JAMAICA Observer online readers did not mince words in response to yesterday’s frontpage story, ‘Haven for thieves’, which highlighted that pickpockets and chain snatchers are thriving in downtown Kingston. However, a few readers empathised with the mother whose three sons are thieves. Here are some edited comments:

JustCauseMeSaySo

Crying Shame! The look of those two old, hard-looking men, who clearly should be on a path to better behaviour, out there justifying their actions in stating they are only trying to eat a food. Our country is saturated with and being crippled with waste men. Where is the father? Mom say she talk till she sick and tired. Clearly that isn’t working, so what else have you tried? And the streets need to be cleaned of these conspirators acting as vendors, facilitating a criminal atmosphere by overcrowding the streets, making it unsafe for traffic to freely pass through and hindering active foot chase by the lawmen to apprehend these pickpockets. Father of four pick pocketing just a disgraceful waste behaviour that leave neither victim nor the thief with any long-term positive benefit.

Bigandtalawa

I am a Jamaican living abroad and I was in Jamaica for a week, last week, and took the opportunity to go downtown several times, via public transportation, to get some Jamaican products to take back with me, I may live abroad but I am not a fool to how Jamaica, in general, and downtown Kingston, specifically, operate. I took off my gold chain and didn’t wear my gold watch. I have a brand new US$700 Samsung S9 phone and even though I took it with me I never took it out of my pocket except for very brief moments, and my hands were constantly touching my pockets to ensure my phone and wallet are always safe. I also do not go on lonely roads downtown and I also watch my surroundings constantly to ensure that no random guy is sneaking around me or following me. I do this in any crowded area, not just in downtown kingston, even here in America. Just gotta be smart with the thing.

Also, it seems like they are mostly targeting women, so women must take extra precautions like not taking lots of cash and valuables downtown, not even your phones if possible.

Holy Perv

Where is the father of the boys? Too late for that now. Prison or death awaits these young men. I hope they find something constructive to spend their energy on. Govt should get tough with these kids. If you are not working then you must be learning a trade. Idleness is death.

Jim Kelly

There is no such thing as part-time thief, it either thief; or not a thief. What surprises me after reading the article is that the police know who the thieves are, but yet still they are on the street causing mayhem. Numerous dynamics account for such, which include, but not limited to, lapse justice system, human rights advocates, politics, unemployment, also social culture of the have not, uneducated and bad-minded.

Chapter 1

This mother summed up why some folks are not that interested in having stepchildren like in times past. Very scary to be reading that it seems like this mummy dearest devotes a chunk of her earnings fi pay lawyer fee, fi defend, her tiefin’ sons from their tiefin red- yieye ways. No vacancy here for a mother like dat… mek she galang over cane cutter and iceman dem.

kingstonguy

Bad mind, greed, easy life is gonna be the death of some of these young people and Jamaicans on a whole.

jamekya

I avoid that area like the plague.

Mr.J

Experienced the bad luck of almost being robbed in downtown Kingston three years ago for a gold chain. Thanks to a police friend who had to rescue us from those thugs and placed us in a taxi back to where we were staying. Frightening experience which turned to anger for not being able to defend against them.

jamguest

Police have been observing them for eight months and no arrests???

Tom Stroke

Recently I hear some people saying that children should not be whipped to keep them on the “straight and narrow”. I want to say to these people, read this article twice and tell me how just talking work. According to this lady, “Mi tiad fi talk to dem. Mi talk to dem till mi weak. Mi talk to dem till mi sick”. I feel it for her. I am asking: Where is their father? This is a moment where all Jamaican men who are absent from the lives of the children, especially boys, that they father to feel ashamed, for this is the likely result. To those two old “hard back” men picking pocket, shame on you; you are the dregs of society.

Lindel Mc Cormack

Herein lies Jamaican problem: broken homes, a surplus of uneducated and illiterate population, abundance of ignorance with a corrupted political system. This is the template of a failed State and a backward nation.

SingleHonestFemale

Now in this case, the boys should be reported to the police and be held in their custody, processed and then be placed in a probationary programme which offers HEART courses and counselling. The mother is clearly trying, but these young men are clearly very impressionable and are adamant to go down the wrong path. Let them learn a skill so that they can appreciate the value of work and work for themselves instead of their mother having to care them while they are adults because they can’t get any jobs. There are way too many at-risk youth who still have a chance to turn their lives around if only given the opportunity to.

macho loy

I am definitely in sympathy with this victim. However, I have to wonder, don’t these people read and listen to the news? Don’t they have relatives to warn them to stay away from places like these? This is not to say this could not happen elsewhere in Jamaica, but if you go to Luke Lane wearing a gold chain you have a 90 per cent chance of being robbed of it.

I am one of the so-called farina who visit at least every three years, but you would not find me driving below Cross Roads. Not only that, I bring with me no jewellery except my every day watch.

Morro

I read this and asked, why is the mother the one giving out resumé for her 18-year-old son? Too many other issues to address, but these people love the easy life and easy shall their lives be taken.

Raydal2017

Please jamaicans, can we get President Duerte of Philippines to come run this country? I would pay 80 per cent tax to try and get him here for two years. These scums would be lined up and ex.

Blood Haffi Guh Run

I worked in two of Jamaica’s prisons as an educator for six years and the brutal killers and murderers whom I interacted with had a common sentiment… Rapist, car thieves and pick pocket/petty thieves should perish… I’ve always thought that to be interesting.

Anthony Lewis

This is the main reason why the business operators need to buy into the JamaicaEye.

The police would have the footage and can now get these guys locked away.

Also, if the JamaicaEye system is to work as they say, then we could have tracked these guys. Let us try another way to save our young men because you can just bet they have girlfriends and sooner than later baby, and the cycle continues with young men becoming menace to society.

lexylex

Jamaica needs some laws like the Middle East, you steal you lose a hand, or is whipped in the public. You murder you get hanged in public, you rape you get castrated, etc.

seet deh-RN

Town a run red! A nex youth fi ded if him naah do de right ting. Mi use to boast sey mi go town wen mi go a yaad, but mi a go tap eh! Dem youths deh crabbit.

Fun an’ joke aside, can you empathise with the mother? I can because it must be utterly devastating to know that your three young sons are thieves. Prepare fi bury dem yaah, mommy, fah mi granny use to sey “cow naah hear belong to butcher”.

GarveyPeople

Urbanisation is one of the problem. One of, I said. Rent too cheap or non-existent downtown. Jack up the prices and reduce the population of Kingston. Shift the population. Dens fi thieves and black people haters. Too many lawbreakers on the streets. Rule must rule!

Too many politicians, too many government bureaucrat. Too many anti-garvey policies.

It nuh easy, but we not going to give up what our poor, unfortunate ancestors slaved for. Tuff as it is, we haffi fight on and overcome.

PlainTalkMN

Leave the chains and other jewellry at home! Common sense travellers from abroad. I barely wear my cheap silver watch when I visit the island; I just want to blend in with the locals and not stand out and keep your windows rolled up and doors locked while driving.