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. 

Gussy community Hero or Social Pariah?

"“I believe that you're great, that there's something magnificent about you. Regardless of what has happened to you in your life, regardless of how young or how old you think you might be, the moment you begin to think properly, there's something that is within you, there's powerwithin you, that's greater than the world. It will begin to emerge. It will take over your life. It will feed you. It will clothe you. It will guide you, protect you, direct you, sustain your very existence, if you let it. Now, that is what I know for sure."

~ Michael Bernard Beckwith

Yesterday was reserved for cleaning up Gussy's grave spot. 

We had several discussions On Gusdy yesterday. We never see one man grave spot clean up so fast or so much people volunteering. Since some people think you somehow deserved to die then tell me why are so many people uniting and validating your life. Even the supt and indecom visited. Influential people in our community who don't associate with known criminals grabbing raker tick, five wackers, lawn mowers and offering cow, goat and hog to celebrate the life of a social pariah?????

 A lot of people rate "Gussy" because he had money. I respected and valued his character😋.he was ambitious and driven to success and he worked in tandem with everyone, he was also very kind. He had aspirations and goals to become someone truly upstanding in our community. It is for this reason why his death by the agents of law and order is such a riveting tragedy.

A man whose son was gun downed by unknown assailants wept in woes for Gussy and he was also very vocal about the killing of Checky. He quite vehemently spoke about a very tragic consistency we noticed in our community and that is of good people who could contribute to the growth of our communities dying by the hands of violence. 

Checky who build a gym, emphasizing health and exercise vitality to our society was cut down like a notorious murderer and his friend a bystander shot several times. 

In our discussions we emphasized the culture of hitmanism in Jamaica because that's the main reason the crime rate going up. It is because bad mind people, those with vicious minds and morbid inclinations can readily find any Likkle ediat bwoy with a gun to hire and kill people. 

An Assasination is evil on a different tier. How could I not knowing someone, go and take his/her life because someone paid me to do so. We really have a decay in our emotional fortitude in this country. Some people like to pretend that it's only Ghetto youths bloodthirsty and walk up and down murdering people. 

I keep saying that Gussy was no saint but then again Jesus says, he who is without sin cast the first stone...it is unfortunate that people capable of and committing worst atrocities than those he was accused of are allowed to be alive and walking our streets. And they rained stones down on you. 

The director for indecom said something rather crucial yesterday. He opined that everybody wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die. People clamouring for justice yet no one is willing to put their lives on the line to see that justice is serve and that is one of the greatest handicaps to having a peaceful society.

"Most people think, 

Great god will come from the skies, 

Take away everything 

And make everybody feel high. 

But if you know what life is worth, 

You will look for yours on earth: 

And now you see the light, 

You stand up for your rights. jah!"

-Bob Marley

“There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right.” 

― Martin Luther King Jr

“Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.” 

We are Jamaicans, not JLP or PNP!

-Lisa

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Whose side are you on in Jamaica?

In a country where reality is mostly contrived, nothing is ever what it seems to be. There are powers at work, social designs and political manipulations to generate the reality that we know today. 

There is no one way to rationality when it comes to analyzing our Jamaican society. Sometimes you have to take the highway, other times the by ways and in some cases even the low road. 

Many persons have become unsettled with the recent upsurge of police killings that has forced a rift in our country. It has forced me to wonder what is a Jamaican's life really worth in the grand scheme of things. 

Whose side can you really be on? The side of the police officers until they kill someone for you and the media outlet states that a shoot out ensued. The side of the "bad men" until they kill one of your own or even you. It's like you damn if you do and you damned if you don't. 

You are between a rock and a hard place. You don't even know whose side to be on because the lines are not so clear. 

What if say by chance, you knew of a crime and failed to report it. You know that each day that the bad man is alive that your life too is in jeopardy but then again you cannot confide in the police officers because they themselves cannot be trusted. 

What do you do? 

You wait for the police officers to kill you because you befriend the bad man and had no choice or you show the bad man how much you dislike him until him start pree you and kill you. You damn if you do and you are damned if you don't. 

No wonder there is a sense of hopelessness in Jamaica because people do not feel very safe anymore. I don't understand how some people choose not to vote in the elections and allow a small group to decide the future of our nation. 

I don't understand what intelligent or sane human being would give up his only say in the running of his country because he is dissatisfied with the choices given to him. My granny always say chose the lesser evil. 

I feel like Iive in a monarchy. All the people I knew in politics since I was at primary school or still in it today. My biggest issue has been... Are they for the future of this country including my peers and the youths coming up or are they still playing politricks like they did in the eighties. 

Should we do away with Indecom?

Damion Crawford has called for the dismantlement of the Independent commission of Investigations siting it to be a complete waste of money. 

I could say the same thing about politicians. They are not doing their jobs so why don't we just do away with the whole political administration and take control of our own lives. 

This is not a defense against criminals, violent members of our society, police or civilians should be removed. This is a disavow of perceived excesses and brutality exhibited in some situations by members of our policial body.

i believe that it is not a war against the police fraternity. Some people seem to think that some opinions are against the police but they are not. The police officers sometimes cannot help how they behave because they were bred from the same culture of the criminals that they hunt. Hence the same callous, disrespectful and violent behavior. It's not about the police or politicians. It is about our society and our collective values. We need moral overhaul.

Indecom are sometimes called long after the police carried out their operation and clean up the crime scene. It makes me wonder what kind of society we have when our agents of law and justice can go on the TV and blatantly lie about a shoot out that never occurred and people are dead. I guess Tivoli gardens should be a testament that poor people lives value nothing in this country. You think police can try that uptown.

Indecom is not perfect but like all other newly formed organisations this can be ironed out eventually with the right approach by all the parties concerned.   

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Police Officers and Our Young Men in Jamaica : Did the Police Officer Abuse his power here?

I was reading the comments of people responding to this video on you tube with a well known police officer and a school boy where the boy apparently refused to go on the bus and the police officer by all means use brute force to request a search of his bag and ushered him quite abrasively on to the bus. I too have seen children who are so intransigent that only crude tactics and verbal abuse can veer them into respect and response.

I understand that the police officers intentions were quite meaningful. I will not undermine the need for our children to be scold more often so that they can lead better lives as an adult. But we as a country already know that beating them, roughing them up, cussing them and doing all manner of evil has not done very much for this society.


I believe that if we should kill ten of these boys remember tomorrow twenty more will rise up if we do not find ways to campaign against the way we embrace certain convictions as a people. Police have been abrasive with young men and have been abusing their "powers" for years and yet we have not seen a change in the way our young men act. apparently we need to try something new. SEE you people up here are too busy rancouring over the wrong perspective and failing as always to see the bigger picture. we need a social intervention and we need it fast. i understand police officers are stressed, frustrated at the demands that are placed at their foot because parents and people like you up here have failed our children and then unoo expect police officers and teachers to guide them. UNoo just make sure that no police officer no do this to nobody fe unoo. LIke so many Jamaicans we all think that what happen to other people cannot happen to us...show mercy, if you do not, mercy shall be eternally far from you...gain a higher consciousness...


It is not our job to render violence for violence because violence only begets more violence. Do you know why crime will never be eliminated because when a police or a gun man murders someone family member, there are people in that family who will harbour resentments or hatred towards the offender and also will feel inclined sometime in the future to take a vendetta. The officer may have responded the only way he knows how to.


We know that parents have failed our children but this did not stem only from the previous generation. It is something that has been evolving over years of socialisation and came to fruition now. Parents are teaching their children, the only thing that they know because in truth, parents lack foresight. They do not know or see how what they teach their children will affect this society in the years to come.

We have a culture of people who for the most part have socialized our children to loathe the police officers because of years of abuse of power and extra judicial killings. On the other hand we understand that the police officer may have overused his authority in this situation and this has past professional into what may be considered unconstitutional. He had well meaning intentions and I get the message that he was trying to bring across but he apparently did not use an approved tactic.

I have heard people scream many times when they have conflicts with others about "a that's why gunshot cant stop buss inna this". I too have been caught guilty of this sometimes because people have a way of rubbing you and then adding salt to your grievous injury. We do not understand that children do not become what we want, they become who we are. The boy was saving face before his friends and the police was also exercising his authority before the other adults who were witnessing. No one was taking any losses.

We are quick to disrespect the police officers but how many of us have indirectly taught our children to hate the police man but respect the gun man. Our children have embraced the notion that only bad men are revered obviously by the way we are quick to publicly decry a police man yet none of us would dare video a murder and post it online.
None of us would show any temerity to openly decry the murder or abuse of our children by vicious citizens in our society but yet we are not afraid to show our face in decrying the acts of a lone policeman. We definitely need a social reformation. I bet if the police man had roughed up a notorious member of our communities, no one would dare openly denounce the actions of the policeman. When I renounce violence I try not to spare anyone. What is good for the goose is also good for the gander...

I know our police officers are under pressure. The monstrosity of crime continues to rear its head and they seem to not be able to curb it or kill it. They know that people are putting the blame on them for not being able to stop crime.But crime and violence is not a police officers thing or a politician thing. It is a family and community thing. I look at these babies and wonder what they will become as adults which one of them might be paid by some crook to take my life. I know that these teenage mothers do not know any better than they did at twelve and therefore cannot possibly teach their children any better. We need a social campaign! We need a reformation now. We need to censor certain entertainment in our society and we need to do it fast before this gets out of hand.

Why Jamaican's diss the police but respect the Gun Man: Under the Mango Tree Philosophies

THERE ARE SO MANY LESSONS THAT I HAVE LEARNT SINCE I WAS A CHILD FROM THE VERANDAH DISCUSSIONS TO THE UNDER MANGO TREE EXPLOSIVE ARGUMENTS.

These trees have stories to tell...here is one more...


We were sitting underneath the mango tree discussing the recent upheavals within our community when a very intellectual member of our community made a stalwart remark. He said " Ghetto people nuh easy eenuh because danna dead, and people are afraid to talk yet if a did police murder danna, then we woulda have big demonstrations, vandalism of public property and riot" Yet when people within our own communities murder our neighbours we are afraid to publicly denounced what is happening with illegal firearm".


He posed his question to me...

It is something that had troubled me since I was a child and moreso recently and it is a question of why most Jamaicans will publicly crucify the police when innocent people are murdered but turn a blind eye when citizens kill civilians.

I remarked that it has a lot to do with accountability and the culture of hatred that has been recycled over generations for the police force. This abhorrence of the police force stems from slavery when the militia was often called upon to repress the slaves, suppress uprisings and revolts. We have a socio-anthropological detestation of the police force that is inherently cultural and socially programmed.
It is reinforced during the years of colonialism when we fought for our independence and many died by the hands of the police in civil unrest. Our garrison communities are often plagued by extra judicial killings and police brutality therefore children are socialised to respect the Gun man as a protector and justice executor and to loathe the police man as a corrupt, distrustful and abusive representation of the system of oppression.

The police enforces the ideologies and policies of the state which is often spearheaded by members of the ruling or upper class in society. Police officers are regarded as traitors, they have betrayed their community to work for the oppressive system.


There are many rumoured instances within society where "informers are killed because they gave information to the police. This has compounded the distrust that citizens often feel for the police who for many lower socio-economical individuals have failed to protect the majority of its people. Gun men often fire shots to ward off intruders from other areas signalling that the district is protected, offering the citizens a sense of security that the police officers have failed to engender over the years. Popular notion is that if you are friend with police officers, you are labelled an informer and informers within the Jamaican society are assured a swift demise.

Why are Bad Men reverred?

Every body wants to be a badman but no man wants to be a police officer. Bad man culture is revered and the bad man respected by members of the community mostly out of fear than anything else. It is only natural that we will develop a fixation and admiration for the man who deals in what we fear most..death. Not that we do not respect police men, we very much tremble in the presence of the "bad man"police officers that acts more like a rogue cop. The bad men fear the rogue cop because they know the rogue police man will if necessary break the law in his carrying out of justice.

He exudes a level of fearlessness akin to the that of the Bad man. It is this level of unaccountability that makes the bad man feared and the police man disregarded. Ordinary citizens do not fear the bad man police because they know that he serves the purpose of being as ruthless as the neighbourhood gun man. And the average civilians understands that the Gun Man only fears the "bad man' police.


When last has someone been convicted of murder in Jamaica? Most Bad Men roam free until they "rake up the wrong ants nest" and are killed by their own people or the police. All bad men have a bad end. The police is accountable to the states, the government, the judiciary and legislative institutions and most of all to the people that they swore to defend, serve and protect. The gun man has no loyalty to anyone. He fears no one and is not answerable to any governing body. He is loyal to his gun as his bread maker, security and emblem of power. A community knows this albeit not in so many words but this is the central reason why people within an area will know of a crime and are afraid to talk about it because unlike the police the Bad man rarely takes prisoners.

Cable TV has without a doubt contributed to the fascination that we have with men who perpetuate and flirt with death. We are enthralled by how someone could bring about what most of us cannot even envision ourselves thinking. Some people say that young men become assassins because of needs and wants. Killing someone is just a job to them. It gives them an increase level of confidence,control and leverage to know that people fear their ability to take a fellow man's life. The more savagery that they exhibit with their murderers, the higher the respect that they get up the bar.

What turns an innocent baby boy into Murder?

Some experts claim that Childhood Abuse, Mental Incapacity and a criminal culture are the central factors that turn little boys into murderers, rapist and psychopaths.

Many experts attest that most killers are mad in the sense of the word and gain thrill from seeing the life expend from another. Some murderers simply do what they are good at, and if killing gives them a sense of social importance in society. People might not like them but no one will ever disrespect them, people will fear them.

The cost does not outweigh the benefits of the being a contract killer because in a country like Jamaica, a contract killer will never get caught. He will most likely be murdered by members of his organised crime culture, or a young aspirant seeking to stamped his name in the crime culture.

"A big attraction of violence is that the criminal likes to feel that he is acting like God; the thrill of possessing God's power to kill someone is a big attraction"

THE CULT OF THE MAN WHO KNOWS DEATH

We feel contempt, anger, and disgust for the maniacal madman who hysterically kills humans out of sadism, perversion, or just lunacy, and we feel equal contempt for the person who kills in anger or by accident. Yet, perversely, our society stands in awe of those who have the ability to kill while coolly in control of themselves.

" why we romanticize bad men and hit men: they are men who control death. No one is the equal of the man who knows death, uses it, and does not flinch. Look at Patton, James Bond, Bugsy Siegel, Vito Corleone…

I often wonder if Gun men do not think about the fragility of their own humanity when they are taking another life. I beg to envision that with each death there comes a certainty that his/hers individual demise is imminent. Everything goes up in Jamaica except the price of life.