Mark Wignall | To some, killer cops are good news

According to INDECOM, 14 policemen were involved in 30 (23 per cent) of 120 police-involved killings in a one-year period ending June 2021.

If one is not a keen-eyed police investigator, the numbers would only be ‘cause for concern’ instead of a sign of official killers on the loose.

But the next statistic draws attention. According to INDECOM, those same 14 policemen were involved in 112 police shooting deaths in the 11-year span between 2010 and June 2021.

That just about abolishes all thoughts of coincidence. That is a trend that speaks to a deliberate violent behaviour on the part of these cops. But could it be something else?

It is certainly not outside of the range of possibilities that these cops are quite well known in the JCF. Well known for taking on the dirty, scary, dangerous work in facing off with heartless killers.

These cops would be in their mid-30s to mid-40s. And to many of the rank-and-file, they are heroes but without any marching band and the loud applause. Most importantly, they operate with implicit authority from their commanders.

As one senior cop told me years ago when he was having more than a few gunmen hopping and skipping while hiding from him. “I do a certain operation, and afterwards, my bosses tell me I did well.

“In a few more dangerous shoot-outs, I take out some more of the killers, and I get the same response. After a while, as far as I am concerned, the Government is satisfied with my work. I didn’t need them to spell it out that they approved of my style of policing.”

In an open and free democracy like Jamaica, bad, gut-wrenching news sells. The bits of soul-lifting and inspiring news like York Castle High School taking home first prize in a robotics competition, over 24,000 students enrolled in the Ministry of Education’s Sixth-Form Pathways programme, and,any and everything about World Cup football and Brazil are needed.

Most people who I speak with on a regular basis support the police in matching fire for fire. A police constable friend of mine said to me recently, ‘Yuh have some bwoi out dey, and mek a tell yu di trut, mi nuh want buck dem up. Me have certain squaddie whey nuh fraud. Dem man dey wi can’t do widout. Wi need dem.’

The leadership of INDECOM, basically, has admitted that it doesn’t have much to go forward in any investigation, and the JCF did not capture anything in their basic paperwork on these shootings to support the investigation agency’s work.

SECURITY PLANS FOR CHRISTMAS

At this time, the security ministry and the JCF/JDF are making plans for keeping on top of major security flaws that may arise any and everywhere in Jamaica.

Bosses of small, medium, and large businesses are huddling and making plans for the upcoming festive season. Security is of major concern.

Jamaican citizens at home, work, and involved in recreational activities just want to get back home safely. They also want to feel safe in their homes and communities.

The criminal element from Negril to Morant Point, right across the length of Jamaica, wants to upset the whole shebang.

We have some questions to ask ourselves: Who will have the upper hand? Will it be the criminal element, or will the JCF and the JDF ensure that their presence and ability to stand up against criminality win out?

We know that as the street resources of the security forces are stretched thin, the criminal elements will use that opportunity to confound them. They will try to launch out in, say, armed robberies in about the same time frame in two parishes 40 miles apart, just to attempt and press home confusion in the hope that the JCF will fall for the ruse and begin to chase down brushfires.

In such a scenario, the intelligence apparatus of the security agencies will be needed to disrupt the plans or defuse the bombs of the gang members.

A troubling fact is that it is easier for gangs to spread fear and confusion than it is for the JCF to respond before the criminality develops into bloodshed.

Many Jamaicans accept that the only workable plan the Government has for the quickest pushback against violent crime is the SOE, the state of emergency.

At some stage, though, it will start to dawn on the security chiefs that an SOE is mostly effective when some parishes are considered safe and others in various modes of safe.

Where we are now is that the criminal constituency occupies all parishes in Jamaica. One could almost declare four or five parishes in SOEs by using eenie-meenie-miney-mow. Declared!

AGE OF CONSENT AND OUR SEX CULTURE

In the months that followed the 1988 decision to raise the age of sexual consent from 14 to 16, many Jamaicans really began to realise that a person of 14 is a child. A child hardly exposed to any of life’s surprises.

PNP Senator Damion Crawford has suggested that moving the age of consent to 18 would add to the range of solutions in teen pregnancy, child abuse, and poor education outcomes.

I would sooner support an increase instead of none. But we cannot rule out the probability that it is the sexual culture that needs changing. One major part of the sex culture in Jamaica leaves out the fact that it is no longer seen as a black eye to a household or a family if the little 16-year-old school girl gets pregnant.

Decades ago, long before the cell phone era, a little girl who got pregnant for a ‘Big man’ who befriended her with lunch money and promises of love would be shipped to another parish. To take the shame out of the mother’s eyes.

Senator Crawford’s suggestions from his State of the Nation Debate are useful ,especially now that it appears that he has lost the tendency he once had for familiarising his feet with his mouth.

More substantial sentences for man in cases of statutory rape is a sound suggestion, especially knowing that attached to many of these underage sexual relationships is horrible physical and psychological abuse.

Mark Wignall is a political and public affairs analyst. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and mawigsr@gmail.com.