Surely our sporting ethos can help in the fight against crime
As world beaters in sports, notably track and field, Jamaica must be missing a great opportunity to harness the grit and determination that it takes to win at the highest levels for our perpetually losing battle against crime.
Last week, in our editorial titled ‘Not gonna happen, Mr JTA President… even if it should’, we suggested that Mr Leighton Johnson was displaying more desperation than naivete when he called for closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras and one police officer in all 1,175 primary and high schools to increase student safety.
We also contended that the absolute wretchedness of the incident in which eight-year-old Danielle Rowe was abducted from school and her throat slashed in June this year explained Mr Johnson’s despair and his pipe dream of seeing CCTV cameras and police officers in all schools.
On reflection, our argument that the Government and the Jamaica Constabulary Force would never be able to afford what Mr Johnson was advocating, though true certainly in the short and medium terms, should have looked beyond the limitations of the public purse.
It is convention that the Government has lead responsibility for crime fighting, but it has also been clear for a very long time that no Administration has been able to tame the beast which continues to defy their best efforts.
Maybe what the JTA president should be doing is looking not to the Government, but to the resilient Jamaican people to provide the funding that would be needed to put a security camera in all schools.
We suggest that there is great potential for success in any co-ordinated, sustained, and well-thought-out initiative to mobilise the past students associations of all our schools to donate cameras to their individual alma mater.
There are highly organised and pretty active old boys and old girls associations in Jamaica, the United States, and Canada, which, at the very least, can be tapped for such a worthy cause in the interest of the school communities.
Not all past students associations are organised or active, and some are almost maxed out raising funds for their old school. But the goodwill enjoyed by many beloved teachers and memories of the good old days are still factors that can drive them.
Beyond all of that, of course, we dare not forget that surveillance cameras alone cannot solve the security problem in our schools or communities as a whole. We’ll never tire of saying in this space that the fight against crime and violence must enlist the Jamaican people as one, or we can forget it.
We have shown that when we are determined to achieve something we do. No need to look further than the 12 medals, including three gold, five silver and four bronze — that could have been more with a bit of luck — in the just-concluded World Championships at which we fielded a relatively young team.
Again, we urge all Jamaicans and our leaders to stand, not as members of opposing political parties, but as one people against criminals. Such a determined stance, we believe, is the most glaring, missing element in this nation’s perennial struggle to rid itself of criminality.
Let us give the last word, once more, to former Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica President Mr Keith Duncan: “Jamaica is doing well in terms of macroeconomic stability. Imagine, then, how much more could be achieved if, as a united people, we deal decisively with crime.”