Letter of the Day | The paradox of the Jamaican badman

THE EDITOR, Madam:

The hypocrisy of the Jamaican badman is something that is rarely ever talked about. However very recently the entire nation was able to witness, live and direct, the two-faced nature of the criminals that a subset of Jamaican society continues to glorify and revere.

I am speaking of the incident in Spalding, Manchester, where it was reported that a group of armed gunmen were robbing a supermarket when the police arrived on the scene. News reports state the robbers engaged the police in a shoot-out and shot and injured a police officer before escaping.

The police pursued the gunmen, who barricaded themselves in a commercial building in the town square. Knowing the police were closing in on them and sensing the impending consequences of their criminal acts, one of the robbers started streaming on social media platform TikTok live, ostensibly in an effort to dissuade any excessive use of force by the police officers apprehending them.

DESPERATELY BEGGING

On one of the TikTok videos which has been widely circulated on social media since, about four men are seen sitting on the floor with their hands in the air while a police officer stands over them in the background. At least one of the men seemed to be nursing a gunshot wound to the arm. The men can be heard desperately begging and pleading for their lives. “Please officer, nuh kill we. Lock we up.” “Mi have brother weh a police and soldier.” “A better life we want.” “Please officer. Mi can change. A Tinson Pen mi fi go, pilot mi fi tun.” “A college mi get accepted ina.” One man looks into the camera and says, “Mummy, mi love you, yuh hear? Aunty, mi sister...”

As I watched the video, I could not help but be angered by the gunmen’s desperate pleas. The irony was not lost on me. They plead for mercy but never show any. They claim they want a better life, but make the lives of others a living hell. They say they love their family and want to live for them, but they will kill your family in cold blood. They want to be spared because they are related to lawmen, but they delight in killing police officers and breaking the law. They want you to consider their potential and promising future, but they will cut yours short in a flash. They say they can change, but they never choose to. They make a conscious decision every day to do evil and to sow death and destruction, but refuse to reap the harvest. THIS is the paradox of the Jamaican badman, a true conundrum.

P.P.