03-08-2019, 11:40 AM
"How do we deal with this in our own countries? Certainly not with the army "
Governors of various states have in our history brought in the National Guard to deal with extreme violence in certain cities here in the US.
You can't compare issues and crime in the UK or the US with crime in places like Jamaica or Haiti. Apples and oranges. The fact remains the police in Jamaica are sorely undertrained and underpaid which is why so many turn to crime through shakedowns, bribery or even guns for hire (which might have been the case with this sharp-shooter, who knows).
I mean - shit! We can't even get a handle on our own fairly unique problem of lunatics with automatic weapons shooting up schools, movie theaters and shopping malls. All the kings horses and all the kings men....and still we are plagues with these tragedies several times each year.
The root of this problem is the lottery scam. The exacerbation of gun crime is the availability of guns, no matter where from. Like our mass shooting problem, this problem seems to be an enigma when it comes to law enforcement in Jamaica. They have finally started dealing with this issue internationally - just try to wire money to Jamaica from a Western Union in the US to see what you are now up against. They have also started to allow international prosecution - so much like Dudus Coke, they are allowing law enforcement from other countries into Jamaica to capture and extradite the perpetrators for prosecution.
Starting. Still a very long way to go.
When I was in Negril the 3rd week of January and that week alone there were four or five shootings THAT WE KNEW OF in Negril. One of those shootings took place two doors from my yard - and it was over a land dispute. My friends were waiting on the corner of Westland Mountain Road and West End Road when shots rang out on Westland Mountain Road, just a few doors away from where they were standing, the day after the shooting in my neighborhood.
It's a frustrating situation - I believe they are truly afraid to bring the army into Negril because it will negatively affect tourism. They were in Westmoreland though, I saw them in Brighton in November. And the fact is the SOE in MoBay actually had positive affects while it was in place - the number of murders and gun violence decreased significantly, very significantly in that city's most troubled areas. Thing is a lot of these bad guys got out of MoBay and spread out throughout the island, many hunkering down in the remote areas of Westmoreland. And when the army goes away, what happens? Same old, same old? They can't be there or anywhere on any kind of permanent basis.
The answer is there is no easy answer, similar to what we face in our US cities where deadly shootings are a daily occurrence and mass shootings have become the new normal. Every resident I know, Jamaican and otherwise, wants to see the army in Negril. Maybe, even for just a short time, there could be peace of mind.
Governors of various states have in our history brought in the National Guard to deal with extreme violence in certain cities here in the US.
You can't compare issues and crime in the UK or the US with crime in places like Jamaica or Haiti. Apples and oranges. The fact remains the police in Jamaica are sorely undertrained and underpaid which is why so many turn to crime through shakedowns, bribery or even guns for hire (which might have been the case with this sharp-shooter, who knows).
I mean - shit! We can't even get a handle on our own fairly unique problem of lunatics with automatic weapons shooting up schools, movie theaters and shopping malls. All the kings horses and all the kings men....and still we are plagues with these tragedies several times each year.
The root of this problem is the lottery scam. The exacerbation of gun crime is the availability of guns, no matter where from. Like our mass shooting problem, this problem seems to be an enigma when it comes to law enforcement in Jamaica. They have finally started dealing with this issue internationally - just try to wire money to Jamaica from a Western Union in the US to see what you are now up against. They have also started to allow international prosecution - so much like Dudus Coke, they are allowing law enforcement from other countries into Jamaica to capture and extradite the perpetrators for prosecution.
Starting. Still a very long way to go.
When I was in Negril the 3rd week of January and that week alone there were four or five shootings THAT WE KNEW OF in Negril. One of those shootings took place two doors from my yard - and it was over a land dispute. My friends were waiting on the corner of Westland Mountain Road and West End Road when shots rang out on Westland Mountain Road, just a few doors away from where they were standing, the day after the shooting in my neighborhood.
It's a frustrating situation - I believe they are truly afraid to bring the army into Negril because it will negatively affect tourism. They were in Westmoreland though, I saw them in Brighton in November. And the fact is the SOE in MoBay actually had positive affects while it was in place - the number of murders and gun violence decreased significantly, very significantly in that city's most troubled areas. Thing is a lot of these bad guys got out of MoBay and spread out throughout the island, many hunkering down in the remote areas of Westmoreland. And when the army goes away, what happens? Same old, same old? They can't be there or anywhere on any kind of permanent basis.
The answer is there is no easy answer, similar to what we face in our US cities where deadly shootings are a daily occurrence and mass shootings have become the new normal. Every resident I know, Jamaican and otherwise, wants to see the army in Negril. Maybe, even for just a short time, there could be peace of mind.