RECENTLY I outlined the danger an adjustment in the law relating to the age of consent could represent to vulnerable female children operating in gang-controlled zones. Many people asked me how gangs survive when they are clearly acting against the values of the average person who lives in the affected zones.

I will use this column to outline why gangs survive and, in fact, thrive, despite the hatred of the majority of people who share the community with them. Gang culture survives because we feed it. If we didn’t, it would die.

You may be saying, define “we”.

We is the external element to the affected community. So we could be a human rights group, a law firm, a company that does road work or other infrastructural work, a business place within the zone or in close proximity, or even an entertainer. There are, of course, politicians, bloggers, and most importantly, overseas financiers.

The gangs don’t need the support of the community. They are the prison guards of the community, the stranglehold, the parasite, the plague that keeps it sick. Confused? Let me explain.

Let us look at road or infrastructural work in the community, which are paid for by your taxes. Asphalt work is needed because the road is old and weather-beaten. A private contractor gets the contract. When the work begins he communicates through a “community liaison” for non-skilled labour services. That is the unofficial name for the guy who communicates directly with the don. The don then sources the labour force, some are gang members, but the real useful ones are not.

There are at least two names who never ever come to work, but are paid. There are several others who turn up and don’t touch a shovel. The workers who are on the site through the community liaison are required to hand over a specified portion of their pay to the gang. None of this is because the community likes them. In fact, in my experience, only the community hates them more than I.

When two or more gangs are in proximity, they will kill each other over the spoils created by the infrastructure work. The contractor is not trying to be a financier of a gang. He is not a criminal. He, like most people in our society who have their part to play in the world of inner-city activity, is really just damn selfish.

He doesn’t care that he is participating in creating resources to pay an attorney if a strong parent decides to report the rape of their 12-year-old child. If he doesn’t play along, there is literally no other way that the site is going to function. He would have to employ the Jamaica Constabulary Force to secure the site. That is costly.

To prevent the don from getting the money from the workforce directly, he would have to hire from another community and bus them to the site. Possibly, depending on the level of community control and the size of the gang, the imported workforce may need to be escorted by the police to the site.

The community would oppose this, and the politician would come under pressure. You see the degree of difficulty? It is so much easier to follow the established protocol and avoid looking in the mirror.

When gangs commit crimes, overseas criminal elements pay the lawyers, maybe not directly, but ultimately. If this doesn’t happen because of a financially challenged criminal enterprise then the Government ensures the lawyers are paid through legal aid. The fees are capped for legal aid, but some lawyers rely on it. Your tax dollars at work again.

Let us say you operate a business nearby or within the gang-controlled zone, you may pay extortion. Some may refuse, but they will pay for a Christmas treat.

Well, if it’s not a church or a government-led organisation, then it likely is the same damn thing as extortion, because you “well and know seh” you are only paying for that treat because you are intimidated. If you are a small business, like a shop or a bar, they will constantly come to you for products and you will give them for a peaceful life. I operated a retail business in a ghetto in St James when I was in my 20s. However, I was blessed with being armed at a very young age, and as a young man I never minded a good fight. Giving them money would have been easier, but that wasn’t going to happen.

I have a good friend who operates a business between two slums. He doesn’t pay extortion, but he sends quite a few lunches to both sides daily. He says it’s not extortion. It’s for a peaceful life. I have asked him repeatedly to allow me to cook those meals, even one day, but he won’t let me anywhere near his pot.

When politics is in vogue, the gangs are either used or they are tolerated. Either way they get some money at that point. I know many politicians who want nothing to do with gangs or gang members and they loathe gangsters. Well, send them to a garrison community and they either change or they lose.

Remember the “wash up don” comment and the consequences? Well, it’s a reality, you can lose a ‘safe seat’.

The indirect nature of gang activities to people who live out of the gang-controlled zones allow for an atmosphere of ambivalence towards the very existence of gangs in inner-city communities. Consequences are felt uptown. But gangsters are not sending for our daughters; they cannot force our sons to carry around their guns. It’s a totally different experience from people who live in the gun-controlled zones.

I have lost count of the number of times I have been told that a hit is out on me because of some case, or some gang that I had conflict with. Honestly, I couldn’t care less. I don’t live in a gang zone and I am reasonably well prepared if they ever want to try.

If I can feel so insulated, can you imagine others in my community who the gangs don’t even know exist? Compare my position, or my neighbour’s position, to someone who lives in a squatter settlement or a concrete inner-city jungle. Someone who has to walk past them whilst their cousin is in custody because they stood up and reported their 12-year-old daughter’s rape. Picture the silent hostility. The real fear that you can die anytime.

Now imagine the 12-year-old walking past them. Imagine that group being maintained because of your taxes and your extortion.

So you ask: Why gang culture survives? It survives because we are a divided society. It survives because we are selfish. It survives because we feed it!

Feedback: drjasonamckay@gmail.com