THE United States of America’s (USA) Homeland Security Act came about after the attack on the World Trade Center. It was the response to an absolute failure of that nation’s national securities intelligence network.

The Act was the response to the most brutal single attack on a nation not in a declared war. It was, however, the response that was ‘required’ after such a challenge to the national security of the nation.

This Act gave US law enforcement the power to detain without charge, their military the right to breach borders, and removed the right to identify accusers. You could redact as it was deemed prudent to protect national security. This Act was created because it was necessary.

Now, the USA has a bad record as it relates to intelligence failures. They missed the signs leading up to the bombing of Pearl Harbour; 9/11; and recently, the invasion of the Capitol. But they respond every time by doing what is ‘required’.

After Pearl Harbour they fought a war and won it. When it was ‘required’ to drop the atomic bomb to save millions of lives that would have been lost in an invasion of Japan, they did it.

When the crack wars of the nineties got out of control, they created long sentences that imprisoned a generation.

So the creation of the Homeland Security Act was another step in responding to an incredible threat that ‘required’ a drastic response. Now, they have been harshly criticised for their responses to these threats, for largely doing what is necessary for the greater good. But the carnage of 9/11 could never have been allowed to happen again. The invasion of Japan would have come at the expense of at least four million lives. The crack wars were reducing cities to battlegrounds. So what was ‘required’ was done! “Who waan chat, mek dem chat.” This is leadership, not a popularity contest.

Here in Jamaica, we are working our way back to the disaster statistics of 2009 and 2017, and I daresay we will be at 2000 murders per year within 10 years. This will happen unless ‘required’ action is taken by our leadership.

What action? We need to imprison a generation of gangs who have become a militia.

We will need an internment Act to do so. We may need a draft to combat their response.

The leader who does this will be vilified by the Opposition, the criminal rights activists, and likely, our allies. This is how it is. You have to love your people more than your legacy. But, history will absolve that leader.

Michael Manley was demonised when he introduced the needed social change. So too was Edward Seaga when he ended ‘freeness’ as a cultural norm. But we respect and realise their contributions now.

If you doubt the crisis your country faces then watch the Peace View video with a dozen dunces all armed with guns descending on a rival, whilst a child dances between gunshots.

You may say our legal system should get them, as it stands. Well, it cannot. That is just the reality. So wishing a problem did not exist is not going to solve it.

There is nothing that the security apparatus of this country can do to defeat these monsters because of the size of our armed forces and the limitations of our laws.

Constitutional change, massive detention facilities, a militarisation of Jamaica’s citizenry are all required to stop this once and for all. Imprison this generation of criminals like the Americans did the crack dealers of the nineties and we may one day cease to be the sore of the Caribbean.

This situation is also not going to change irrespective of the change of persons who run the show. They are not at fault. Rudy Giuliani, General Patton, or Abraham Lincoln could not defeat this monster with these laws and the absence of an occupational force. So blaming ministers and commissioners is ridiculous.

We can start fixing this by imposing a national state of emergency now – this time, removing the ridiculously high standard required to remand the killers. Therefore we will need temporary detention facilities to be created to hold the gangsters.

Then, we remove the policy of sentence reduction that is now mandated. Remove bail for gun offences and start to posture like a country at war.

These are not misled young men. They are killers being funded by an extortion racket paid by vendors and taxi men, among others sources. They are ruthless, brutal, and growing. Their defeat is what matters to me more than any other national consideration.

I see leaders who are capable of doing it. Dr Horace Chang, Fitz Jackson, Robert Montague – all have the character to make decisions that show they love their country more than their reputation. But this will require more than a minister of national security to make these changes.

It will require a prime minister who controls his party and, by extension, his Parliament. The required action could end his career and likely the one who replaces him.

The time for our leaders to show us that they are willing to sacrifice immediate adulation for historic adoration is needed, but the question is when, because it will come at the expense of our international standing. Our ability to get handouts will vanish and likely it will become difficult to buy arms and ammunition.

Our grandchildren will remember the leader who defeats the gangs, as we remember the leaders, though rife with fault, who ended the oligopoly and later the culture of freeness.

The ironic reality is that the one who ends this war in the long run will be as adored as the ones who started it.