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POLICE Commissioner Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin yesterday argued that the biggest obstacle to Jamaica's security is the social and political facilitation of organised crime and warned that the country's efforts at dealing with the nagging problem will not yield fruit if we continue to tolerate criminality.
"If we do not, as Jamaicans, collectively find the will to break the linkages between organised criminal networks, our politics, businesses, communities, and I dare say my own services - the police - then all our efforts at controlling crime will at best be like swimming against the currents," Lewin told journalists at a news conference at Police Officers' Club in St Andrew.
"The fact of the matter is (that) we have practised a kind of politics that has had the most divisive effect on this country and the most corrosive and corrupted influence on individuals and national institutions, including the police force," Lewin added. "Perhaps the biggest obstacle to the control of organised crime is the tolerance of it, or worse, its social and political facilitation."
Lewin called the news conference despite being on the first day of a week-long vacation - his first since assuming the post in December 2007 - and placed political impact at the top of a five dimensional approach to combating organised crime in Jamaica. The others were addressing the commercial effects, law enforcement, socio-economic conditions, and the capturing of civil society groups who have developed a level of tolerance for criminality.
"I am not here to bash politics or the practice of our politicians," he said. "I am just stating things as I see them. Because we need to have a conversation, we need to unburden ourselves in these conversations of whatever part we have played historically or may still be playing that keeps these connectivities alive."
He urged the nation's leaders to take a unified stand against crime instead of a politically competitive approach.
"Can we find the political consensus around the issue of crime and take it out of the competitive politics?" he asked. "We need consensus at a political level. We cannot continue to operate on the basis where when a party is in opposition (they ask) 'why should I help you solve the crime problem to make you look good (and) to win the next election?. That is not statesman-like."
"The kind of things necessary to deal with organised criminal networks and all their linkages requires cleansing on every side, unburdening oneself of the baggage you carry," he said.
Arguing that dons are winning the loyalty of communities, the commissioner said we need to ask where the money the dons are using in that effort is coming from.
"You are seeing this kind of thing replicating itself all over Jamaica," he said. "Check every August, see how many back-to-school treats they have... it is working for the hearts and minds and souls of the communities, and those members of the communities who are not so licky licky and can see through the act, who resist, they are threatened, and through fear they buy in and. cut the State out.
"Some of the money comes from criminal activities, some might be through the promotion of a dance and some come from people who are really not a part of it but are legitimate business owners. But when the thug comes and says, 'look, we are putting on a little treat for the kids I need $50,000', they readily fork it out, no questions asked. I bet you if the Salvation Army came around and begged them some money for their programmes they are going to tell you 'bwoy, business rough' and with the little kindness of their hearts they might give them a little $5,000. But the thug gets $50,000, that's the nature of things."
Lewin also used the news conference to express hope for the day when the investigation of police shootings will be taken out of the hands of the police.
He also addressed a rumour that he had resigned to take up a job in Bermuda. "I wish to assure you that this uniform and insignia here are still the Jamaica Constabulary Force, not the Bermuda Police Force. There is no truth to that rumour that I have been recruited by Bermuda or that I have resigned from the Jamaica Constabulary Force," he said.
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/...IME_LINKS_.asp
"If we do not, as Jamaicans, collectively find the will to break the linkages between organised criminal networks, our politics, businesses, communities, and I dare say my own services - the police - then all our efforts at controlling crime will at best be like swimming against the currents," Lewin told journalists at a news conference at Police Officers' Club in St Andrew.
"The fact of the matter is (that) we have practised a kind of politics that has had the most divisive effect on this country and the most corrosive and corrupted influence on individuals and national institutions, including the police force," Lewin added. "Perhaps the biggest obstacle to the control of organised crime is the tolerance of it, or worse, its social and political facilitation."
Lewin called the news conference despite being on the first day of a week-long vacation - his first since assuming the post in December 2007 - and placed political impact at the top of a five dimensional approach to combating organised crime in Jamaica. The others were addressing the commercial effects, law enforcement, socio-economic conditions, and the capturing of civil society groups who have developed a level of tolerance for criminality.
"I am not here to bash politics or the practice of our politicians," he said. "I am just stating things as I see them. Because we need to have a conversation, we need to unburden ourselves in these conversations of whatever part we have played historically or may still be playing that keeps these connectivities alive."
He urged the nation's leaders to take a unified stand against crime instead of a politically competitive approach.
"Can we find the political consensus around the issue of crime and take it out of the competitive politics?" he asked. "We need consensus at a political level. We cannot continue to operate on the basis where when a party is in opposition (they ask) 'why should I help you solve the crime problem to make you look good (and) to win the next election?. That is not statesman-like."
"The kind of things necessary to deal with organised criminal networks and all their linkages requires cleansing on every side, unburdening oneself of the baggage you carry," he said.
Arguing that dons are winning the loyalty of communities, the commissioner said we need to ask where the money the dons are using in that effort is coming from.
"You are seeing this kind of thing replicating itself all over Jamaica," he said. "Check every August, see how many back-to-school treats they have... it is working for the hearts and minds and souls of the communities, and those members of the communities who are not so licky licky and can see through the act, who resist, they are threatened, and through fear they buy in and. cut the State out.
"Some of the money comes from criminal activities, some might be through the promotion of a dance and some come from people who are really not a part of it but are legitimate business owners. But when the thug comes and says, 'look, we are putting on a little treat for the kids I need $50,000', they readily fork it out, no questions asked. I bet you if the Salvation Army came around and begged them some money for their programmes they are going to tell you 'bwoy, business rough' and with the little kindness of their hearts they might give them a little $5,000. But the thug gets $50,000, that's the nature of things."
Lewin also used the news conference to express hope for the day when the investigation of police shootings will be taken out of the hands of the police.
He also addressed a rumour that he had resigned to take up a job in Bermuda. "I wish to assure you that this uniform and insignia here are still the Jamaica Constabulary Force, not the Bermuda Police Force. There is no truth to that rumour that I have been recruited by Bermuda or that I have resigned from the Jamaica Constabulary Force," he said.
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/...IME_LINKS_.asp
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