I used to drive a Morris Minor 1,000 motor car in the mid-1980s. It broke down in every district in Kingston. It was, after all, about 25 years old.

Many people don’t remember, or just don’t know, that for decades we were not allowed to import motor vehicles into Jamaica, unless we met some special criteria, like being a returning resident. Car dealers had quotas and they were very small. Everyone, other than the very wealthy, drove old cars.

The end result of my old car journey was that I became a good old car mechanic. I actually believed that meant I could transfer my knowledge to any car — old or new. That was until I bought a BMW and opened the bonnet. It then hit me that I didn’t know a damn thing about repairing new cars.

I often reflect on the several times in my career when I was so fearful that I could taste it in my saliva. It has a metallic flavour. As I relive those moments in my quiet time and with unease, I remember experiences like running out of ammunition whilst the gangsters were still firing. I recall being left behind in a chaotic retreat from a hostile mob. I recall a lot that keeps me up. A phone call not answered, to me means the receiver is kidnapped or dead. I remember every jammed gun, every colleague injured beside me.

However, in not one of my many recollections was there a human rights activist beside me. Yet, they all seem to be experts on the subject of police combat dynamics. For starters, let’s look at this body camera issue. Jamaican special squads are not like American SWAT teams. More than half of special squads operations are generated from intelligence they gather on duty themselves. This intelligence often comes from good people who — unlike the executive of Jamaicans For Justice (JFJ) — live in gang-controlled communities.

Jamaica has a culture that promotes the killing of informants. Prolific recording artistes sing songs advocating death to such people. So let me speak to the JFJ directly.

Would you, if you lived in a house as insecure as a bird cage, give information to a police officer with a camera on his chest, even if he tells you it’s off? Would you risk seeing someone pumping bullets into your child? Because that’s what the criminals do to people who they call ‘police informants’.

Would you, in the middle of a raid, when asked, “Whe di killa deh?” signal with your eyes that he is next door?

When you make your irresponsible rants on public media, I know it’s not because you are malicious, but it’s because you don’t have a clue what you are talking about. This is the real issue. You speak of police wearing body cameras when they do high-risk entries.

Do you even know that the camera has a blue light on it? So the police should wear a light on his chest to assist the gangster to shoot him accurately, to please you and the other members of your club?

Your organisation is powerful. You have the ability to demoralise the officers who are being worked to the bone to achieve a historic reduction in major crimes.

Do you want to do this? Do you know you have done this before? Yes, you have.

From 2001 to 2009 you ran a public education campaign hinged on cases stacked with misinformation that demoralised the armed forces of this country and empowered the gangs. The murder count moved from 1,139 to 1,683.

How many times must history repeat itself? Have you congratulated the police force on the reduction in homicides? Do you feel good about the accomplishments so far? Do you want us to achieve the sub-1,000 mark in homicides?

We fail time and time again because we are not a united people. The poor in the inner cities and squatter settlements are not facing the same reality as the people who live in middle- or upper-class communities. No don is sending for the 13-year-old daughters of people who live uptown or, I daresay, people who hold senior positions in human rights organisations.

The Independent Commission of Investigations (Indecom) Act and Indecom are very much creations of the human rights community. I don’t like a lot about Indecom, but they are good investigators.

Have they recommended charges for even one case that you are ranting about in the 50 fatal shootings of which you speak? Would you prefer to hear that there were 50 dead police? Are you comfortable with the gangs maintaining control of the communities? Do you realise that your words are assisting the gangs to maintain their grip, whilst discouraging the police officers?

What is your feeling about the 100-odd people killed by gunmen since the year began? Are you concerned about how their human rights are being violated whilst they are being slaughtered?

Unity is what is required now. We need to become one Jamaica, where the rights of a victim of a crime are as important to the human rights activists as the criminal’s rights.

Politics needs to take a back seat for one year. Put off the election for this year, if necessary, and just focus on saving lives. If we can achieve the sub-1,000 for 2025, we can push it even further next year.

The defeat of the gangs is imminent. Assist or allow, but don’t be the one who stands in the way of it.

Feedback: drjasonamckay@gmail.com

Jason Mckay