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The fight for our youth
published: Sunday | December 9, 2007
Don Robotham, Contributor
Police personnel maintaining a presence in Hendon, Norwood, St. James during a recent joint operation with a military team that cordoned off sections of the community which was placed under curfew. - File
The local government elections came and went like the proverbial 'sammy mout.' We have much bigger issues on our plate. The grim statistic speaks for itself: at the time of writing, it has reached just under 1,500 persons murdered. It is likely to go much higher in the new year.
To win this battle, we must understand what it is we are fighting. We are fighting for the hearts and minds of our youth. Crime is only one brutal expression of the extreme alienation of our youth. The issue before us is this: Will our youth take a path of orderliness and integration into society? Or will they turn en masse to violence and criminality? That is the broad nature of the crisis which we face and which we have to address urgently.
We, therefore, need a two-pronged approach. The first prong must be intensified security. The second prong must be a massive social intervention.
The focus in the past weeks has been on the quantitative surge in the number of homicides. But, what if there is also a qualitative change taking place? What if the criminality is evolving in a more political direction? I am not talking about PNP and JLP politics. I am talking about something more sinister - possibly the morphing of criminality into armed political protest.
COPS TARGETED
Is this far-fetched? 'Take sleep and mark death.' Look carefully at the increased murder of policemen. The target here is not the policeman in his individual capacity, but the policeman as an agent of the Jamaican state. Further, when criminal gangs go by names such as 'Gang of Nine' or 'Stonecrushers,' or 'One Order,' or even 'Clansman', there is little to remark on. When the name shifts to 'Gideon Warriors', however, we should prick up our ears. Gideon was the one called by God to lead the Israelites against oppression by the Midianites. Take a read off Judges chapter 6 if you wish to grasp this point more clearly.
Jamaica, like many other countries, has a long, romanticised tradition of the political use of the Bible for the purposes of populist revolt. These are not organised political movements with identifiable ideologies. These are spontaneous anarchic bands clinging to a strong local personality. They are strange hybrids of criminality and politics outside of traditional party lines. We may not be there yet, but that is the unmistakable trend.
We must, therefore, act with despatch. We are currently losing the fight for the youth. The 'hotspot' strategy is not working. We now have 142 such 'hotspots.' In other words, the entire country is becoming one big 'hotspot.' Further, the hotspot approach is reactive, whereas we need to be proactive - dealing with the 'spot' before it becomes 'hot.'
The 'hotspot' strategy is also too militaristic, which further increases youth alienation. 'Hotspot' is really a series of legally unregulated informal mini states of emergency.
The challenge is how to act robustly, but within a human rights framework, while minimising youth alienation.
Our immediate objective must be to get a breathing space. It must not be to 'solve crime'. Solving crime is a long-term proposition. Our challenge is the very immediate short term - today - as you read this article. This does not mean neglecting long-term social measures which I shall come to at the end. But, if we do not get a grip on the immediate short term, there will be no long term.
The present situation is like a deadly football match in which the other side maintains total possession and keeps scoring goal after goal. Before we can score goals, we have to get hold of the ball and change the direction of play.
We have a new captain and playmaker in the person of Commissioner Hardley Lewin. There are still huge problems with the team. Still, this playmaker can help us to take our first step - to get hold of the ball and to change the direction of play. Our immediate short-term objective must be to seize the initiative against the criminals and to put them on the defensive. Only then can we even begin to think of how to score goals.
PREVENTIVE DETENTION ORDERS
The only way to do this is by applying a series of preventive detention orders. These would be human rights incursions largely against poor youth, and we should admit that frankly. But we would regulate them judicially.
The reason why we need preventive detention is because we cannot get convictions against the existing gunmen. Even where we can, collecting evidence which can stand up in court and then the trial itself, takes too long. There is no real prospect of reducing this length of time in the short run. We cannot afford to wait anymore. It's no use talking about better police intelligence if we cannot act immediately on such intelligence.
We have about 4,260 youth leading the onslaught of violence (30 per hotspot). We will not have to lock up all of them without trial. We just have to send a powerful message by making an example of a few. Let's say three ringleaders per hotspot - or about 500 persons.
We should house people we detain in very good, humane conditions. No razor wire, no search lights, no concentration camp, vengeful, counter-productive Gun Court rubbish. On the contrary, it should strive to be constructive and rehabilitative. This is crucial. We are trying to win the youth, not crush them.
Such orders are now common in the United Kingdom - sanctified by the Mother of Parliaments and the Law Lords in the Privy Council no less. Under the Terrorism Act of 2006, a suspect can be detained for 28 days without charge. The British government has been trying unsuccessfully to get it extended to at least 40 days. Sir Ian Blair, the head of the Metropolitan Police, has called for an extension to 90 days.
In addition, the British have a system of 'control orders', which in effect, boil down to house arrest without trial. Further, under the Crime and Disorder Act of 1998, the Police Reform Act of 2002, and the Anti-Social Behaviour Act of 2003, 'anti-social behaviour orders' as well as 'acceptable behaviour contracts' can be imposed by a court (in the former case), ultimately with the possibility of leading to imprisonment.
CCTV cameras are in every nook and cranny of the country. Those who have been to the U.K. recently can testify to the fact that all this has not transformed Britain into a police state! On the contrary, London continues to be an even more free-wheeling city than before. All of this is highly controversial in the U.K., but it has been done. This British experience proves that you can have robust security policies and preserve many (not all) human rights at the same time.
The way to achieve this is two-fold. First, the preventive detention orders have to come under judicial supervision. A section of the senior court must be cordoned off for this purpose. Second, the court should incorporate a number of our existing human rights lawyers and activists. The purpose of this is to ensure that preventive detention orders are taken out of the political realm and put within the framework of justice and the rule of law. The further purpose is to incorporate human rights supervision proactively ante hoc, before abuses occur and not simply as a post hoc investigative agency after offences have been committed.
MASSIVE SOCIAL INTERVENTION
But the above measures will fail if they are not accompanied by serious social interventions to win the battle for the youth. The Prime Minister is greatly to be commended on the launching of the Prime Minister's Awards for Youth. This is an extremely important step in the right direction and merits far more publicity. But, we must go further.
We must set up a public-private sector youth foundation. This is key in order to deprive the criminals of the moral argument that established Jamaican society cares nought for them and that their proper home is the house of crime.
The youth foundation must be properly funded. The possible sources are fivefold: multilateral sources (the World Bank, the European Union, the Department for International Development); increased property taxes, and a special levy on financial services; debt restructuring; Jamaican private sector contributions; and, reallocations from the existing budget. Probably some combination of these five will be required.
Social interventions on the scale we need do not come cheap. But it is a small price to pay to regain control of our society and our destiny.
published: Sunday | December 9, 2007
Don Robotham, Contributor
Police personnel maintaining a presence in Hendon, Norwood, St. James during a recent joint operation with a military team that cordoned off sections of the community which was placed under curfew. - File
The local government elections came and went like the proverbial 'sammy mout.' We have much bigger issues on our plate. The grim statistic speaks for itself: at the time of writing, it has reached just under 1,500 persons murdered. It is likely to go much higher in the new year.
To win this battle, we must understand what it is we are fighting. We are fighting for the hearts and minds of our youth. Crime is only one brutal expression of the extreme alienation of our youth. The issue before us is this: Will our youth take a path of orderliness and integration into society? Or will they turn en masse to violence and criminality? That is the broad nature of the crisis which we face and which we have to address urgently.
We, therefore, need a two-pronged approach. The first prong must be intensified security. The second prong must be a massive social intervention.
The focus in the past weeks has been on the quantitative surge in the number of homicides. But, what if there is also a qualitative change taking place? What if the criminality is evolving in a more political direction? I am not talking about PNP and JLP politics. I am talking about something more sinister - possibly the morphing of criminality into armed political protest.
COPS TARGETED
Is this far-fetched? 'Take sleep and mark death.' Look carefully at the increased murder of policemen. The target here is not the policeman in his individual capacity, but the policeman as an agent of the Jamaican state. Further, when criminal gangs go by names such as 'Gang of Nine' or 'Stonecrushers,' or 'One Order,' or even 'Clansman', there is little to remark on. When the name shifts to 'Gideon Warriors', however, we should prick up our ears. Gideon was the one called by God to lead the Israelites against oppression by the Midianites. Take a read off Judges chapter 6 if you wish to grasp this point more clearly.
Jamaica, like many other countries, has a long, romanticised tradition of the political use of the Bible for the purposes of populist revolt. These are not organised political movements with identifiable ideologies. These are spontaneous anarchic bands clinging to a strong local personality. They are strange hybrids of criminality and politics outside of traditional party lines. We may not be there yet, but that is the unmistakable trend.
We must, therefore, act with despatch. We are currently losing the fight for the youth. The 'hotspot' strategy is not working. We now have 142 such 'hotspots.' In other words, the entire country is becoming one big 'hotspot.' Further, the hotspot approach is reactive, whereas we need to be proactive - dealing with the 'spot' before it becomes 'hot.'
The 'hotspot' strategy is also too militaristic, which further increases youth alienation. 'Hotspot' is really a series of legally unregulated informal mini states of emergency.
The challenge is how to act robustly, but within a human rights framework, while minimising youth alienation.
Our immediate objective must be to get a breathing space. It must not be to 'solve crime'. Solving crime is a long-term proposition. Our challenge is the very immediate short term - today - as you read this article. This does not mean neglecting long-term social measures which I shall come to at the end. But, if we do not get a grip on the immediate short term, there will be no long term.
The present situation is like a deadly football match in which the other side maintains total possession and keeps scoring goal after goal. Before we can score goals, we have to get hold of the ball and change the direction of play.
We have a new captain and playmaker in the person of Commissioner Hardley Lewin. There are still huge problems with the team. Still, this playmaker can help us to take our first step - to get hold of the ball and to change the direction of play. Our immediate short-term objective must be to seize the initiative against the criminals and to put them on the defensive. Only then can we even begin to think of how to score goals.
PREVENTIVE DETENTION ORDERS
The only way to do this is by applying a series of preventive detention orders. These would be human rights incursions largely against poor youth, and we should admit that frankly. But we would regulate them judicially.
The reason why we need preventive detention is because we cannot get convictions against the existing gunmen. Even where we can, collecting evidence which can stand up in court and then the trial itself, takes too long. There is no real prospect of reducing this length of time in the short run. We cannot afford to wait anymore. It's no use talking about better police intelligence if we cannot act immediately on such intelligence.
We have about 4,260 youth leading the onslaught of violence (30 per hotspot). We will not have to lock up all of them without trial. We just have to send a powerful message by making an example of a few. Let's say three ringleaders per hotspot - or about 500 persons.
We should house people we detain in very good, humane conditions. No razor wire, no search lights, no concentration camp, vengeful, counter-productive Gun Court rubbish. On the contrary, it should strive to be constructive and rehabilitative. This is crucial. We are trying to win the youth, not crush them.
Such orders are now common in the United Kingdom - sanctified by the Mother of Parliaments and the Law Lords in the Privy Council no less. Under the Terrorism Act of 2006, a suspect can be detained for 28 days without charge. The British government has been trying unsuccessfully to get it extended to at least 40 days. Sir Ian Blair, the head of the Metropolitan Police, has called for an extension to 90 days.
In addition, the British have a system of 'control orders', which in effect, boil down to house arrest without trial. Further, under the Crime and Disorder Act of 1998, the Police Reform Act of 2002, and the Anti-Social Behaviour Act of 2003, 'anti-social behaviour orders' as well as 'acceptable behaviour contracts' can be imposed by a court (in the former case), ultimately with the possibility of leading to imprisonment.
CCTV cameras are in every nook and cranny of the country. Those who have been to the U.K. recently can testify to the fact that all this has not transformed Britain into a police state! On the contrary, London continues to be an even more free-wheeling city than before. All of this is highly controversial in the U.K., but it has been done. This British experience proves that you can have robust security policies and preserve many (not all) human rights at the same time.
The way to achieve this is two-fold. First, the preventive detention orders have to come under judicial supervision. A section of the senior court must be cordoned off for this purpose. Second, the court should incorporate a number of our existing human rights lawyers and activists. The purpose of this is to ensure that preventive detention orders are taken out of the political realm and put within the framework of justice and the rule of law. The further purpose is to incorporate human rights supervision proactively ante hoc, before abuses occur and not simply as a post hoc investigative agency after offences have been committed.
MASSIVE SOCIAL INTERVENTION
But the above measures will fail if they are not accompanied by serious social interventions to win the battle for the youth. The Prime Minister is greatly to be commended on the launching of the Prime Minister's Awards for Youth. This is an extremely important step in the right direction and merits far more publicity. But, we must go further.
We must set up a public-private sector youth foundation. This is key in order to deprive the criminals of the moral argument that established Jamaican society cares nought for them and that their proper home is the house of crime.
The youth foundation must be properly funded. The possible sources are fivefold: multilateral sources (the World Bank, the European Union, the Department for International Development); increased property taxes, and a special levy on financial services; debt restructuring; Jamaican private sector contributions; and, reallocations from the existing budget. Probably some combination of these five will be required.
Social interventions on the scale we need do not come cheap. But it is a small price to pay to regain control of our society and our destiny.