Many years ago I was the defence investigator in a trial matter where a foreign national had been charged with the murder of a prostitute.

The defence attorney was Howard Hamilton, who at the time was one of the top jurists in the country.

This was the early 90s.

A young man, who was German and who suffered from epilepsy, had arrived in the country by himself and within 24 hours had got himself a lady of the night, hard drugs and a hotel room.

Well, epileptic drugs and cocaine don’t mix well, and the combination, by all accounts, had put him into a coma-like sleep.

When he awoke many hours later he saw the prostitute quite dead beside him with her heart cut out.

He grabbed his knife and bolted for the door, scared beyond belief and headed to the airport. But, alas, he realised when he got there that he had left his passport in a strongbox at the check-in counter at the hotel.

He was afraid to return to the hotel so instead he became a fugitive in a foreign land where he could barely speak the language.

It wasn’t long before he was captured.

I entered the case soon after and he claimed that an African man who served as the victim’s pimp had been in the room up to when he fell asleep. When he woke and saw the dead lady with her heart cut out he panicked and ran.

It may sound like a tale, but during the investigation I found a drug addict who claimed he had assisted the African by allowing him to use his birth certificate to get a passport to leave the country.

That was in effect the defence presented to the court.

I was not there that fateful night so I don’t know what happened.

I know the court conducted a fair and correct trial and he was convicted and died in custody in what appeared to be suicide.

So was he innocent?

As I said I don’t know. I know he got a fair trial. He also seemed like a peaceful and pleasant guy, but drugs do peculiar things to the mind of people.

What is certain I learned a lot from this case. Let me start.

Don’t travel alone to far away countries that speak languages that you don’t understand.

Don’t allow your passport to ever be more than a foot away from you.

Most importantly, ‘stay away from anything or anyone that is remotely a criminal, or the underworld’, whether you are at home or overseas.

Now it seems to be a difficult concept for persons to understand.

What’s wrong with some sex and a little drugs? Well, let me tell you.

It forces you to interact with persons who break the law.

As simple as buying sex may seem to you, it still involves either associating with a criminal or at the very least someone who would sleep with anyone.

What’s the big deal with buying weed on a corner vs an actual licensed seller?

The corner guy is committing a criminal offence, hence he is a criminal.

This segment of society, whether at home or abroad, is already used to functioning in a world where criminal activity is okay.

Criminal activity is wide and involves many dimensions.

The same guy who is willing to stand on a corner selling drugs is the same guy who will likely rob you at gunpoint. Why? Because criminal activity is intertwined, as is criminal behaviour.

He may not be a violent man, but he is closer to being one than you are.

The process of buying sex is not necessarily involving just two persons. You now have her pimp to concern yourself with. You also have the thug at the cheap motel.

This belief that you can associate with criminals at any level and not get drawn into their world is a misnomer.

I see many gangsters killed annually, but I also see many victims listed as, ‘known to associate with criminal elements’.

This second group impacts me in a peculiar way because they are dead, usually not because of anything they have done, but rather because who they have chosen to associate with, whether it’s being in the wrong place when an attack occurs or because they were targeted due to association.

This is a silly way to lose your life.

This was avoidable. There are, of course, victims who are innocent and have no association at all with criminal elements and my heart goes out to them most of all.

I am sad but with the “known associates” category, I am frustrated.

I keep saying this garbage was avoidable. Is this worth it, to lose your life to buy drugs, buy sex, to appear cool because of some warped logic that they can offer you some form of association?

I was told many years ago by a close friend named Eroll Walters that all criminals do is get themselves into problems they can’t manage and subsequently draw you right into the misery with them.

He was so right. I see a lot of effort by mothers in inner-city communities try to discourage their children associating with criminals. I feel their frustration.

It is the largest group of murder victims in Jamaica other than actual gang members.

So the gang members are getting themselves killed because of what they do and what benefit they can get from their activity. But the associate has lost his life for just being plain stupid.

So what can be done? Can education fix this? A public relations programme? Better parenting?

I’m not sure if any of the above will ever stop the young men of our inner cities from this dangerous activity of associating with thugs.

This message has to come from someone they look up to.

I think dancehall artistes who don’t associate with criminals but who command respect could be the best vehicle to carry this message. There, however, is not a long list with young, popular artistes.

There is a very popular one affiliated with a gang in Bobby Lane in Spanish Town that speaks to this affiliation in his songs. He will be of no use to discourage association and there are many like him.

There is another entire syndicate of artistes involved in scamming in Montego Bay and they like to sing of their deeds.

There is, of course, several positive personalities in the music business that could assist.

You see the message we try and send is “not to become a criminal”, “Not to join a gang”, and “stop committing crimes”. That, however, is to a very large degree a lost cause.

Most who are already active come from households that have been producing criminals for generations and are so indoctrinated that they are not malleable.

We can’t save them.

In fact, they are our greatest threat.

The ones not involved, but who are associating with criminals, are the group we need to focus our energies on. They are ‘saveable’.

But the messenger has to look like them. It has to be someone they look up to in their world.

It’s branding and marketing, we have to present the gang member as a moron, a loser, a dunce. We can’t present the gang member as ‘the cool guy’.

I went to Calabar High in the 1980s. There was a blend of personalities that attended there in that era. The few who became gangsters were usually the biggest dunces in the class. Why would I want to emulate someone like that?

The world has changed a lot in 37 years. But I’m willing to bet that the guy who is slinging a gun at 17 is likely the same one whose test scores look like lotto numbers. And that is the guy that people want to emulate?

Why?

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