The government should provide the police with all the necessary resources to fight crime.
The relentless bombardment of news about murders, shootings, kidnappings and other forms of violence leaves many of us wondering if Jamaica is a haven for criminals and perpetrators of violence. Many will find this question controversial. However, it is clear that criminal organizations, gangsters and the like have a fertile cultural environment in which they are embedded.
Jamaica has a subculture of violence, which is fueling destructive patterns of behavior of rampant murders, shootings, gun crimes and acts of human destruction. Mainstream culture is now being overtaken by an insidious set of customs and values that glorify and subsidize violence. This subculture shapes Jamaican society and if we continue to let it go unchecked I fear it will tear the country apart. The crisis of violence has seeped into parts of the nation’s cultural DNA at crippling and devastating costs.
Homicide records from the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) illustrate the appalling violence it is inflicting on citizens. The JCF notes that homicides through October 1, 2022 were 1,171. For some regional context, Haiti, a country beset by political chaos and state collapse, had over 900 murders related to gang violence through July 2022. In Trinidad and Tobago, the number of murders surpassed 400 in September 2022. Jamaica, however, it has consistently ranked in the top five most murderous countries in the Latin American and Caribbean region for the past five years. Countries with similar homicide rates to Jamaica are Venezuela, El Salvador, Honduras and South Africa.
Professor Anthony Harriott, in his research and public study, describes several features of this violent subculture: hypersensitivity to insults, revenge and revenge killing, and a strong love of weapons and evil. Similarly, the popular social media personality who goes by the anonymous name of Sir P, on to YouTube canal Watch Politricks repeatedly argues that the high rate of murder, violence and gang warfare in Jamaica is fueled by a culture that reveres evil and romanticises gangsterism. Sir P’s describes Jamaica’s cultural affinity for violence as an “acidic culture”. The costs of this subculture of violence are many; however, I will magnify the fear and anxiety that is spreading and taking hold in all sectors of Jamaican society.
THE COST OF FEAR AND ANXIETY
Gangs, donors, lottery scammers and other producers of violence in Jamaica have created an atmosphere of fear and intimidation. They have left residents in some communities, both rural and urban, suffering from post-traumatic stress and other anxiety disorders. The fear and anxiety among many Jamaicans is different from the panic of financial insecurity and the problems of the high cost of living. It’s a kind of existential dread that leaves people wondering: Will I be next? Will it be someone else I know?
To be clear, most of the people affected by the violence of gang wars, revenge killings, gun crimes, and conflicts between lottery cheats are concentrated among the poor and working classes. However, the cancer of violence is spreading rapidly. Middle-income communities are increasingly feeling the sting of death and anguish from Jamaican gangsters and their henchmen (and wives). Residents in the police divisions of Kingston, St Andrew, St Catherine, St James and Clarendon are nervous about walking the streets of their neighborhoods late at night and taking public transport (especially taxis).
Small and medium-sized business operators (for example, shops and bars) live in constant fear of gangsters robbing their premises by extortion, theft and the use of lethal violence as a means of compliance. Residents remain silent when they witness a crime or know the whereabouts of gangsters and crooks because they are aware of Jamaica’s unwritten code of silence, “informa fi dead.” The fear and anxiety gripping these communities has now spread across the country, as poll after poll shows that crime and violence are a national crisis.
This fear is also felt by Jamaicans in the diaspora. I often hear Jamaicans here in the States say, “Bwoy, mi fraid a Jamaica, and if I go home, I just go to a quiet resort and quietly leave.” Many Jamaicans want to come home to set up businesses in retail, construction, transportation, but they are afraid. Fear of criminals using violence against them is preventing many of the country’s best and brightest overseas from returning and contributing to the island’s development. Anxiety and fear has left Jamaicans, at home and abroad, questioning the adage that “only people who mix and match” are victims of gang violence, revenge attacks or contract killings.
Recent political polls all indicate that Jamaicans are increasingly losing faith in the state to keep citizens safe and to discipline and punish perpetrators of violence. As a result, Jamaica’s political culture, that is the way people feel, think and act about government and politics, is being undermined by the subculture of violence.
The authority and legitimacy of Jamaica’s law enforcement agencies, Members of Parliament (MPs) and the Prime Minister are perceived as anemic and ineffective in successfully prosecuting and imprisoning gang members and preventing an increase in crime and violence. The state must reclaim itself and use its institutional muscle and resources to help realign the nation’s values and attitudes away from the destructive cultural tentacles of violence.
REGULATION
There is no single strategy to fix Jamaica’s violence crisis. As I have outlined above, the cultural glue that holds the Jamaican state and society together has been infiltrated by the values and customs of evil, criminality and gangsterism. Criminals, gangsters and producers of violence are very comfortable in Jamaica. The culture of honoring evil has become very pervasive, it’s in our music, our entertainment venues, our schools, the internet, even the ways we communicate and interact with our fellow Jamaicans.
In the short to medium term, strong policing and enforcement of law and order is critical in this fight to save our society from the insidious and toxic subculture of violence. Institutions can influence and help shape values, attitudes and habits. The Jamaican government must make security and, more specifically, the punishment of criminal gangs and perpetrators of violence, its number one priority. New laws like the Firearms Act of 2022 are steps in the right direction by lawmakers to address the culture and practice of gun violence.
This challenge of violence is bigger than the economic growth, tourism and the construction and development boom that is happening all over the country. Unless this culture and practice of violence is systematically addressed and reined in by the Jamaican government, the benefits of development and growth will be difficult to enjoy.
The current rates of Jamaican brain drain and migration are partly attributable to the island’s environment of insecurity. Providing more resources and training to the police is necessary and invaluable in this battle against crime and violence. Honduras, for example, was able to reverse its homicide and high crime crisis by making significant investments in its police. More equipment, better use of technology, better entry requirements, more education and on-the-job training will help JCF with its mandate to be “a force for good.”
In the medium to long term, I am suggesting that the Jamaican Government establish a bipartisan agency that has legislative and policy-recommending powers to prevent violence. This body should consist of deputies and/or senators of both political parties; representatives from non-governmental organizations for the prevention of violence; representatives from the private sector, the police and the military; and crime and violence researchers. I am thinking here of a format similar to the Economic Program Oversight Committee (EPOC) established in 2013.
The role of this violence prevention body is not to give reports, we have enough of them gathering dust. Instead, it should be empowered to make quarterly parliamentary reports that monitor crime and violence, but also make evidence-based recommendations and strategies to prevent violence, reduce criminal gangs and punish perpetrators of violence. Such an agency should provide modern, up-to-date and relevant research and policy results on how to conduct risk assessments of potential violence producers. In other words, we need to be able to predict which individuals are likely to be at high risk of being recruited into gangs or becoming producers of violence.
MAIN CULTURE
Jamaica is not a gangster’s paradise; however, there are spaces across the country where these producers of violence have managed to carry out their acts of destruction despite the efforts and strategies of the police. Cities such as Kingston, Spanish Town, Montego Bay and May Pen have become bases for violence and criminality. It’s time for the state and society to stand together and stop telling fraudulent actors and groups that are disparaging our culture and identity. It is time for the state machinery, through the law enforcement apparatus and the political class, to restore its authority and control over the spaces where gangsters and crooks have usurped its legitimacy. More importantly, it is time for Jamaicans to stand up for the nation’s legitimate mainstream culture. It is time to reject, in all its manifestations, the subculture of violence that glorifies evil, gangsterism, “informa fi dead” habits, gun violence, villain talk, revenge and revenge attacks.
Jamaica is seen as a cultural icon across the globe. Its people, food, music and the island’s geographical beauty are loved by many. The acidic culture of violence threatens what Jamaica really is and, even more horrifically, many Jamaicans are losing their lives because of it.
Dr. Damion Blake is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science and Political Studies Leadership, a faculty researcher and faculty associate on race, ethnicity, and diversity at Elon University. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or dblake3@elon.edu.
Jamaica has consistently ranked in the top five deadliest countries in the Latin American and Caribbean region for the past five years.
