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Mark Wignall
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Of all the senior and junior ministers appointed by Prime Minister Golding, Derrick Smith seems to be the weakest, or the one least prepared for the enormous challenges facing his ministry, and indeed, the entire country.
The recent spate of murders is nothing new. As I see it, given the state of affairs in the "hot" inner-city pockets, whenever there is a two- or three-month period when a welcome calm descends on these areas, it signals more of a regrouping of the gunmen who either have to relocate to other areas compassionate to their "plight" or, the guns have to lay low and await the police to get bored and leave.
The police are also aware that whenever "organised" gunmen have a plan for one community, it is a simple matter for them to "hot up" another place for a day or two, then draw the police out to this place after which they unleash hell on the original community. Add to that the fact that some gunmen have friends in the police force, the communication lines are always open and it is a simple matter for a cellphone call to be made to say, "We leaving tomorrow, seen."
Who are these gunmen allied to? What is the great cause for which these killers are fighting? It is known that in many of the ghetto areas the residents have been long abandoned to their own devices. The disadvantages are many. They live in squalor, that is, poor water supplies and sewage, tentative garbage collection, too many people in close proximity putting pressure on, say, a washing area, high teenage pregnancy, poor family life, inadequate education and high youth unemployment. We know all of that.
The advantages are, in most cases, non-payment of utility bills (JPS and the Water Commission dare not disconnect), low rental, and the community serves as a haven for most of the criminality perpetrated by the young men living there.
Again, the question must be asked, is there a great cause being fought for which makes the killing of children justified? To the law-abiding, it boggles the mind that an adult human being can casually snuff out the lives of children and infants. To those gunmen who murder at will, the anger is beyond comprehension. None out of ten times a young killer will have had a history of violent deaths in his family, almost all killed by, usually, the police or other gunmen.
In the late 1970s when I visited a heavily armed inner-city community, one woman told me, "If yu come yah las' year an si a yout and now yu nuh see 'im, 'im eider deh a prison, cemetery or foreign." Many of the young men no longer know why they are doing what they are doing, only that it is what their fathers and uncles did. Where violence is the first resort in most matters, the cause of whatever is the latest fuss loses its appeal and the gun takes over.
Derrick Smith, it seems, would like us to believe that the latest round of murders is being carried out by guns painted orange. If he really believes that there is an overriding political motive attached to the killings, what is it then holding him back from telling us that if we want the killings to cease, we should speedily re-elect the PNP?
Security Minister Derrick Smith is very obviously one of those in the JLP who were rewarded for long service. Years ago when he was the JLP spokesman on national security, a joke in PNP circles was that the only time Smith opened his mouth was whenever there was a jailbreak somewhere.
I would like to believe that our new minister of national security is more solid than that. I know the minister. He is not one of those given over to arrogance and bad manners. In plain language, Mr Smith is a nice man. Since 1989 he has had all the time in the world watching Jamaica's murder rate shoot through the roof while he has made comment where necessary. We believe that he must have had grander plans which went way beyond the spurious comments.
Today, this time, we are calling on Derrick Smith to address the nation and fully inform us as to what he understands our crime situation to be, the proximate causes and the solutions in the short and long term. We know that crime is connected to too many guns in the wrong hands. That is a given.
What we do not know is, who is bankrolling AK-47s and M-16s at over $250,000 per firearm. How does a youngster, aged 22, who has never held a steady job get possession of an assault rifle at that price? I certainly did not get the impression that the politics of the day was still into bankrolling arms and ammunition.
A few months ago a 36-year-old man whom I will call "Rat" was shot dead. I won't say which geographical area he operated in because that would be giving it away. Rat was allied to the JLP and had been one of those individuals leading the extortion charge along a well-known, well-travelled strip of road. In the many conversations I had with Rat, especially those which centred on extortion, his responses would always be, "Mr Wignall, a foolishness dem a chat. No extortion nah gwan ya so."
As I gathered, his JLP contacts wanted him to cease the extortion but he wanted money, hard cash in his hands. My sources tell me that money exchanged hands, but no sooner had that been done than a well-known PNP activist don approached him with an offer of cash to change the "colour" of the community from green to orange.
In quick time he was shot dead, not by a well-known "shotta" but by a 14-year-old child with a "matic". The Rats of Jamaica are easy to spot. The real difficulty is in isolating the 14-year-old who is, in too many instances, all too willing to fill a slot at a time when the gun culture has made the leap from subculture to centrestage.
It is my view that Senator Trevor McMillan would have been a better pick for Security Minister but then again maybe, just maybe, the colonel may be headed back to a place where his services can be better utilised.
For now we can do without excuses from Mr Derrick Smith. I agree with him that there has been a spike since the JLP won the elections. But, so what! Over the long, debilitating life of the PNP administration there were many peaks and troughs in the murders committed.
The first order of business is the taking in of the guns and in this regard I expect the minister to be more creative. What is there to be lost from instituting a gun amnesty for, say, three months?
observemark@gmail.com
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Of all the senior and junior ministers appointed by Prime Minister Golding, Derrick Smith seems to be the weakest, or the one least prepared for the enormous challenges facing his ministry, and indeed, the entire country.
The recent spate of murders is nothing new. As I see it, given the state of affairs in the "hot" inner-city pockets, whenever there is a two- or three-month period when a welcome calm descends on these areas, it signals more of a regrouping of the gunmen who either have to relocate to other areas compassionate to their "plight" or, the guns have to lay low and await the police to get bored and leave.
The police are also aware that whenever "organised" gunmen have a plan for one community, it is a simple matter for them to "hot up" another place for a day or two, then draw the police out to this place after which they unleash hell on the original community. Add to that the fact that some gunmen have friends in the police force, the communication lines are always open and it is a simple matter for a cellphone call to be made to say, "We leaving tomorrow, seen."
Who are these gunmen allied to? What is the great cause for which these killers are fighting? It is known that in many of the ghetto areas the residents have been long abandoned to their own devices. The disadvantages are many. They live in squalor, that is, poor water supplies and sewage, tentative garbage collection, too many people in close proximity putting pressure on, say, a washing area, high teenage pregnancy, poor family life, inadequate education and high youth unemployment. We know all of that.
The advantages are, in most cases, non-payment of utility bills (JPS and the Water Commission dare not disconnect), low rental, and the community serves as a haven for most of the criminality perpetrated by the young men living there.
Again, the question must be asked, is there a great cause being fought for which makes the killing of children justified? To the law-abiding, it boggles the mind that an adult human being can casually snuff out the lives of children and infants. To those gunmen who murder at will, the anger is beyond comprehension. None out of ten times a young killer will have had a history of violent deaths in his family, almost all killed by, usually, the police or other gunmen.
In the late 1970s when I visited a heavily armed inner-city community, one woman told me, "If yu come yah las' year an si a yout and now yu nuh see 'im, 'im eider deh a prison, cemetery or foreign." Many of the young men no longer know why they are doing what they are doing, only that it is what their fathers and uncles did. Where violence is the first resort in most matters, the cause of whatever is the latest fuss loses its appeal and the gun takes over.
Derrick Smith, it seems, would like us to believe that the latest round of murders is being carried out by guns painted orange. If he really believes that there is an overriding political motive attached to the killings, what is it then holding him back from telling us that if we want the killings to cease, we should speedily re-elect the PNP?
Security Minister Derrick Smith is very obviously one of those in the JLP who were rewarded for long service. Years ago when he was the JLP spokesman on national security, a joke in PNP circles was that the only time Smith opened his mouth was whenever there was a jailbreak somewhere.
I would like to believe that our new minister of national security is more solid than that. I know the minister. He is not one of those given over to arrogance and bad manners. In plain language, Mr Smith is a nice man. Since 1989 he has had all the time in the world watching Jamaica's murder rate shoot through the roof while he has made comment where necessary. We believe that he must have had grander plans which went way beyond the spurious comments.
Today, this time, we are calling on Derrick Smith to address the nation and fully inform us as to what he understands our crime situation to be, the proximate causes and the solutions in the short and long term. We know that crime is connected to too many guns in the wrong hands. That is a given.
What we do not know is, who is bankrolling AK-47s and M-16s at over $250,000 per firearm. How does a youngster, aged 22, who has never held a steady job get possession of an assault rifle at that price? I certainly did not get the impression that the politics of the day was still into bankrolling arms and ammunition.
A few months ago a 36-year-old man whom I will call "Rat" was shot dead. I won't say which geographical area he operated in because that would be giving it away. Rat was allied to the JLP and had been one of those individuals leading the extortion charge along a well-known, well-travelled strip of road. In the many conversations I had with Rat, especially those which centred on extortion, his responses would always be, "Mr Wignall, a foolishness dem a chat. No extortion nah gwan ya so."
As I gathered, his JLP contacts wanted him to cease the extortion but he wanted money, hard cash in his hands. My sources tell me that money exchanged hands, but no sooner had that been done than a well-known PNP activist don approached him with an offer of cash to change the "colour" of the community from green to orange.
In quick time he was shot dead, not by a well-known "shotta" but by a 14-year-old child with a "matic". The Rats of Jamaica are easy to spot. The real difficulty is in isolating the 14-year-old who is, in too many instances, all too willing to fill a slot at a time when the gun culture has made the leap from subculture to centrestage.
It is my view that Senator Trevor McMillan would have been a better pick for Security Minister but then again maybe, just maybe, the colonel may be headed back to a place where his services can be better utilised.
For now we can do without excuses from Mr Derrick Smith. I agree with him that there has been a spike since the JLP won the elections. But, so what! Over the long, debilitating life of the PNP administration there were many peaks and troughs in the murders committed.
The first order of business is the taking in of the guns and in this regard I expect the minister to be more creative. What is there to be lost from instituting a gun amnesty for, say, three months?
observemark@gmail.com
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