The fundamental dilemma is this: How do we reconcile liberty with security in [Jamaica], this new world? Let me say, something to you, I don’t want to live in a police State, or a Big Brother society, or put any of our essential freedoms in jeopardy. But because our idea of liberty is not keeping pace with change in reality, these freedoms are in jeopardy. When a crime goes unpunished that is a breach of the victim’s liberty and human rights. When you have organised crime gangs free to practise their evil, countless young people have their liberty, often their lives damaged. And when antisocial behaviour goes unchecked each and every member of the community in which it happens has their human rights broken… We can only protect liberty by making it relevant to the modern world.

— excerpt from Prime Minister Tony Blair’s farewell address to the British Labour Party Annual Conference, September 2006

Tony Blair might well have been talking about Jamaica. How do we reconcile liberty with security? Some among us say, not an inch of my liberty must be limited. But, is this possible given our realities?

Our dilemma

Jamaica is one of the most violent countries in the world. In 2017 Jamaica’s homicide rate was 56 per 100,000. In 2018 the homicide rate dropped to 47 per 100,000; then it was three times higher than the average for Latin America and the Caribbean. In 2019 our murder rate was 47.4 per 100,000; and, in 2020, 46.5 per 100,000 — the region’s highest homicide rate. And last year there were approximately 49.4 murders per 100,000 inhabitants in this country. Jamaica has had one of the highest murder rates in the world for nearly 35 years.

In 2005 our murder rate was 64 per 100,000 — the highest in the world. We have had over a 1,000 murders every year since 2004.

So what can we do to stem the spread of this cancer? Should we simply sit and twiddle our thumbs and hope that the tumor goes into remission or is miraculously cured? Some among us who live in a bubble and/or are otherwise well protected seem to believe both. They are opposed to states of emergency (SOEs). They are opposed to the revision of the Bail Act. They are opposed to mandatory sentences. They are opposed to the death penalty. Indeed, they are opposed to nearly any and every legislation to stem the supremely abnormal murder rate in our country, and are, simultaneously, silent at the slaughter of law-abiding citizens.

What is the end game of those who foolishly believe that they can preserve their liberty by pretending the realities of today’s Jamaica do not exist?

Recently Prime Minister Andrew Holness announced that a national compulsory programme is to be introduced to rescue at-risk youth and strengthen the Jamaica National Service Corps. Immediately some took to social media to denounce the announcement.

Some peddled reasons that ranged from flimsy to the ridiculous. They evidently did not invest even a smidgen of cranial and or related energies to this reality: “[T]he perpetrators of crime in Jamaica, by and large, are young men 16 to 24 years old and that equally, the victims of crime are from the same age group. This demography of society, [Holness] noted, has reached emergency status for which new legislative measures are needed.” (The Gleaner, April 12, 2022)

Some among us seem to want our country to carry a coffin on her back in perpetuity. Are some among us happy with Jamaica being ignominiously lodged in the category of a murder capital of the world for the last 35 years? It is that some are so heavily invested in the crime ecosystem they cannot but lobby against any and every measure that will protect law-abiding citizens?

It is that some among us are quite happy to see young men, less often young women, sitting ‘on the corner kneading out their hand middle’?

A former commissioner of police once told this country that it seemed as if there was a switch where you can turn crime on or off, and the switch needed to be discovered. I believe him. Some among us seem very afraid that liberating measures might hinder their access to controlling that switch. They seem to want an uninterrupted assembly line, operating 24/7 churning out countless recruits for a crime industry which is costing this country billions of dollars. I don’t believe minimum wage earners are the ones pulling the strings which control/facilitate crime and violence in Jamaica.

Stark realities

I agree with Tony Blair that, “When a crime goes unpunished that is a breach of the victim’s liberty and human rights.” Just last week a policeman — from all accounts a very good policeman — was brutally murdered in Westmoreland.

Last Saturday, Nationwide News Network reported that: “A policeman, Constable Richard Barrett, was shot and killed in Westmoreland, last night. Constable Barrett was attacked at his bar in Chantilly in the parish. He was ambushed by gunmen. The policeman’s licensed firearm was found in his hand after the gunmen fled.”

I have not heard a word of condemnation from any civil society groups. Why? But, “on rapid”, as we say in local parlance, they are quick to churn out formulaic denunciation when vicious criminals who prey on innocent citizens are killed.

I don’t for one second approve of the unlawful killing of any citizen, but I cannot help but wonder why some among us who preach that they defend the liberty of all citizens, are outraged only when criminals are killed by agents of the State. Something stinks!

This brings me to the subject of capital punishment, which resurfaced in the public space again recently. I am a supporter of capital punishment for instances in which premeditated murder is proved.

I believe criminals must reap what they sow. The bleeding heart liberals who strenuously lobby for the mollycoddling of convicted monsters who rape, rob, pillage, and destroy individual and sometimes whole families, often plunging them in a deep hole of generational poverty, seem to conveniently close their eyes to the suffering of the victims of crime.

The death penalty remains on our books, but there have been no hangings in Jamaica since 1988. Hanging was halted in Jamaica following the 1993 landmark Pratt and Morgan ruling by the United Kingdom Privy Council that it is cruel and inhumane to hang an inmate who has been on death row for more than five years.

We need to fix the weaknesses in our justice system and resume hanging. If you deny someone their right to life, premeditatedly, you have forfeited, your own. For me, it is simply a matter of justice for the victims.

How often have we heard people say to each other: “Mi wi kill yuh and guh prison, ehh nuh, ‘cause man naah heng again.” If hanging was being practised many would think and act differently. I believe the absence of hanging, among myriad of other factors, fuels our low consequence, low enforcement environment.

We encourage low levels of personal responsibility in nearly every facet of daily life in this country. Why? Acceptance of personal responsibility does not fetch a premium, nor is it a big vote-getter in our country. I suspect that is a large part of the explanation as to why so many of our citizens believe someone else is responsible for their every action, or inaction, and must, therefore, bear the consequences of either.

The reality is there was a time in this country when it was fashionable, very fashionable, for politicians to overtly tell folks that the purpose of a Government was to wipe their every tear and soothe their every sorrow. Reality has since hit us right smack in the face.

Kudos to JTA

On the matter of personal responsibility, I was glad to see Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) President Winston Smith’s forthright statement regarding parents who are negligent in the matter of sending their children to school.

Said Smith: “As it relates to this matter, we at the Jamaica Teachers’ Association are of the view that it’s time parents step up to their responsibilities and ensure that their children are sent to school. Neither the school nor the ministry can find or know where every student is, but every parent knows or at least should know where their child is at this point.”

Smith was speaking against the background of a frightening figure of 32,000 “unaccounted-for students” which sections of the media say have not been engaged in the school system since March 2020.

Yes, there are many problems with Internet connectivity. Yes, there are many parents who for one reason or another just could not afford to purchase an electronic device for child/children. And yes, there are other intervening factors that hinder access online learning. But there are also numerous parents who just did not make the effort to contact their child’s school.

I know teachers who went to the homes of many parents to assist with the process of teaching and learning and the reception was far from welcoming.

It is unfashionable to say this, but the fact is, we have too many parents who are too preoccupied with buying ‘horse hair’, bleaching cream, false fingernails, and various other beauty paraphernalia at the expense of their children’s education.

Yes, we need to be tough on our teachers who repeatedly shirk their responsibilities and deliver far less than they should on the job. But we equally need to frontally say to negligent parents: Do your job, and stop whining and waiting for the church, school, and God knows who else to assume the responsibility of parent.

Here is another unfashionable view. Parents who send their children to Sunday or Sabbath School are not freaks, prudes, old-timers, killjoys, and prigs. I believe a premium must be placed on academic excellence. At the same time the spiritual development of our children is equally important.

Decide first

On several levels we are at a crossroads in this country. I hear and see several people in the media calling for the society to unite. I believe they have got the order in which we need to really move Jamaica forward, backwards.

I think we first need to decide before we can talk about uniting. We need to decide what kind of society we need. Do we want a society in which one can speed through the traffic light when it is red, and there is little, most times no consequence?

Do we want a society in which there is a fixation with scratching every itch? Do we want a society which revolves around me, myself, and I, and the devil takes the hindmost.

This country has been presented with opportunities to pivot from the trajectory of underachievement on several occasions.

Recently we were presented with another road map: The Report of the Jamaica Education Transformation Commission, chaired by Professor Orlando Patterson of Harvard University. I think that if we neglect this most recent opportunity then we have sounded our death knell.

Pearly Beach fiasco

By now thousands have seen the videos of the traffic fiasco that took place in sections of St Ann, last week. The gridlock is ascribed to an event that was held at Pearly Beach in the parish. Here, again, is another example of what I mean when I say we need to decide what kind of country we want to live in before we can set about to unite and build it.

Why did the authorities not anticipate the flood of people and vehicles that would have descended upon St Ann, given the numerous parties which were set to be held in the “garden parish” over the Easter weekend? Why did we not also anticipate the scores of undisciplined individuals who would have descended on the parish of Marcus Garvey’s birth? It seems there is a tremendous amount of blame to be apportioned; this from top to bottom in the Pearly Beach fiasco.

Are we satisfied with the rapid undermining of Jamaica’s potentials? We need to decide.

Garfield Higgins is an educator and journalist. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or higgins160@yahoo.com.