they grow up, one youngster proudly put up his hand and declared, “Sir, I want to be a gunman!”

I keep repeating these stories because it has to be reinforced that curbing the crime problem is not just a job for the police. It must involve all of us. Yes, the Golding administration has inherited much of this after 18 years of failed PNP policies or the lack thereof, but the blame game must stop and a great coming together must ensue. However, for this to happen, a proactive, visionary, bold and innovative leadership must emerge.

St James needs help pronto and I am calling on the relevant authorities to act now with alacrity and do the right thing. Enough is enough!

lloydbsmith@hotmail.com