THE failure of this generation of parents is one major cause of indiscipline in Jamaica, says acting Assistant Commissioner of Police Steve McGregor.

“Ironically, my parents were better parents than I am and they were less accredited and educated. They had customary things they would use to instil proper discipline and teach us to be managers. I remember growing up in Portland and had to feed fowl, catch water and cut wood before mi go a school. and I used to vex, but you know what my grandmother was doing then? She was teaching me to be responsible from an early age. These youngsters don’t get chores to do that will instil discipline and responsibility in them,” he said.

McGregor, who heads the Community Safety and Security Branch (CSSB) of the Jamaica Constabulary Force, further illustrated his point by giving a recollection of an encounter he had with a young man in a St James movie theatre while the National Anthem played.

“Everyone stood up as is customary and I looked beside me and saw the young man seated with his feet up and I said ‘son, why you not standing up?’ You know, he looked on me and said ‘Fi wa?’ It meant nothing to him. The value we place on life now is far different than what it was when we were growing up, and we would be fool to think we are parenting the right way,” he reasoned.

The acting ACP further stated that family systems need to be rebuilt and one critical thing is to lessen the time spent on technology at home.

“Go to a typical ‘this generation’ home and you will find mommy on iPod, daddy might be on laptop or cellphone, and son and daughter on tablet or phone. So, everybody doing their individual thing and you don’t have that togetherness where you play board games like monopoly and scrabble and so on, worse family discussions. Everybody is doing their own individual thing,” he said.

Moreover, McGregor also posited that the interactions that children have on social media platforms have major influences on their deviant behaviours.

“A youngster will boast to you that he has 1,000 friends and it is not the 1,000 friends that we would think. These are all Facebook friends and you’ve never seen them before, but you are communicating with people you don’t know and being influenced by what they put out in that social space. This is different kind of socialisation and it is to our detriment,” he said, adding that it has caused social retardation and abnormalities in the way we relate to each other.

“Children don’t laugh any more; they say LOL or even pronounce the acronym like it’s a word. If they have opposing views to something, they say SMH (shake my head) and even write it in their essays. It is affecting how we relate to each other,” he said.

He maintained that nothing will change what is happening in Jamaica overnight, and suggested that it will take a cultural and revolutionary change to curb behaviours.

He said he remains resolute as head of the CSSB to do his part to see things turn around.

— KIMBERLEY HIBBERT