Recently , too recently in fact, I was on a murder scene in a squatter settlement in southern St Catherine. It was the murder of a 70-year-old man, killed by cowards to send a message to idiots.

During the securing of the crime scene there was the usual wailing and crying by those left behind who, unfortunately, cannot turn back the clock.

It was not significantly different from any other of the hundreds I have secured, but something happened. A child, about two years old, came to me, patted me on my leg, as that was as high as he could reach, and asked: “Weh mi grandfather deh?”

His grandfather, the victim, had been removed by those who fought to save his life, but failed in their endeavour.

I answered the child by saying: “Him soon come back.”

I did not quite know what else to say. As the hours passed this child came to me and did the same thing and I answered the same question over a hundred times.

I have never got used to murder scenes. The misery and waste are always toxic to me.

This child, however, represented something different. If he, at two years old, was so disturbed by the incident, can you imagine the other 10 kids in the yard?

They are all the victim’s grandchildren.

What seed of hate has been planted in their minds? How many will die over this incident and over how many years?

A little-known fact is that most turf conflicts have been going on for so long that most have forgotten the incident that started them. Many conflicts are never fully resolved, they just go on and on until so many have died that forgiveness becomes impossible.

This incident is no different from the thousands that have occurred before and the thousands yet to occur. They all guarantee one thing — reprisals!

The cycle of killing is stimulated to a massive degree by reprisals. Reprisals are caused not just by a particular violent incident, but by the hate created by that incident.

The greatest hurdle created by the need to react, to respond, to even the score is that it is human. It transcends class, education, even religion.

There is a historic precedent to hate and the incredible danger of it. Let us discuss.

The Rwandan Tutsi genocide of 1994 is one that immediately comes to mind when one thinks of a hate-driven, senseless murder event that has occurred in more recent years. However, this was the third Tutsi genocide. There was one in 1959 and another one in 1962 leading up to Rwanda’s independence from Belgium. Those uprisings resulted in 35,000 and 20,000 Tutsis killed, respectively. Neither compared, however, to the 800,000-death toll in 1994. But what started it?

The seeds of this hate began with the treatment of Hutus by the European governments that ruled Rwanda leading up to its independence. The Tutsi were the preferred group and thus identified as collaborators with the oppressors. The violation and suppression of human rights were in keeping with the times and with the normal conduct of European powers in general.

In essence, the Tutsis of the 1990s were being blamed for what had occurred generations before.

In our own recent history, we have had political carnage, most notably between 1974 and 1980. We think we have got past it, but have we really?

The street gang turfs have just replaced the political gang turfs. The lines of demarcation are identical, with the only difference being their names and the fact that they are fighting their own wars.

They, and not politicians, determine when these wars start and end and the political representative are largely impotent in the entire process. There have been scientific studies that can predict how many homicides will occur by the end of a year, as early as April of that year. This is not because of clairvoyance, it’s because of reprisals.

The literal domino effect of one murder leads to two more. The more brutal the conflict, the more likely the reprisal and the more innocent the victims, the deeper the hate.

Now, I have described one murder and the children who will definitely hate, maybe kill, because of it. There were 1,400 like them in last year alone. Every murder cuts deep, every murder creates hate.

The harsh reality of the above is that with the desire to kill being so widespread and the motive so acute, it is virtually impossible to prevent the reprisals. They live a few dozen yards apart, often in waste lands.

Love it, like it, or dislike, we do not have the size police force to put police in bushes between neighbours as a preventative measure for murder. In fact, not even the New York Police Department (NYPD) does. Believe it. They could not do it in the jurisdiction they police with a police officer to citizen ratio of about one to 188, let alone with Jamaica’s ratio of about of one to 212.

There is precedent in other environments where hate has been managed. Why? Because hate is the reason for the killing.

This may seem an unlikely example, but it is no accident that there has not really been a major thrust by American blacks against whites. It is understandable that it did not occur in the era that followed emancipation because of the civil war and then the imbalance of arms in the southern part of the United States.

However, in the civil rights movement and the era that followed it, the possession of firearms became far more equal. The black population grew and the culture of resistance with it. Yet, we have never had a true offensive launched. This is because there were people like Dr Martin Luther King Jr, who literally “managed the hate”. After his assassination, there were others, like Jesse Jackson, who did the same.

It is possible, but often we treat the symptoms rather than the disease. Every murder, even a crime of passion, starts with hate. They are simply being called different names.

To be frank though, I am somewhat stumped as to what can be done to stop the reprisals for the killings that are happening now. No amount of management could change my feelings towards a group or gang that harmed any loved one of mine

I feel it is doubtful that anyone can convince that two-year-old and his older brothers to not desire revenge. This hate will transcend generations. The reprisal domino will also.

Feedback: drjasonamckay@gmail.com