WHEN I started serving the St Catherine South police division over two decades ago I noticed that all delivery units to stores and bars in Central Village did their distributions on Mandela Highway, in the morning, on the strip of land that divides it.

I enquired about it and was told that it was because the drivers feared their trucks and delivery units being robbed by gangsters who “run the place”. I was taken aback. I thought, how the hell could a bunch of hoodlums “run” any place to the point where trucks and delivery vehicles could not make deliveries to commercial entities in the community?

I was going to change that, or so I thought. It didn’t take me long to realise that it was true — they did “run the place”. In fact, they had the political clout and the human rights support to back them up.

We will fast-forward 20-odd years. Central Village no longer bears the shame of 30 murders per year. I will not say gangsters could not rob a truck or a delivery van, but afterwards they would have to run away from the community. That’s irrespective of which human rights activist is earning from their tyranny. Despite this change, the trucks still deliver on Mandela Highway, even against my urging the drivers to go into the community to serve its needs in a civilised manner.

My team member and fellow academic, Oshane Wilson, who spent his early years in Central Village, realised my frustration. He explained to me that the entire community had been in fear for so long that it had become a “culture”, and that it would take more than a few years of peace to change it. This fear, he explained, went back to his years as an infant. And he is in his 30s.

When I thought about it, I realised Wilson was right. Two years of peace was simply not enough. It would take generations of peace, an absence of gang control — and even existence, to truly change that culture. So, I looked wider into my division, the parish, and even the communities in inner-city Kingston. The culture is no different; they are all suffering from this fear.

Fear is addictive. When my children were growing up I discouraged their mothers from using corporal punishment because I knew that if the children got used to being afraid of people — parents or otherwise — then it would have formed that habit. They would have been more likely to accept bullying in school or be the “bitch” in the cell. Thankfully, they have avoided incarceration.

My views are not popular with everyone, and most of you reading likely agree with corporal punishment for children in schools and homes. I will not say I totally disagree, but I warn you: Fear is habit-forming.

Now to the problem of this “culture of fear”: Does it exist nationally? Have we been afraid of the gangs for so long that it has become our culture? Is it transferable to our diplomatic culture? Is it why we avoid voting on controversial issues at United Nations meetings? Is it why we dare not question directives from the United States? Is it why we don’t question that not one of the warrants for extradition that we have issued for their citizens has been executed? Is it why some businessmen still pay extortion fees and why regular citizens protest with placards that they know are stating lies?

I see the culture alive and well, but I see it cracking. I have seen generational criminals in my division go to prison for rape, which was previously accepted in inner cities and ignored by human rights organisations. I see senior officers refusing to bend to requests to transfer front line officers at the behest of politicians who wish to please hooligans. I see editors running articles, including my own, that years ago would have been censored.

We need to break this cycle of fear. We need to do it with effective policing, by destroying gangs, by acting on domestic violence the same way we do gun offences. A man can run his home but he should not do so with the use of violence.

Does it sound like I’m all over the place? I am, because the culture of fear is everywhere; from our homes to our streets, from our politics to our diplomacy. We are all afraid because we are used to being afraid!

The 1970s started this through the legalisation and politicisation of gangs. It continues with our allowing foreign powers to dictate our local politics and with our acceptance that might trump right and the rule of law. It’s not going to change until you take a decision to stop being afraid. Stop fearing that gang. Work with me and thousands like me to destroy them.

Don’t you trust the police? Use Crime Stop. Report your lover if he hits you or threatens you. Trust me, he is nowhere near as scary as a judge. Watch him melt before one and you will see that his ‘badness’ is a farce.

Stand up to people in your political party when they do wrong, no matter how much they are your senior. Appearing united cannot trump being right. Stand up whilst conducting our diplomacy.

Our history includes national heroes The Right Excellent Sir Alexander Bustamante, The Right Excellent Norman Washington Manley, and The Right Excellent Marcus Mosiah Garvey — who challenged the mighty powers of their time.

Fear has become our culture, and we need to change this on all levels. It begins with the Government and it ends with the inner-city dweller. Follow the lead of the citizens and organisations that show no fear. Some of these are judges, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, the Commissioner of Police Dr Kevin Blake, and even the human rights organisations.

I may disagree with many, but they follow their beliefs without fear of who may not like it. These are all ordinary people who have chosen to fear no one, even if it makes them unpopular. Take a step in their direction.

Feedback: drjasonamckay@gmail.com