MEMBERS of the entertainment fraternity are lashing out at violence producers following a spate of recent attacks against women and children in Jamaica.

Outlining that the music fraternity is always present when it comes to condemning these gruesome attacks, several key stakeholders are urging their fellow citizens to unite in the fight against crime.

In an interview with the Jamaica Observer, D Angel, who has been a long-time advocate against violence meted out to women and children, said whenever something gruesome happens to shed new light on the monster of crime, the cries of the people get louder. She shared, however, that there isn’t enough support, especially for artistes speaking out against the issue.

“Myself and others in my immediate space have been lobbying against this issue for years now — and not just when something over the top happens. We have vigils for missing children, we support families in grief, we do songs about the issues, trying to shed even more light on the problem, but it’s never supported the way it should be,” she lamented. “It’s just a handful of persons speaking out against the issue and participating in the activities planned to condemn these actions. The numbers are small, and the supporters know themselves so big up unuh for always showing up and using your voices. At the end of the day, when you only have one or two or three persons constantly advocating against these issues, how effective can change be?”

She also expressed that many artistes do not support vigils or let their voices be heard because their cries aren’t usually supported by the powers that be. She expressed that real change will take a collective effort from all stakeholders: artistes, citizens and government officials.

“We need more serious legislation. We need laws to say that, ‘If yuh touch a woman, a it dat fi yuh.’ ‘If yuh touch a child, a it that fi yuh.’ The books are going to be thrown at you,” she said. “We need to put things in place to punish these cannibals.”

Also speaking on the issue, Mr Lexx shared that there needs to be more support for artistes who produce positive songs. Mr Lexx indicated that the industry has always stood its ground, especially where violence against women and children is concerned, but expressed that these messages are seldom pushed to the forefront.

“Firstly, my condolence to both families of the nine-year-old and the UTech student but I want to address the people who are saying the dancehall industry isn’t speaking enough on these killings: How about showing more love to the artistes who invest their time and talent in making songs that speak out against such crimes and violence against women?” he told the Jamaica Observer. “If you ask the mass majority to name the top 10 artistes currently, it probably won’t consist of two conscious artistes.

“It’s not that the industry is not speaking up, a lot of that music is being made as we speak, but this generation doesn’t gravitate to them,” he continued. “For whatever reason, negativity tends to go further faster and 80 per cent of that responsibility is on the fans — but they’re not ready for that conversation. But, I do pose a challenge to my colleagues and co-workers to do as much as they can to shed light on the current state of our crime situation in our beautiful piece of rock we call home. It’s just not acceptable.”

Also highlighting that the recent killings are becoming unacceptable, dancehall artiste Popcaan said the island needs to be purged of rapists and other violence producers.

“We need to be more serious about these situations and eradicate these rapists that are in our society and our surroundings, these pestilences,” he said in a social media post on Monday. “Mi nuh like the direction weh nuff things a go…man all a rape 9-year-old girl and kill her. Me see all a man a walk inna nurse head and dem supm deh.”

On Monday, nurses staged an islandwide protest to voice their disgust at last week’s assault of one of their colleagues, which was caught on video.

“Mi feel like unu fi pay more attention to these things. Like we fi have more dialogue wid each other inna di communities dem so we can protect the kids dem more, and even the adult dem,” the deejay said.

His message was endorsed by several of his colleagues, including Tanya Stephens, Gramps Morgan, CeCile and Mortimer.

Speaking specifically to the murder and alleged sexual assault of nine-year-old Kelsey Ferrigon, singer Romain Virgo said the act of harming women and children is simply sickening.

“I have five-year-old daughters at home and you don’t even have to have children to know how innocent kids are and that we shouldn’t take life. It’s sad when somebody can look at the future and destroy the future like that,” he said. “It’s heartbreaking, and we just have to try and do our part as artistes and hope that people will hear us and try to change.”