Blackout4peace is the hash tag and message that the Police Youth Club National Council hopes Jamaican social media users, particularly the youth, will broadcast during a social media protest against crime and violence planned for later this month.

The four-day event will commence on September 25, but the co-ordinators hope the message will continue to spread even after the last day.

“What we are asking is for persons to put their social media icons in black and upload a video or message on our social media page speaking out against crime and violence,” said Andrea Hurst, one of the assistant island co-ordinators for youth police clubs.

The video upload should be between five and seven seconds long and users should include their name as well as indicate their support for blackout for peace. People are also encouraged to wear black for the four days of the protest.

In addition, social media users are being asked to use the pictorial images posted by the youth club’s Facebook page, Police Youth Club Headquarters, as well as through their Twitter accounts by using the Twitter handle @natpycc. A chat room will also be set up on the Facebook page that will facilitate discussions on different topics throughout the four days.

The idea was spearheaded by the national council that helps to guide police clubs islandwide and that is currently being facilitated by the police Community Safety and Security Branch’s Youth Club Department.

“We originally had planned to support the five girls that were raped in St James,” said another assistant police youth club co-ordinator, Christopher Charley.

He said the idea was conceived from a police youth club national summer camp held in July at Dinthill Technical High School.

He said the camp participants formed a WhatsApp group and one evening the females in the group got upset about the state of crime in the country and said they wanted a way to fight back.

“One of them came up with the idea of doing the protest, so we were wondering, do we go to the minister’s office, do we go to the courts, and so somebody came up with the idea of using social media,” Charley said.

He said he went to his boss and the officer who runs the Centre for the Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse (CISOCA), Enid Ross-Stewart, as well as Karena Powell-Hood from the Community Safety and Security Branch, with the idea to do the protest with focus on the five girls who were raped.

However, Ross-Stewart told him that the possibility exists that the girls may still be in their recovery process and so she didn’t want to bring any unwanted attention to them at the time.

Charley explained that Ross-Stewart redirected the focus of the protest by highlighting that while rape was an act of violence, there are crimes that were being committed that fall under the whole aspect of violence and so they should instead focus on violence on a whole.

“If we were to head to Half-Way-Tree square to protest against violence in general, if TVJ or CVM do not come and capture those images, the protest would have only been seen by people in the vicinity or those who happened to pass through at the time,” Charley said.

He added that if you ask people to go out and protest on the streets the response will be “no, mi cyaah manage the sun”, or other negative responses. On the other hand, he pointed out that if one were to ask someone to change their WhatsApp or Facebook picture they would be more inclined to lend their support.

Charley told the Jamaica Observer that the youth club members are also asking people to engage in social activities aimed at peace keeping and community building, such as cookouts and playing football or dominoes during the four days.

“The Eltham Police Youth Club in St Ann will be hosting a fun day on the 26th of this month. Our fun day generally consists of sport day activities and we will be using this as a basis for supporting the initiatives, especially in regard to social engagement,” Charley concluded.

The Police Youth Club National Council hopes to see around 10,000 people participating in the four-day social media protest.