Tweet
The benefits of smashing the Tivoli crime conglomeration
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Even in the absence of empirical data, we are convinced that the dramatic drop in crime, especially murders, is a direct derivative of last year May's security operations in Tivoli Gardens, West Kingston.
Readers are entitled to disagree with this conclusion, but we have seen nothing else to persuade us to believe otherwise.
We are among Jamaicans celebrating the 44 per cent drop in the number of murders committed over the first three months of 2011, as compared with the similar period last year, based on police statistics.
That represents a fall in murders from 426 in the first three months of 2010, to 238 murders in the first quarter of this year, or a total reduction of 188.
When the figures are further broken down across police divisions in the Corporate Area, we are seeing reductions well above 50 per cent, with some of the stand-out areas such as the St Andrew North Police Division - 78 per cent reduction in murders; the St Andrew South Division - 58 per cent decline; Kingston Central and Kingston Western - 60 per cent declines, and Kingston Eastern - 50 per cent reduction.
In addition, night life, particularly in Kingston, has begun to revive and the thickness of the fear that could be felt in the air, has begun to dissipate.
In hindsight, therefore, it would seem that previous attempts by the police at flushing out the criminals from Tivoli Gardens were justified, even if they were villified as being politically motivated.
We can also conclude that were those efforts successful, the estimated 73 fatalities suffered in 2010, might have been far less than say the 27 deaths when Mr Reneto Adams made his ill-fated attempt a decade ago.
We'll go further to suggest that the over 1,000 murders recorded in Jamaica over the years since 2001, might well have been much less.
And if the World Bank's 2011 Development Report is to be believed, we would have saved much of the $34 billion that the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development says crime is costing us every year.
Jamaica has indeed paid a high price for crime, and Tivoli Gardens has provided haven for some of the most heinous criminals over the years. Now they have nowhere to hide and that is showing up in the falling crime figures.
How much of the credit that goes to Prime Minister Bruce Golding for this development is still up for deeper analysis. What is clear is that his decision to send the security forces into Tivoli Gardens in search of former strong-man Christopher 'Dudus' Coke, resulted, intentionally or not, in one of the best things to have happened to Jamaica since Independence.
But the point is not just to look back. Rather, it is to take stock of what we have lost to crime and to help us appreciate the relative calm that we are now enjoying.
The brave work of our security forces, some of whom lost their lives last year, and their continued work to keep our society safe, must be appropriately recognised and rewarded.
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/edito...#ixzz1JVXVY1dB
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Even in the absence of empirical data, we are convinced that the dramatic drop in crime, especially murders, is a direct derivative of last year May's security operations in Tivoli Gardens, West Kingston.
Readers are entitled to disagree with this conclusion, but we have seen nothing else to persuade us to believe otherwise.
We are among Jamaicans celebrating the 44 per cent drop in the number of murders committed over the first three months of 2011, as compared with the similar period last year, based on police statistics.
That represents a fall in murders from 426 in the first three months of 2010, to 238 murders in the first quarter of this year, or a total reduction of 188.
When the figures are further broken down across police divisions in the Corporate Area, we are seeing reductions well above 50 per cent, with some of the stand-out areas such as the St Andrew North Police Division - 78 per cent reduction in murders; the St Andrew South Division - 58 per cent decline; Kingston Central and Kingston Western - 60 per cent declines, and Kingston Eastern - 50 per cent reduction.
In addition, night life, particularly in Kingston, has begun to revive and the thickness of the fear that could be felt in the air, has begun to dissipate.
In hindsight, therefore, it would seem that previous attempts by the police at flushing out the criminals from Tivoli Gardens were justified, even if they were villified as being politically motivated.
We can also conclude that were those efforts successful, the estimated 73 fatalities suffered in 2010, might have been far less than say the 27 deaths when Mr Reneto Adams made his ill-fated attempt a decade ago.
We'll go further to suggest that the over 1,000 murders recorded in Jamaica over the years since 2001, might well have been much less.
And if the World Bank's 2011 Development Report is to be believed, we would have saved much of the $34 billion that the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development says crime is costing us every year.
Jamaica has indeed paid a high price for crime, and Tivoli Gardens has provided haven for some of the most heinous criminals over the years. Now they have nowhere to hide and that is showing up in the falling crime figures.
How much of the credit that goes to Prime Minister Bruce Golding for this development is still up for deeper analysis. What is clear is that his decision to send the security forces into Tivoli Gardens in search of former strong-man Christopher 'Dudus' Coke, resulted, intentionally or not, in one of the best things to have happened to Jamaica since Independence.
But the point is not just to look back. Rather, it is to take stock of what we have lost to crime and to help us appreciate the relative calm that we are now enjoying.
The brave work of our security forces, some of whom lost their lives last year, and their continued work to keep our society safe, must be appropriately recognised and rewarded.
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/edito...#ixzz1JVXVY1dB
Comment