Jamaica’s crime problem is widely known and gang activity has become an intergenerational plague on the society. Gang activity has been promoted as being manly and cool by the media; harnessed for social control by politicians; and used as an alternative means of survival by disenfranchised youth.

However, taking into consideration Jamaica’s history of slavery and the fact that slavery was maintained through violence, why should the descendants of the enslaved continue to be terrorised by gang violence?

Gangs exist because of social, political, economic, and law enforcement shortcomings. With regard to law enforcement: If the Jamaican society intends on eliminating all the gangs operating in Jamaica, there is a very effective legal tool that can be utilised in order to achieve such an objective.

In the US the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisations (RICO) Act has been used to dismantle and imprison arguably the most elusive criminal organisation in US history — the Italian Mafia. This criminal enterprise had achieved a level of influence within American society that is unmatched by any other criminal organisation on record. The fact that the RICO Act was able to dismantle the Mafia and imprison its top officials means that applying the same strategy in Jamaica will give us an exceptional advantage in eliminating local gangs, which aren’t nearly as organised.

Other supporting measures can be implemented to increase the effectiveness of legislation modelled after the RICO Act. Below are five measures I believe can be taken in order to eliminate gangs in Jamaica.

Effective anti-gang legislation

By passing legislation which expands the application of the principle of “joint enterprise”; whereby, if one member of a gang commits a crime, all the members of the gang can be prosecuted as accessories after the fact for the same offence.

The elements of the legislation should consist of:

1) The requirement to prove that there exists a criminal organisation

2) The requirement to prove who the particular members of the criminal organisation are

3) The requirement to prove that a member of the criminal organisation committed an offence in furtherance of the objective of the criminal organisation

Whatever criminal activity is undertaken in furtherance of the objectives of the criminal organisation, all the members of the organisation can be charged for it, regardless of whether they consciously knew of or approved of it. By joining a criminal organisation, it is the presumption of this legislation that one has implicitly consented to the criminal activities carried out by each member of said organisation.

Therefore, if a gang member were to kill his wife due to a domestic dispute unrelated to his gang affiliation, then the anti-hang legislation would not be invoked and the gang could not be jointly prosecuted for such an offence. However, if a member of the gang was to see a member of a rival gang and kill him/her without informing or seeking the approval of his fellow gang members, then regardless of whether the other gang members were aware of or approved of the murder they, too, can be charged for that murder since it can be argued that said murder was done in furtherance of the objectives of the criminal organisation of which they are a part.

Dedicated Task Force

Another method of eliminating gangs from our society is to establish dedicated task forces to shadow each and every gang operating within Jamaica and pursue building a strong case against them.

Law enforcement agents could use surveillance and listening devices in order to collect valuable intelligence on the criminal activities carried out by particular gangs. By establishing probable cause, law enforcement agents will be able to obtain a warrant from a Supreme Court justice, which will give them the authority to monitor criminal organisations with surveillance technology.

Dedicated task forces will be able to constantly track and monitor gang activity in real time, which will greatly increase the chances of making a strong criminal case against the entire organisation.

Defector Initiative

Another method of eliminating gangs is to encourage gang members to defect and become government witnesses. Since gang members know more about the gang’s inner workings and its criminal history better than anyone else, gang members can provide law enforcement with a wealth of intelligence on crimes committed not just by their fellow gang members but throughout the criminal underworld.

Offering plea bargains with reduced sentences can be used to encourage criminals facing long sentences to cross over and testify against their fellow gang members. With a reformed Witness Protection Programme (WPP), these criminal turncoats can feel safe giving information and testifying, knowing that they can be relocated overseas at an undisclosed location with a new identity after doing so.

A Reformed Witness Protection Programme

Jamaica is too small a country for our Witness Protection Programme to be confined locally. Anyone in a locally operated WPP can be easily discovered by chance if they venture into any of the town centres in the 14 parishes. Therefore, in order to make our WPP more effective and gain the trust and confidence of the public, those admitted into the WPP must be relocated overseas in order to assure any adequate degree of protection and anonymity.

A WPP with a global scope is more effective at hiding witnesses and thus more effective at assuring the trust and confidence of future potential witnesses.

Therefore, governments must seek to establish a quid-pro-quo system whereby witnesses from any single country can be relocated to almost any other country on Earth.

Financial Proceeds from Crime go to Law Enforcement

Another method of eliminating gangs while funding law enforcement is to allocate money seized from criminal operations to fund law enforcement activities, including forensics.

This measure should add much-needed funds to an underfunded security force lacking in the latest equipment and technology.

Gang activity seems to be a widespread phenomenon observed in practically every major urban centre throughout the world. Therefore, since there is a constant trend towards urbanisation, especially in Jamaica, law enforcement must develop methods of tackling this criminal conspiracy which has plagued urban and suburban communities globally.

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