‘Paradise gone bad’

The state of crime in Jamaica, was, yesterday, the focus of sharp rebuke from Pastor Dr Meric Walker, president of the East Jamaica Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, who likened the country to a “paradise that has gone bad”.

Walker, who did not mince words, was delivering the homily during the thanksgiving service for the life of slain veteran journalist Barbara Gayle inside a packed Kencot Seventh-day Adventist Church in Kingston.

“We are gathered here, and we are not satisfied with the crime stats because today, crime puts us to mourn the untimely death of an upright, peace-abiding citizen of our paradise that has gone bad. The breaker of news became the news,” Walker said.

He told the congregation that Gayle was gone too soon and that she had much more to give.

“Her expanding WhatsApp group is still without some people, and she is [here] no more to cut and paste and to press send to cheer, to guide, to counsel by the way. So we declare she is gone too soon. We memorialise her as one of Jamaica’s best and a consummate journalist and a passionate disciple of Christ,” Walker said.

The clergyman, who had the undivided attention of the gathering of mourners, said Jamaicans have to declare that they need to stand up some more for peace and harmony.

“As a leader, I will not pretend that I am all strong because it is not an easy road to know that your loved one is no more because she is cut down. We are not satisfied with the stats, and as Jamaicans, all of us, we must utilise all the technology and our strategic location and our community synergy to drive back the albatross of crime and violence in our society,” he said.

Gayle was found dead at her home in the gated community of Caymanas Country Club Estate in St Catherine on December 17 last year. Her body had multiple stab wounds and a gash to the face.

Her GLA 180 Mercedes Benz was also stolen but found the following day along the Dyke Road in Portmore, St Catherine.

Twenty-four-year -old Travis Ellis has since been charged with her murder.

Jamaica recorded 1,141 murders last year, a reduction of 19 per cent.

Since the start of the year, 58 murders have been recorded as at January 25.

The pastor said the Jamaican people are currently in a valley, and those who perpetuate crime do not make that valley any easier to navigate.

“We are in this valley, but I declare to you that the valley is not beneath His reach because He is able to reach down, and in our darkness and our dismay and our mourning, He can give us joy,” Walker said, adding that the mourning of people is not above God’s strength.

In the meantime, Director of Public Prosecutions Paula Llewellyn, who also gave a tribute during the three and a half hour-long ceremony, said Gayle was her ‘Big Woman Friend’ and she was simply the best.

“Fortunately, or unfortunately, I remain the director of public prosecutions, and it will be my indictment that will pilot the process throughout the administration of justice that she loved, and I can hear her saying to me, ‘Paula, I know that you will be fair’. And in honour of Barbara, all the resources, our acumen, our legal skills will be put to make sure that justice is done, but part of our DNA will be that we will be fair,” Llewellyn said to thunderous applause.

Former Gleaner Editor-In-Chief, Wyvolyn Gager described Gayle as the definition of an individual with a golden heart.

“Someone remarked to me that we shouldn’t focus on the manner of her death. With due respect, my response was ‘Seriously, I wish it were that easy’. Sadly, I’m stuck in time, December 17, 2024, close to 11 a.m. when I got a telephone call from a friend in the US (United States), and his opening words were, ‘Tell me it is not true’. Instinctively I dialled Barbs, no answer. I made a few more calls and eventually it was confirmed with the sentence, ‘Yes, it’s true. The police are at her house right now’,” Gager said.

Gager said she was broken into tiny pieces and that Jamaica needs to be made whole again.

“I believe many of you were equally shattered. Every night I lie awake imagining Barbs fighting for her life in those final terrifying moments. How could brutality of such proportion descend on someone like her, a woman half my size, attacked in her home and shown no mercy? A woman with a golden heart, who gave more than she took, a woman who mended more than she broke. Sadly, there are so many broken hearts in our beautiful country. We need urgent reset,” Gager said.

The message, seemingly, struck a chord with the audience, which gave its applause of approval.

The service was filled with family, current and former journalists, as well as prominent members of society, particularly the legal fraternity.

andre.williams@gleanerjm.com