I knew of a situation a few years ago involving a young lady, 16 years old, living in a squatter settlement in St Catherine.

The settlement had a resident gang of about 10 men; they were armed and financed by a criminal who lived overseas. The community was a poor combination of wooden houses, zinc, and a few pit toilets. Hog and goat pens stood side by side with human habitation.

There was no formal social infrastructure and the electricity was present with myriad old wires strung everywhere, all connected to Jamaica Public Service legitimate wire, by ‘thrown over’ cables. The water was, of course, an illegal connection, and not to every home.

This was and is a good example of generational poverty, coupled with the end effect of an emancipation programme that left an entire people devoid of property.

Within this delve of misery was a young lady we will call Anna. She was 16 when I learnt of her circumstances. She belonged to the gang — that is too say, they all had sex with her as they liked. Although this was not rape in the typical sense of the word, it certainly was not by consent. Once they decided she belonged to them, it was a done deal.

You see, she had no brother, father, cousin or uncle in the gang. She was on her own. If she objected they would have likely just taken sex from her by force; and if she reported it and any were arrested, her mother and family would have likely been killed or they would have been given 24 hours to move out of the area. A fire is also a strong possibility. Her escape came only when she fled her home after years of being gang property.

She is not uncommon as there are many Annas. They exist in slums run by dons. You should meet her. She is, after all, paying for your freedom.

You see, the animals who dehumanise her day after day exist because of the rules that limit law enforcement’s powers of detention; rules that stop a police officer knocking at your door in the middle of the night and taking you away indefinitely.

These gangs don’t exist in Cuba, China, or Vietnam. Cuba is poorer than us, yet criminals like this know they can’t rule their streets and destroy the Annas among them. Why? Because the police will take you away if they simply hear you are trying to rule any citizens by thug law.

Our society is free, so free that you can be so feared that you can turn a teenager into a gang concubine because of terror.

There is no practical way you and your entire family can be protected by the police in an environment like where she is. There are no grilles or high walls. There, persons are a slim shade above homeless. The police don’t and can’t occupy every squatter settlement in Jamaica.

The only way to protect the Annas is to destroy the gangs. This can only be done in the short term by mass detention of all known gang members. There is no other short-term solution.

At this point let’s look at El Salvador. I spoke last week of the mass detention of gang members.

I think it’s time we make Anna our priority. Let’s detain, en masse, all known gang members indefinitely. It’s actually possible. It’s not easy, it’s expensive, and it could damage tourism. But the Anna’s have been raped enough. It’s time we make a decision once and for all to remove the power of the gangs forever. Let’s separate them from society. How? Use a national state of emergency just like they did in El Salvador.

Although they have stripped us of most exceptions in the constitution that allow for indefinite remand acts to be created, they still left us with the state of emergency. El Salvador’s murder rate is down 56 per cent and the gangs are too busy running to be destroying lives.

All the Annas have are the police. They have no one to protect them. This is limited to the police who are actually in the fight against the gangs — and that’s not the entire Jaamica Constabulary Force. The force has many functions performing that are all important, but there are not that many actually in combat with the gangs.

The gangs have their overseas bosses, the defence attorneys, and human rights groups. They have massive international bodies looking out for police excesses against them. They have the propaganda arm of INDECOM assisting them to keep the police (the gang’s enemy) subjugated. Anna is almost on her own.

The police officers are also largely on their own. It is time to make a stand. The Annas are not your daughters, sisters or nieces, but pretend they are. There is a way — but you have to give up something. You have to take a chance that your Government and your armed forces won’t turn on you. It’s a chance, but Anna won’t be worth it unless you can see her in the eyes of your child.

So, use your imagination. The power to determine the list of members to be detained could be limited to the rank of assistant commissioner and above. Look on who is on that shortlist of persons who the power will be entrusted to and tell me what is the likelihood of that power being abused? Zero!

So look at the logistics. Firstly, the British offered us a prison. Take it. They are, after all, the genesis of the problem with their participation in slavery, the emancipation process that had no compensation for the victims, and colonialism and the failure pay reparations. We will need the capacity and indeed, the cages.

Secondly, the legal state of a state of emergency, although impacting us all legally, must only impact gang members. No curfews, no business closures, no limit on entertainment. It’s about gangs and Anna, nothing else.

Why do I feel so strongly about using this tool in this fight? Because El Salvador has, and it’s working. Because it limits combat. Because it is the only tool that will work in the short term. And because Anna, all the Annas, are worth it.

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