This Means War!

Yesterday had me at a very enlightening all-day governance seminar. Got in pooped and totally missed the 8th. Hmm.

Wrote a letter to the Editor of one of Jamaica's newspapers on Friday. Haven't seen it in their publication yet. Well, here it is:

"We are drowning, drowning, drowning in our own blood! We are choking on it; slipping and sliding in it; washing it off our streets and houses and the writing is on the wall in it. When I think of Jamaica, I see red. I’m not even getting into blaming. I’m just looking at where we are and we are in a sad state.

Neither the Minister, nor the Prime Minister, has a clue about how to solve this problem – not one single solitary clue! You can tell from their silence and from their baffled countenances and by how much they are MIA. We have new committees and plans being created to address the problem, even before former committees and plans have a chance to come out from under the dust and chi chi.

It has reached a stage now where the news is not really news. It’s just a matter of who and where. Every time we think it can’t get any worse, the next newscast proves us wrong. We are sick and tired of it and sick and tired of being sick and tired of it man! What is this round-the-clock killing machine that seems to be impenetrable and unstoppable? And while it has its tentacles all over the island, stabbing our people and shooting our people and strangling our people to death, the rest of us are left wondering who is in charge? Who is in charge, Mr. Editor? And what in God’s name are they waiting on to do something?!

Here’s a suggestion. It may smack of simplicity, and may even be repetitive but, just in case the government is sleeping, please nudge them awake to the fact that WE ARE AT WAR! Where else but in a war-torn country do we have so many hundreds of murders in such a short time? People are being shot and stabbed and slashed to death - the real count must now be close to 700 – and the army hasn’t yet been called out? What if we were under attack from another country and our country’s murder toll stood at 600? A so we woulda jus siddung an watch we fellow Jamaicans a drop like flies and nuh call out the army? Mr. Minister and Prime Minister and whosoever else is in charge? We are at war!!! 600 in four months? This means war!!!

There are those who have the power to do something but they are not doing what needs to be done. No one wants to bell the cat. What is this? We are praying for God to intervene, but did He not give us wisdom and ability? We must do our part. “Trust in God but lock your car.” Remember that declaration that the Prime Minister made in Parliament in the first week of March this year? “If I have to pay a political price for it I will.” He was talking about something else but wouldn’t it be wonderful if he and the other ministers held that resolve for all aspects of their jobs? Especially for this aspect of the job?

Part of the government’s duty is to protect its citizens, is it not? For crying out loud, isn’t it for situations like this that our soldiers have been trained? It is the situation necessitates it; the difference might be that no overseas travel is required. PM? Minister? What, exactly, are you waiting for? I just don’t get it. Do you have a target murder toll in mind? Each person is one too many and sometimes it’s four or five at a time.

Some might say it’s a knee-jerk reaction. I say it’s bound to be a more effective move than placing more police officers and an additional police post or two in certain areas. Let the gunmen and other criminals see and know that we mean business. Get the army marksmen/women on the roofs; get the soldiers out into the nitty gritty of the communities all over the country (for the criminals might want to run to another area when things get hot in one location). They are not Bin Laden. This must help to weed out at least some of them. I don’t know what the intricacies of this plan would be but, I am pretty convinced that it would make the law abiding citizens of the country feel safer; feel as if somebody gives a hoot. Mr. Editor? I submit that we have been invaded by another country! It’s a ‘parallel country’ of criminals who are under their own governance and whose ‘insecurity forces’ are bent on securing their own rotten interests by the use of advanced weaponry and by terrorizing our country. It’s time we call out our security forces before the murder toll exceeds an already-unbearable number. Worst case, even if it is a knee-jerk, at least it’s something while the government works on a longer-term strategy.

On a related note, my sister threw a dash of reality on the matter the other day when she said that even if the government says yes to Capital Punishment, who are they going to execute? The police not catching the criminals! They commit these crimes in broad daylight sometimes and, after the weeping and wailing and officials appearing on the scene to offer condolences – nothing! How many times do we hear of the criminals being caught, much less brought to justice? How many?

Maybe it’s just me but I am beginning to get the sense that when crimes like the recent Glendevon or Backlands killings happen, and the police (as sadly expected) don’t get any information from the community, that is where it stops. It’s as if the police throw their hands up and chalk it up to the community being tight-lipped. Where does it go from there? What happens in terms of investigation and follow-through? Is that really where it ends? Do they close that file and then just wait on the call to the next crime scene?

It is constantly repeated, people are afraid of informing the police. But, like someone said the other day, withholding information doesn’t guarantee anything. It is no insurance against the criminals coming for you. They’re just not coming for you today. So, we the people need to start talking to trustworthy police (that’s another issue altogether) and the police definitely need to start following through. Government, army, police, communities – this is not a one-sided thing, but the leaders need to show up and lead.

Let’s not kid ourselves, we are at war!"

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Claudia
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