Emancipation, Independence, squatting, and crime. The preceding are connected like box cars on a train. Confused? Let me take you through it.

There is often talk of the Emancipation Agreement that freed enslaved people in the United States in 1865. This was 31 years after all enslaved people in Jamaica had been freed, notwithstanding that short period of apprenticeship. The much debated issue that the agreement was that the formerly enslaved people in the United States were to receive 40 acres and a mule is a topic of discussion never brought to a resolution.

The fact is that President Andrew Johnson overturned General Sherman’s commitment of allocated land, and extended the oppression of the freed blacks for at least another century.

Some years ago, I was having a discussion with Ian Ramsay — one of the greatest attorneys of his time. He was educating me on the fraud that was perpetuated on the formerly enslaved people in Jamaica, with the local administration totally ignoring the instruction that land was to be allocated to the people as part of the settlement.

It is difficult to substantiate the details, as the history on it is not very clear. What is clear is that this decision not to issue land simply moved the people to a position of pauper and ensured that the vast majority of the country would remain in that position for at least a century.

The landless majority managed to survive by either working for the plantations or by capturing a lot of land that was unused, farming it, and — in some cases — living on it.

As Kingston and Spanish Town grew, many of the descendants of the formerly enslaved migrated to the urban areas, such as Kingston, St Catherine, and St James — using the same playbook of squatting to survive.

By the time 1962 came around, many squatter settlements existed in positions where they strangled the growth of the major towns and the capital city. They were, by this point, the result of a cultural norm that had been adopted in rural Jamaica after the landless Emancipation deal was allowed to be perpetrated on the majority of the population.

There were, of course, free villages, but that just didn’t provide the same effect. So apart from having the majority of the country possession-less in 1962, estimated illiteracy was as high as 80 per cent, although this differed from the propaganda of the time.

There was no effort to fix the problem of a landless population in 1962, despite the presence of an abundance of unused Crown lands. Any idiot could see where this was going in a world divided by the Cold War and so many poor, uneducated people available to fight it.

Twelve years later, squatter settlements had grown considerably. The poor were easy to manipulate and a civil war broke out in 1974. Jamaica was never the same again.

So let’s fast-forward to current times. The squatter settlements have grown even further. In fact, quite a few were created to serve as voting blocs to guarantee political seats for the desperate few who fight for seats in Parliament.

There are more than 400,000 people living in the squatter settlements. So now, the crime!

Let me tell you something. If you are killed in Jamaica, two things are certain. First, that there is a 90 per cent chance that the man who kills you will come from a squatter settlement; and second, that there is also a 90 per cent chance that he will use a firearm manufactured in the United States.

This is not guess work. My study, entitled ‘Gangs, Victim/Offender Overlap and Informal Settlements: Their Role in the Portmore Homicide Crisis’, uncovered that 90 per cent of all suspects of murders committed in Portmore, St Catherine, are residents of squatter settlements.

Squatters only account for 10 per cent of the Portmore population. Before you say, “Well, that is a problem for the squatter settlements”, let me inform you that only 50 per cent of the murders committed in Portmore are in squatter settlements. The rest happen outside of the squatter settlements. So it’s everybody’s problem.

The problem with crime that emanates from squatter settlements is complex and significant. The issue with the poverty levels of these settlements is an embarrassment to our nation.

This problem started with a poorly planned emancipation programme. It could have been fixed before or at Independence. The British chose to cut and run. This is what colonialism is all about. Exploit, drain, and disappear to deafening applause.

Election time is upon us. This issue needs to be a talking point. We need to ask both political parties what is their plan to right the wrong of 1834. There have been improvements. There is the fact that of our population of three million, 15 per cent are paupers/squatters, versus 90 per cent in 1834. I see progress. I see efforts from both political parties. However, it’s not a central enough issue with either group.

I searched a lady’s house last week. The search was legal. Her son, who resides there, is a gang member. As a police officer, I feel justified. As a social scientist, I feel ashamed. The only thing that lady has in her life is a tottering structure, a few old clothes, rotten furniture, and arthritis. She has developed in no way, shape, or form. She cannot read and she has virtually nothing.

How different is she from her great-great grandmother who got shafted by the Emancipation agreement? This is generational poverty in action. Brilliant men and women have led us and many more just as brilliant will be vying to lead our country in September.

Is the plan to end generational poverty part of the primary plan for our future? If it is, please remember to include the lady whose house I searched the other day.

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