Melville Cooke
In a country where the'informer' is, unfortunately, a pariah, and the code of silence is often violently enforced, evidence of any wrongdoing which has not left a warm physical trail is very elusive.
More elusive than a man who was on the police's 'Most Wanted' list for a decade, in a country that is already small, with even smaller areas to live in. That wasn't a 'wanted' list, that was a 'wish list'.
And forget about confessions. The national motto should be 'It Wasn't Me', not the highly inaccurate 'Out of Many, One People'.
So I do not expect either political party by name only, since the two are simply different shades of the same founding family tree, to fess up to or be linked in any way that can stand up in a court of law to criminal organisations which support them.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN KNOWING AND KNOWING
There is a difference, though, between knowing and knowing (if you know what I mean) and Superintendent Kenneth Wade, commanding officer of St. Catherine north, knows that the late Donovan 'Bulbie' Bennett of seven-bedroom house and no visible means of support was supported by persons in high places. As
he was quoted in The Gleaner on Tuesday, after the first day of the riots in Spanish Town, "We have persons who are fully elected members supporting the criminal activities of this man."
And, of course, the following day the Member of Parliament for South Central St. Catherine, Sharon Hay-Webster, challenged Wade to call names.
Which I do not expect that the superintendent will be able to do, as much as he probably would like to 'wade' in with arms flailing. He knows, but he does not know in the way that the Jamaican law demands so stoutly when it stands between the well-heeled lawless and genetically linked and the pursuit of justice.
Which is not to say, of course, that he meant Haye-Webster. Or Colin Campbell, who has also challenged Wade to "do what the law requires."
I have always thought that fighting real crime in Jamaica (and I am not talking about two people in a squabble and there is a chopping, or supermarket being broken into) must be a very frustrating job, especially if the law officer in question is serious about what they are doing. For, real crime (like the extortion businesses in downtown Kingston, Spanish Town and May Pen) and politics are so intertwined that if I were a serious law officer, I would wonder if I should not simply head to the respective constituency offices of the two political parties and do a 'Braeton'.
It is instructive that so far on this matter (unless a statement was issued late yesterday afternoon), the party of the bell seems to have lost its tongue on this matter. After all, is not the level of crime and the murder rate a major plank that the JLP plans to walk into Gordon House? (see Delroy Chuck's weekly dose of 'laborious' commentary). So Mr. Wade's statement is tailor-made for them to utilise.
Except that they may just be 'weighed' and found wanting as well and the suit is reversible, green on one side and orange on the other. The JLP and the PNP do tend to close ranks on this matter of politics and crime, as I mentioned last week, such as in the 1990's 'Politics of Crime' televised forum and the name of Hay-Webster's JLP counterpart on the documents for the death carriage of Bulbie's One Order counterpart last year.
I maintain that Jamaica does not have a crime problem as much as it has a political problem.
CRIMINAL RECORD
I have also heard some talk show talkers questioning if Bulbie had a criminal record. That makes me want to laugh and vomit at the same time. In a country where we are quite capable of shooting witnesses in the back of the head with deadly accuracy at the intersection of Waterloo, Trafalgar and Hope roads on an ordinary work morning, who the hell is going to give evidence against any gunman of note?
Evidence is elusive. Witnesses are not.
To tell a lie and believe it is the worst of illusions. As a country, we are labouring under the illusion that our real crime problem has nothing to do with politics and I mean here not only the politicians themselves, but the media, the church and other components of what is loosely called civil society. We have told ourselves the lie that 'de bway dem a gwaan bad' and that is that. That cannot be far from insanity.
There is one more juicy question to answer, though, and the evidence will be there for all to see. Which political figure will go to Bulbie's funeral?
Melville Cooke is a freelance writer.
