COMMENTARY

Ineffective responses to crime in Jamaica

by Shelliann Powell,
COHA Research Associate

Wednesday,  July 27, 2005

The island of Jamaica has been plagued by an unprecedented wave of violent crimes in the past few years. In 2004, 1,417 Jamaicans were murdered and since January of this year more than 845 people, 115 in the month of June alone, already have fallen victim to violence.

Frustrated by the government’s apparent lack of concern for this disturbing trend and its failure to emphasize the importance of curbing crime on the island, the Private Sector Organization of Jamaica (PSOJ) called for a nationwide protest against the Patterson administration. The three-day initiative began on 25 May, with major businesses closing at 1:00 p.m. and prayer vigils held in many areas of the country.

In Kingston, PSOJ President Beverly Lopez, made public the 2005 Declaration of Emancipation Park, in which she pleaded for Jamaican parliamentarians to break all ties with criminals. The document contains 13 ultimatums, nine of which were directed at the government and four that involved the initiatives of private Jamaican citizens.

Throughout its short history, Jamaican society has been marred by an unrelenting violence at the hands of political factions associated with the country’s major political parties. However, the origin of the crime surge in recent years goes beyond the nation’s traditional political strife.

In 2001, under increasing public pressure to seriously address the crime problem, the government set up the National Committee on Crime and Violence. The committee was established to formulate strategies to lower Jamaica’s high crime rate in a manner “that would foster wide public confidence and support” among Jamaicans and to counteract frightening off visitors to the island attracted by Jamaica’s all-important tourist industry.

Apart from offering 15 recommendations for dealing with crime, the committee also identified 16 factors believed to be the source of the burgeoning violence in the country. Among the root causes that the committee identified were economic instability, the high availability of firearms and other weapons, the criminals deported by the U.S. to Jamaica, the drug culture and political tribalism.

The report also outlined the 12 deleterious effects that crime and violence have had on the island, including the polarization of communities into warring factions, the loss of investment opportunities, economic instability, loss of personal and business income, the political and social disengagement of Jamaica’s citizenry and the harm done to the tourist industry’s income.

In its list of recommendations, the committee failed to offer any profound solutions to the nation’s problems and today crime remains a grave and persistent issue. However, all of the committee’s suggestions emphasized that reducing the level of crime necessitates a cooperative effort among the government, the private sector and the public, though the government bears the primary responsibility.

Dissatisfied with inaction on the part of Jamaican authorities, the PSOJ has focused on drawing attention to the negative social and political effects that crime has on the island’s cohesion and its economic viability.
The last straw for the PSOJ came on 16 May, when businessman and Clarendon Justice of the Peace Maurice Azan, along with his stepson, Lloyd Phang, were murdered by gunmen at Azan’s workplace. In response to the murder of one of their fellow business owners, the PSOJ has in recent weeks stepped up the intensity of its call for the government to stem the tide of violence that threatens to envelop the country.

The PSOJ declaration stated that the Jamaican government was not doing enough to protect its citizens or to punish the perpetrators of crime in accordance with the Constitution. Richard Azan, Member of Parliament (MP) for Northwest Clarendon and cousin of murdered businessman Maurice Azan, has been the most vocal opponent of signing any agreement with the PSOJ.

In a 2005-2006 sectoral debate on 31 May, Azan accused the 25 May protest of being an insincere display of public solidarity as most businesses in the corporate area normally closed at 1:00 pm on Wednesdays. He also requested that members of the PSOJ publish the names of the people to whom they pay extortion, as he believed that these payments for vigilante protection add to the climate of lawlessness that has the island in its grip.

Despite protests from a few MPs, Prime Minister P.J. Patterson encouraged parliamentarians to sign the PSOJ’s document and break all criminal ties. Patterson also sought to establish another committee in order to examine the effects of crime.

Nevertheless, it would be fair to say that the Prime Minister has no viable solution to Jamaica’s crime problem, since his only strategy has been to create committees and then make a half-hearted attempt to follow the least offensive of their recommendations.

In November 2002, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime released a report on “Crime Trends in the Caribbean and Responses” noting that the Jamaican drug culture has been a contributed factor to the increasing crime rate. Cocaine originating from Latin American cultivation centers is transported to North America by various routes, many of which pass through the Caribbean islands, including Jamaica.

The boom in transnational narcotics networks resulted in an explosive expansion of drug-related crime in Jamaica and the evolution of more sophisticated “white collar” crimes such as money laundering and computer-assisted fraud. The report also concludes that a strong correlation exists between narcotrafficking and the spike in the homicide rate.

To be continued in the next issue of the Jamaican in Cayman.

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