‘It’ll take more than a peace march to curb violence’
‘Russia’, Sav-la-Mar senior citizen says a change of mindset is needed
Published:Monday | October 31, 2022 | 12:06 AMAlbert Ferguson/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
A SENIOR citizen from Hudson Street, also known as ‘Russia’, in Savanna-la-Mar, Westmoreland, says initiatives such as Thursday’s peace march will not bring an end to the crime and violence plaguing her community and the wider parish.
Joan Graham, 67, argued that amid a homicide figure of close to 130 murders so far this year, where young people have been fingered largely as both perpetrators and victims, young people should not be left to bear the full burden of the parish’s crime problems.
“Nothing not going to change, it’s your heart and your thoughts, that’s where it is,” Graham told The Gleaner, while referencing Thursday’s peace march, which was organised by the Westmoreland Neighbourhood Watch Council as a rallying cry in opposition to the escalating incidents of crime and violence in the parish.
She noted that it will require that people change their mindset and begin to love themselves and their neighbours.
“Let me tell you the living truth, this thing stems from the bigger heads. They never did anything for Westmoreland. We have a lot of land, and we don’t have any training centre,” Graham reasoned about her stigmatised Russia community.
She said that her community has a large football field, but there is no training centre to equip the youth with skills so that they can provide for themselves and their families.
“That did fi happen about 40 years back, then we would have the youth [living more productive lifestyles]. Not everybody can take the [formal] education. Give them skills, so those who want to do seamstress, food and beverage, or so [can do so]. But they never provide that, and that is part of the system,” Graham explained.
“You can’t blame it all on the youth, you have to blame it on the system, too, because you have got to have something in place. If it is there, and they don’t want it to go, then that’s another issue.”
Last week, Minister Desmond McKenzie, who has portfolio responsibility for the Social Development Commission, argued otherwise as he urged community development officers to do more in helping to rescue those young people who are heading down a destructive pathway.
“This monster of crime that we are confronted with has been given tacit support by some parents, by some communities, where they will defend the rights of the criminals,” the minister claimed.
“This country must recognise and understand that we can’t love good and bad at the same time, we must choose; and I challenge you as community officers (SDC) to engage them from early in the schools, in our community centres, by the various programmes that you have,” McKenzie added.
He noted that the role of the SDC has to go beyond what it is now doing, because “what we are confronted with as a country is no longer criminals who are in their late 20s, 30s and 40s - those criminals don’t exist any more. What exists now are young men and women, 13, 14, 15, who are detected by the police as the perpetrators of crimes.”