A compelling vision for building a social, equal, and productive world economy

 A compelling vision for building a social, equal, and productive world economy

A major pandemic is one of the classic markers of a civilizational crisis. All of our systems are being put through a stress test. We will discover which are resilient and robust, which are fragile and brittle, and which are actually anti-fragile - thriving on the breakdown of structures. Fortunately, by looking at the signs of systemic stress, we can observe that human ingenuity is producing technologies and ways of doing things that will very likely enable us to overcome this time of troubles. We may be facing challenges, perhaps lasting many years. But we should be confident that global civilization will overcome this, as it has before

Jamaica's crime is not solvable by these, stale, tried and failed measures. The majority of Jamaica's violent crime is gang related.The gangs fill a societal vacuum left behind by successive governments over a long period of time, political parties that nurtured gangs in the past, governments that have let economic inequity soar. People left to fend for themselves, will do just that - fend for themselves. Gangs are then formed. These gangs are now entrenched. As fast as one gangster is killed, there are many youngsters willing to take his place. I say "his" because most of our gangsters are young men. Taking back that space would require drastic, draconian measures. Jamaicans continue to expect and depend on government to deal with crime even though neither political party is willing to take the drastic, draconian measures needed due to the international humanitarian, political, legal and constitutional issues involved. I know this is depressing but the reality is that Jamaicans are going to have to live with a high crime rate for awhile as there is no societal consensus as to what to do about it...Crime may even get worse in the near future. The best one can do is take measures to protect oneself and one's family and hope A compelling vision for building a social, equal, and productive world economy

A major pandemic is one of the classic markers of a civilizational crisis. All of our systems are being put through a stress test. We will discover which are resilient and robust, which are fragile and brittle, and which are actually antifragile—thriving on the breakdown of structures. Fortunately, by looking at the signs of systemic stress, we can observe that human ingenuity is producing technologies and ways of doing things that will very likely enable us to overcome this time of troubles. We may be facing challenges, perhaps lasting many years. But we should be confident that global civilization will overcome this, as it has before

Jamaica's crime is not solvable by these, stale, tried and failed measures. The majority of Jamaica's violent crime is gang related.The gangs fill a societal vacuum left behind by successive governments over a long period of time, political parties that nurtured gangs in the past, governments that have let economic inequity soar. People left to fend for themselves, will do just that - fend for themselves. Gangs are then formed. These gangs are now entrenched. Fast as one gangster is killed, there are many youngsters willing to take his place. I say "his" because most of our gangsters are young men. Taking back that space would require drastic, draconian measures. Jamaicans continue to expect and depend on government to deal with crime even though neither political party is willing to take the drastic, draconian measures needed due to the international humanitarian, political, legal and constitutional issues involved. I know this is depressing but the reality is that Jamaicans are going to have to live with a high crime rate for awhile as there is no societal consensus as to what to do about it...Crime may even get worse for the best - or get a visa when the embassies re-open. Stay safe!

I have but I am a voice crying in the wilderness. Because we are a partisan, tribal society, we prefer to play politics with our crime problem. Our crime problem is not solely a police problem - it is a gang problem. Our brave police are doing their best but they are just the emergency room doctors. The patient (Jamaica) is sick and needs other interventions. Poverty does not cause crime but social and economic inequity and hopelessness do. We need to invest in the societal interventions and adjustments necessary to solve crime. This suggestion is 'unsexy' and does not garner photo ops for partisan political purposes but is one thing that has yet to be tried. In the 1970s, we had the Youth Camp Program which was an intervention that took young men (most of our criminals are young men) out of their environment and family and into a wholesome residential camp setting where they were given a variety of trade training and transition support into the labour market. I was an Assistant Director at one such camp and saw first hand how troubled young men given love and support transformed into useful members of society. Many campers even joined the Police and army.

To quote Mr. Chang: “Well-thinking Jamaicans must come together to ensure not only that the security forces are materially and otherwise equipped to deal with crime as a matter of priority, but that they know the country is behind them as one solid unit.” Nice words. As I have said before, if nice words could solve our crime problem, we would have no crime. We are awash in nice words from our politicians. What we need are actions. I am a strong supporter of good policing. That being said, that does not mean that my support is unconditional. We are going to learn, as the US is now learning, that violence begets violence. We are in a vicious cycle. The more violent the police are, the more violent the gangs become. Our crime problem is not solvable by the police. The police are only the emergency paramedics we call. The patient is sick and we need serious intervention. Crime is a symptom of our sick society. We keep treating the symptom by throwing more and more police at it. We heavily militarize our police that they look like they are fighting in Afghanistan. The head of our police is a military man. This only gives us a false sense of security. I have great admiration for our military but soldiering and policing are two different things and obviously the soldier at the head of our police is a nice man but he is out of his depth. The US is heavily militarizing their police and we see where that is leading – many have been brutalized by their police. Even old, white people are brutalized by American police. One such person was recently pushed to the ground by police leaving the poor man brain damaged. We rely too heavily on our police for what is really a symptom of a sick society. To really help out the police, we need to fix what is wrong with our society which causes the production of so many criminals. More about that anon.

Unlike these diaspora leaders, I am not shocked by what has happened. Why should we be? Jamaica is a killing field. Killings have been going on in Jamaica for decades and policemen are not immune. Only the desperate and the brave join the police in Jamaica. Vision 2030 is now just a pipe dream. I commend the diaspora for helping the police families but unless and until we change our strategies, nothing will change. We will constantly be setting up Go Fund Me accounts for more families soon. The first thing we need to do is to convene a meeting of all sectors to agree on strategies to fight crime - the social and economic inequities that are fueling our gang crime. Leave the politicians out of it. The politicians continue to use crime as a political football. Our politicians are only good for rhetoric and platitudes. Our politicians are hopeless. Since the politicians ignore you, let's ignore them and proceed without them. We rely too much on our politicians for our national development anyway. Jamaica is a free country so no one can stop us from organizing ourselves. I repeat: Organize Yourselves! Once we reach a societal consensus on the strategies needed, then act on them. Now is the time for action. We have talked too much. If talk, regret and platitudes could solve our crime, we would be the most crime free nation on earth.

I am getting a little tired of saying over and over again that our crime problem is not a police problem that is going to be solved by States of Emergencies. We must be insane. We keep doing the same things over and over and expect a different result. I urge this Councillor to be a catalyst for change. Move away from the political party and embrace all of the 'others'. Secondly, Jamaicans need to organize themselves to form a societal consensus about how to deal with crime. Leave the political parties out of it to keep the process sane and non-tribal. We need a grass roots solution to crime not the top down police/government approach. Politicians can be involved but they must leave their 'colours' at the gate. Once we have a consensus: act. As Nike says: Just do it. We have talked long enough. We have thrown police and States of Emergencies at the problem long enough. Jamaica is a free country, we can organize ourselves and legally take the actions needed to do the social, economic and political interventions necessary to deal with our crime which is mostly gang crime.

Raymond D. Grant