Peter Espeut I AM getting mixed signals from the government about this anti-crime business. On the one hand, I am seeing on television and hearing on radio nice PR speeches by government ministers and others about how much crime is a blight upon our country, and calling on the public to support the fight against crime; and then I hear that extortion on work sites by political dons and their gangs has reached intolerable levels.
The difficulty I am having is that the government is calling on Jamaicans to provide information to the police about crime and criminals, while the politicians themselves patently do not do so with respect to the political criminal gangs under their purview. Is this not the vilest hypocrisy?
We have long heard that business places near to the political garrisons of Tivoli Gardens, Arnett Gardens, Mountain View and Grants Pen are charged protection money (tribute?) so that they are not robbed or set on fire; and they pay; and the police and almost everyone know who the extortionists are, but they wink their eyes because the dons perform a "useful service" in the community, protecting girls from rape, and giving children money to go to school. Once in a while a body is found "stuffed in a barrel", and people smile: the don has brought a culprit to justice!
'IS IT POLITICAL?'
And when violence erupts, the question is asked: "Is it political?" and the answer comes: "No, it is criminal" as if political violence is not criminal. Political violence seems to be placed in a different category to criminal violence, and the police seem reluctant to investigate the former. Why do so many people wink at political violence? And at the same time as these sanctimonious advertisements play on radio and television, the political gangs go at it on Mountain View Avenue and elsewhere; and no one sees any contradiction or hypocrisy?
Take the road construction that is being called "Highway 2000": local political dons were charging the trucks carrying the marl a tax (tribute?) to pass back and forth to the marl pits. Some drivers refused to pay, and they were murdered. Even if the tribute is being redistributed by the dons to send children to school, can we continue to wink at what is clearly much more serious than simple extortion? The government has called out the military to guard the truck drivers and the work site, but the political dons remain in place. And the advertisements continue to be aired.
WINKING AT PATENT SUPPORT
And as the dons are assassinated by the police or otherwise, the funerals are held, decorated in green and orange, attended by Honourable Cabinet Ministers (including aspirants to Prime Ministerial office), with messages read by grieving Members of Parliament; and the most famous are interred to the graveside strains of gun salutes. And we all wink at this patent support for fallen colleagues and comrades who have helped the political cause in the past, and whose heirs continue in the tradition. With politicians so close to criminals and with crime reeling out of control, can we take these broadcasts seriously? Is the government serious about putting an end to crime, or is the goal to "return to normalcy", that is, rampant tribalism without blatant murder?
The most extensive winking of all is towards the drug trade; I'm surprised the breeze from the winking eyelashes has not fanned a hurricane. Whole inner city communities are supported by drug money, such that it takes pressure off of their politicians; indeed you can know when the narcotics police and the DEA are doing well, for the politicians feel it in the flood of welfare requests. The link between political garrisons, dons, guns and drugs is well known; and there is a biological link between eye-winking and hands being tied. Why don't the broadcasts repudiate the past the distribution of guns and the creation of garrisons and commit to the creation of a new Jamaica without that sort of criminal tribalism? Again I say, they seem to call for an end to killing so that the tribal distribution of political spoils can continue.
If the Government and Opposition are serious about putting an end to crime, they must first tell us what they are going to do to clean out their own dirty houses! The day the police force is reformed and cleansed, and the politicians break the links with their criminal thugs, is the day decent Jamaicans and we are in the majority will provide all the support and co-operation and information the police need to get illegal guns off the streets and break the back of the drug trade.
While others wink, decent Jamaicans must be steadfast and not blink in the face of the link between politics and crime. As the political parties seek to change their top leadership, we must listen to who promises real change and who promises more of the same.
Peter Espeut is a sociologist and executive director of an environment and development NGO.
