Jamaican Police Officers need Psychological Evaluation

The Jamaican society is expressing collective disgust for the surging crime rate. We do not insist that the police soften on criminals because criminals rarely if ever express any mercies for their victims. 

We however believe that under the tenets of our democracy and the statutes outlined by our constitution that we would prefer if alleged criminals entered judiciary process and legal processing instead of the hurling of corpse into Van backs. 

The police force in Jamaica do not understand how it affects their image when they commit extrajudicial killings and then the media report claims that it was a police shoot out and citizens on the ground know that it is a blatant lie and affront to the grieving families. 

We also need to bring attention to mental health in Jamaica. Most police officers suffer from post traumatic stress conditions and it maybe responsible for the high levels of verbal abuse and brutalities that they often subject civilians to. 

Many have to face marauding gun men and grisly crime scenes that will alter or compromise their mental conditions. They need a police therapy session to assist them in processing the psychological taxing of occupational stress. The police officer is a human being too. 

The Jamaican Constabulary Force hierarchy must keep in mind that police officers are cut from the same mold of the criminals that they hunt. Our society has a culture of deviance which is evident in the pervasive corruption that exist in all facets of the Jamaican society. 

There should be an ethics vetting and orientation programme for new recruits including essay writing to discover how cops will deal with a particular situation. New recruits are often force to confirm to the culture of archaic policing by commanding officers through buttress or threats. 

We cannot win the war on crime and violence if the civilians hates the police or the police believes he is superior to the citizens. The resentment is building and such a situation will only feed crime not stymie it. 

Our Modern Day Crucifixion of the Innocent

So as the days wind down to Gussy's Funeral. I am of a contrite spirit. His death has forced me to question my own mortality and how fickle life here on earth is. You here one minute and you gone the next. I didn't exist before my birth and it will be as if I never existed after I die. It makes me question what is man's purpose for living if he has to die? Are we just living to die?  Everytime I remember when at Dwayne Badwud funeral he was saying to Mario Gomez that he hated the ambience after a funeral, the boredom and expressed that it was the same way he felt after his sister "mum" died. It makes me wonder if Gussy had premonitions about his death. He also made preparations for his unborn child and was putting businesses together for the future of his family. It is disheartening, infuriating and a gaping irony that he was killed by members of the police force when they are so many who have never done anything for this community. Are wicked people winning and good people dying? It has many young men thinking it betta them be a bad boy and police kil them than to be a good guys like Gussy and Badwud and die before you time...police officers don't always get psychogic impact that they want when they kill a man, they might intend to instill fears in others but only as the facts show create more hardened criminals. 

We will never be completely rid of the scourge of violence because acts of violence often begets more violence. Murder is murder regardless of whose perspective we see it from. I know one thing is true whether it happens when I die or while I am alive. This earth, the universals laws and tantric energy of our world, a supreme being or intelligence, god or whatever nomenclature we attach to the power that often restores this world through maintaining the Karmic Balance. 

I have never known anyone who meted out cruelty of evil to another human being and prosper. I am confident not by religious fervour, conjectures or anecdotes but a first hand experience that what goes around will ultimately come back around. 

I have seen many "wicked" people fall but my only concern is how many of us will have to suffer or die before they extinguished. 

One of the greatest handicap of humanity is our quest to conquer death and end suffering. Why is suffering such a big issue when human beings themselves bring despair upon their own brethren. What we probably need to vanquish is selfishness and Egoism. 

People often encourage wars and murder because its benefits their own agendas. We need to seek goals that collective benefits a community than just the desires of an elected few or armed subgroup. 

I can safely say that the Officer that shot my cousin did not foresee the future or probably he did. Some people will say that my cousins association says a lot about the values that he embraces. I do not know about what is going on in my cousins head, I do not try to assume, I simply judge Jermaine Foote by his actions and is kind gesture. His commitment to shedding off the impoverished circumstances he was conceived in and rebuilding his community through providing jobs for young people. I remembered he said," you see when that pool bar finish, every Sunday we ago play pool" . He was killed the next morning.

Gussy is a dreamer and he by means unknown to me became someone that dreamers could come to and get resources to furnish their dreams, farmer raising pigs or the bar maid who wants to open her own bar. He was never a man to turn away a viable idea. He was committed to the auspicious development of his community. He was seen by many as a "rising don". A name he never endorsed but as they say in the ghetto that if them don't kill you with guns, they will surely murder you with your mouth. 

When I look at the crowd at his grave cleaning up day, or the impenetrable crowd at his grave digging,  understood the tentacles of his influence upon this community. I sensed why some people might become trepidation by his rising powers. After all he's from nowhere and his family is poor, uneducated and without social clout. He's not somebody important. When I hear the lies that those who swore to serve, protect and reassure concoct to justify the murder of my cousin and leave his unborn child without a father,I look to the heavens and cry to our supreme being, wondering why does he stand aside and allow Gussy to die. 

Those who judge Gussy are like the Romans who crucified Jesus with the two theives. Jesus was not guilty of a crime but in this society if those with the powers believe that you are a threat to their statusquo they will find reasons to eliminate you. Jesus was killed like a criminal just as how they gun down Gussy with the theives.  Jesus death, Marcus Garvey, Martin Luther king and so many others have taught me that none of us even when we are committed to righteousness, redemption of the oppressed masses or social reformation are exempt from death if those who are in power consider us a threat to their own agendas. 

JahVinchi says " give to the poor them say me a don, me fe turn in". Does that mean that if I decide to host a charity for poor people I become a target for the police? Why? When I am doing what politicians should be doing for our communities? I think there are some entities who have a misconception of who the enemies really are. Or is this just a strategy to keep poor people and their aspirants for change cowered in fear. 

I keep wondering who takes care of the children whose parents are murdered? Who will be responsible for Gussy unborn baby boy? This is a chilling factor in our fight against crime and violence. It's evident that the orphaned children of violence often grow up to be menaces to society due to feelings of resentment and ire towards society. 

Everytime I look at Miss Madge, tears well up in my eyes when I remember seeing her with the crocus bags hustling to go sell clothes on the road side or CudJoe pushing handcart to help mama send Gussy, Killa, Foote and Vivieene to school. Or the kids whose father ran away left them since they were in elementary schools. If Gussy dad passed him on the road he probably would not recognize him. For him to die now, it simply means everything he has been through in his life, the heartache and the poverty was simply not worth it. 

Is every one from the Ghetto a criminal or supporting criminality?

Earlier this year there was a case in the circuit court involving Jodian Pantry whose estranged lover paid Gun Men to kill her. Her being pregnant at the time and her child's father a very popular radio broadcaster. Who would not deem this man a "law abiding citizen". There are many law abiding citizens in Jamaica, who do not stick up people with Guns but they stick up people with their mouth. There are people , our law abiding neighbours, family members and friends who hire these young men and offer them money to get rid of some us. Few if any of them are ever persecuted. The ones who pulled the trigger are punished but the trigger mouths almost always get away.


Some people think that anyone who defends poor people are basically complicit with and are purveyors of their lumpen culture. 

I do not go around attaching labels to people base on where they were born. I quickly realize that if I was not as smart as I was then certain people would not even bother to deal with me. Simply because I had the misfortune to be borne a certain place and spawned from a certain type of people. 

Someone has to live within the realms of poverty to understand that people don't necessarily have time to rationalize when them hungry . A hungry man is an angry man and not just by maxim. 

Just the other day a very well meaning attorney at law said to me that " do you know that many of these people you trying to empower and defend may not want to get out of their situation?"

This crusade you are on may be futile. These very same people without notice, at any moment can hurt you or kill you because of the values that they embrace and encourage" 

He may be right. 

But I often think about the white people who were lynched among with the blacks for being a "nigger lover". I learnt that your very own will hate you if you can no longer support their myopic perspectives.  

Unity is a fallacy in any society. It's about conformity and choosing sides. You are either on our side or you are not. There is no neutrality, you cannot be the mediator between the soldier and the warrior. You are either lumpen or bourgeoise, there's no in between, no plateau, no high ground. 

Read through this conversation and inbox me your perspectives 

Original Post on Facebook

"So I was reasoning with Gussy younger brother last night using Dudus Coke as analogy to emphasize the lessons about our society. With all the money that Dudus had, he was still considered a liability to society and deemed removable by the powers that may be.

If high society thinks you are a threat to traditional values or the statusquo of this nation then you become a liability to society. Your very existence is seen as detrimental...you become dispensable..."



Observer: What values are you defending? It it the one that supports the lifestyle and practice of criminal who strive on the fear of every individual in society. And then subject then and their families to extreme brutality?


"Purveyor": No. I was not defending Dudus Coke. I was merely pointing out to this twenty year old boy who is extremely vulnerable to the same fate of his older brother that he should strive to become an asset to his society. He should never live his life in such a way that people would rather see him dead than alive. I was merely showing him that even money does not make you immune to prosecution or even death if you are deemed a threat to civil society.

Observer: I believe all criminals should die. No chances. Switzerland has the second lowest crime rate jn the world. You kno why? Becaz even the possession of illegal fire arms and the attempted use of same is punishable by death. That is a society that defend it's citizens. It's not criminal who are the drivers of driver but the law and by extension the people. This is arrogant but I prefer a known criminal to be shot down by the police than a single citizen be subjected to the brutal deaths as committed by a "gun man".


Purveyor: i heard a similar perspective from several people of late. I do not know if I give anyone the impression that i defend or support "criminality". I have been disavowing crime and violence from before it landed on my doorstep. There are many types of criminals in this society, some just a lethal as the man who stick you up with him gun cuz them stick you up with them mouth. Think about the law abiding citizens who hire hitmen to kill people... Most of this criminals are never prosecuted or gunned down as you put it. Haven't the police been doing that here terry? Haven’t they been shooting down gun men from way back when and then ten more rise up again... It signals that there are deeper social factors behind crime than people simply having an inclination to be diabolic.


Well as Dr Aadesh Cunningham told me last night at our vigil that there are many who will misperceived your message and that is only natural. I was encourage and I am committed now to make my messages more lucid. Perception is a hell of a thing cuz you, Tyrese ferrari, Andrew get that impression while most ghetto people think I despise their culture and lifestyle. They actually think I believe that I am better than them and here you are telling me that I am a supporter deviant culture of Donship ...Smh...can't win eeen???


Right side think you defending the anomalies of the Left side not knowing that the left side don't even subscribe to your ideologies because they see them as bourgeoisie.
Ghetto People get offensive, my in laws, my mother and even child's father gladly curse me if i ever said anything negative which in many cases are facts about lower class people and the ideologies that they hold. I now realise why people uptown will never understand people down town and it is because they both fail to understand the dynamics of those separate culture.

When i defend poor people's plight, the law abiding citizen of our country interpret that as an endorsement of the lumpen culture. When I try to proselytize and convert lower class people to seek social empowerment or even to illustrates some of the ills of culture of the lumpen class, I am met with quarrels, disrespect. People down town are often offended by what I say...They often respond in umbrage intonations that "me must galang lef yah". They are not interested in change, they are only interested in not being seen as inferior.

My intellectual friends see my writings as a defence of the criminal culture of poor people and most poor people see my stance as a criticism not of the social elements of the ghetto but a critique, a disparage of circumstances that they have little or no control over. They think I am ridiculing them, most if not all believe that I think I am superior to them yet I clamour everyday for their cause. Some of them do not even like me because of what I represent, the way I think,my ideologies reflect those of the people that they believe are oppressing them and keeping them in their indigent state. I am seen as a traitor.

People treat you differently because of where you come from. I know that. Many people I went to school with don't even fart pon me because I have failed to detach myself away of the circumstances I was born into. I often ask them that if Gussy had lived uptown and came from a good family that police would come kill him and drive away with him.

Most of my peers and family would start quarrel how GUssy woulda dead same way. They do not think they can be safe anywhere else than where they are. They do not like rules. They would prefer to play loud music at any time of night. They basically love slackness and in certain communities, slackness is not the norm and they hate having people police their behaviour.

Young Gussy's Life should be a Lesson to Us

We as a nation of people are not largely introspective. It is fine time that we begin to look into ourselves and see that the methods that we have been using to fight crime and violence are redundant. The ministry of security must realize that the tactic of murdering criminals have created more social maladies now than it did thirty years ago. We have a fractured justice system and an inept legislative process that often exonerate criminals therefore leaving the police officers with no other choice than to exterminate alleged murderers. 

Innocent people like Gussy get caught up in these melodramas because even though people claim Kirky was a bad boy, he was never prosecuted by the courts in all his suspected cases, in the eyes of the law, he is still an innocent man. 

Police have been killing murderers from I was child and yet we have brook a society of more criminals. It signals that the technique of crime fighting is at its best ineffective. Until we address the social maladies that breeds criminals then we will be doing this process over and over again. 

Police Officers are merely slaves who were given guns and now feel as if they are masters and so to feel truly important in this society they must enslave others. Their guns and badges does not make then a master, they are still slaves with only a driving whip and a free pass. They are the agents of change and they are not using this weaponry effectively. 

We have proven that killing our young men only stalls the crime rate for a few years until our pubescent boys become adults face the same pressures of those that are gone before them. They have not been socialized how to deal efficaciously with peer pressure , lack of available employment, covetousness and masculine validation. Every young man wants to feel important in his community. He wants women to love him, his elders to admire his accomplishments and his peers to envy and worship him. Our young men are not schooled on how to be adult men of virtues. 

Gussy father deserted him and his brothers when they were children. Gussy was never accorded proper values by a male role model. His father abandoned his sons and left them to their own plights. 

His mother hustled on the street side to send them to school. They lived in abject poverty. People did not even want to take a glass of water from their house to drink primarily because of how the place reeked of squalor. And Gussy managed by means unknown to rise out of his derelict state to become a true gem in our communities. 

People claim Gussy was a scammer, he may have been but that is the course that most of our young men are force to  take because our government, leaders and people like even me have failed to create avenues for employment and occupation for our disaffected youths. 

We have failed our children. We failed Gussy. People said Gussy had options, I believed he didn't have much. Imagine growing up in house with too many children and feeling embarrassed as a teenage about where you live. Gussy's mother never turned away any child from playing with her children. Gussy wanted more for his family and scamming may have allocated him the avenue to do so. 

A lot of money comes with great responsibility. Money attracts people, it is a compelling concept and a magnetic factor. Money is such a powerful tool in Jamaica. People want money more than religion or anything else. Money is the machinery to survival. Money make people want to be your friend. The good, the bad and the indifferent. We have to choose wisely who we are and who we allow to be in our company. Having money does not insure us from certain demise. Money only seems to create more problems. 

Gussy may have needed someone to teach him how to effectively utilize his money and how to guide his financial future, I would have opted to be that person if only he had requested that I did. But Gussy is still young and easily distracted by momentary gratification in his life. He probably thought me like most people wanted his money and were only pretending to care about his well being. 

Gussy like many young people think that the accumulation of wealth should be used for chaos and funding criminal networks. Money should be used for the advancement of our society and community. If some of these scammers were venture capitalist, funding talents and entrepreneurial ideas within our communities, we would not have to bury so many of these scammers. But it all chalks down to values. The values one embraces ultimately decides what choices we will make as an individual. 

I hope Gussy's life is a lesson to our young men that this bad culture is only a temporary gratification. All gangsters must die. Do not become collateral damage. You should never put your self in precarious position that people can reason out you to be a liability to society and are for we by circumstances to annihilate you. 

I see his friends mourn for him and I know the lessons learned from his death may be short lived. They feel fiercely about the need for change because his death is recent, as time goes by and the hurt palliates, they too may fall back into old habits. People do not change overnight but I hope Gussy's death was a lesson to them.