A Jamaican In Exile

 https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/opinion/on-reforming-the-jcf_232827?profile=1096 I refer to the column by Malik Smith 'Reforming the JCF' of 4th October 2021. As someone who was once a teen aged recruit in the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) and who worked with the JCF as a civilian, I can vouch for the writer's claims. Inefficiency, corruption and brutality are rampant and normalized in the culture of the JCF. Like my time in the JCF, new recruits still report being treated terribly so the JCF remains a toxic workplace. New recruits also report to me that injustice is rampant in the JCF when the JCF itself is supposed to be an integral part of our justice system. The JCF recruits from a society where corruption and brutality are also normalized so the dilemma is how do you clean the lake when the river feeding the lake is itself polluted? The training facilities are good and other islands send their police to Jamaica for training. In my batch at training school, we had o...

I left Jamaica a long time ago but I do stay in contact with Jamaicans. From what I hear, the gangs do not normally 'kill, rob and rape' indiscriminately in the area they control. Quite the opposite in fact. This makes sense because to gain community loyalty, the gangs fill the vacuum of government in their areas. I know businesses in these areas are 'taxed' (extortion) for the protection that the police cannot provide. Businessmen/women willingly pay these 'taxes' because they need their operations to be protected. I know this for a fact. In addition, the gangs help children to go to school and the sick and elderly are taken care of. The gangs do practice street justice so killing of troublemakers in their areas does occur and such killings are applauded by those who live in those areas. Gang controlled areas only usually become unsafe for their residents when gangs, for whatever reason, splinter and erupt in turf wars or other inner conflict. Sometimes actions...