Letter of the Day | Solution to Ja’s crime problems

THE EDITOR, Madam:

Jamaica is ravaged by the scourge of crime and violence which continue to play havoc on our people. It is the single most impediment to growth and development. Crime and violence have caused the country billions of US dollars; not to mention the loss of thousands of innocent lives. Successive governments have failed to find sustainable solutions to our crime problems.

After a detailed analysis of our crime problems, here is a synopsis of solutions:

1 Mandatory school attendance for all persons between the age of five and 18. A ticketing system and custodian sentence for parents who fail to ensure that their children attend school.

2 Eight o’clock curfew for all children under 18 years, unless they are companied by their parents. A ticketing system and custodian sentence for parents who fail to ensure that their children adhere to the curfew.

3 Create one boot camp in every parish for students who are difficult to integrate into the normal school system; run by soldiers.

4 All students who have graduated from high school and who are not working or are not in a tertiary institution must enrol in the army until they are employed or are in college.

5 Develop at least one multiple training institution in each parish for those who are not part of the normal school system. Offer a wide variety of skills to include music.

6 Create mandatory national identification cards that are machine readable from birth. The cards will be built like a credit card with a chip. The card must have: full name, photo of the person, date of birth, and height. The chip will have: full name, photo of the person, date of birth, height, address, parents’ name, colour of hair, eye, and skin, as well as fingerprint (optional, based on legality).

7 Flatten all informal communities and build high-rise apartments, with community centres, play, and recreation areas. Implement a proper registration and minimum monthly payment plan for all occupants. This should start in violence-prone inner cities.

8 Government must give scholarships for a minimum of 24 students to study criminology. Have a minimum of one per parish.

9 Employ 14 foreigners at the rank of captains, to be in charge of crime for each parish for a period of two years, to minimise corruption and ‘give-me-a-bly mentality’.

10 Park a police car at every intersection within violence producing areas. A police officer and a soldier must be together. Have two police officers’ stations in each violence-producing area, two chains apart.

11 Build roads in informal communities, even at the expense of removing houses to create the roads.

12 Have a drone in every parish, use them to track and infiltrate crimes.

13 Use trained dogs to search for guns and drugs at homes and at checkpoints. Do house-to-house searches, including in upper-class communities. Use dogs at crime scenes to find guns and clues.

14 Use metal detectors to search for guns in homes and at checkpoints.

15 Use Google Earth map technology to track down criminals immediately after an event.

16 Every police should have a device that can detect gunpowder on people’s body. They should also have handheld machines to read ID. All police vehicles must have trackers and computer systems to get all drivers and vehicle information. Police should use more unmarked vehicles to drive around and check out drivers via their licence plate number.

17 Have a gun amnesty.

 

18 Establish a swift justice system. Start with all the newest murder cases.

19 Mandatory life imprison-ment for any gun-related crimes.

20 Create social-intervention programmes in every community.

21 Employ a criminal lawyer for each parish to help build murder cases.

22 Amend the Proceeds of Crime Act to investigate convicted public servants, politicians and their relatives/cronies, with the aim of recovering 100 per cent of all that was gained illegally.

23 We need a paradigm shift to address greed, selfishness, indiscipline, ignorance, corruption, hate, and respect at all levels.

24 There must be a zero tolerance for rules and laws violations and perpetrators must be held accountable by parents/guardians, communities, schools, and law-enforcement officers.

25 Mandatory minimum 10-year sentences and fines for public service workers and politicians who are found guilty of fraud and corruption.

26 Finally, we need divine Intervention, but we must have faith and put in the required work, because faith without work is death.

JOHN MCINTOSH