By Ramesh Sujanani
Op-Ed Contributor

IT IS ALARMING to find that gang warfare and crime have escalated in Jamaica, encompassing murder, rape, extortion and all of those auxiliary violent crimes — in addition to which, Jamaica’s reputation in human trafficking has deteriorated.

It is interesting to note that this resurgence is coincidental with the closure of Operation Kingfish, and the departure of AC Les Green, the officer on secondment from the United Kingdom.

It was my impression that other officers from the USA and Canada would be taking their place, and I hope that the Minister of Security would enlighten us on what is happening.

But there are some pertinent questions here that I would like to ask the Ministry: Why disband Kingfish, was it not serving a useful purpose? Is it not possible to place another officer in charge, a Jamaican if available? What has happened to the officers that used to be in Kingfish? Why are these energies not channeled into this scourge of human trafficking?

Human trafficking is the illegal trade in human beings mainly for sexual exploitation, or forced labour — a modern version of slavery.

Around 80 percent of persons traded are women and girls, with women being 70 percent of that total, used for commercial sex, prostitution, and pornography. In Jamaica, it has been concluded that the women remain in situ earning money, because many victims are illiterate and going out in the world means earning less money.

There are opinions circulating that this change in crime management creates a window being used by the parties for the purpose of various nefarious activities, such as importing guns, human trafficking, and drugs. It seems that human trafficking is the number two earner among the three, with narcotics being number one.

A few years ago the “Palermo protocols” laid the groundwork for a tiered system, in which Jamaica was placed at the number-two tier. It seems that it may slip to the third tier, consistent with Guyana and Haiti, which is a deterioration of crime control in this area.

Do the reports have any substantive element of truth?
If not, where are the guns coming from? A large group of armed men recently descended into August Town, fully armed, to commit murder. How did they get weapons, sufficient to arm a small militia? Was there not a police presence in the town to put up resistance to keep them away, until reinforcements arrive? It seems we have made a retrograde step.

The quality of our Government once again is approaching that of a failed state.

The old excuses — Dudus, Tivoli, socioeconomic conditions, are at the forefront. Dudus and Tivoli are settled issues, and, truly, poverty is the worst form of violence.

But we are all working on relief in that area: the private sector, the government and private citizens, are actively trying to find employment and subsistence for the poor. It has been suggested that the people of August Town support their gangs, which I do not believe.

Then we have the increasing pressure from INDECOM (Jamaica’s Independent Commission of Investigations), which threatens with detailed assessment of police homicides.

While I think this could be a noble pursuit, it is not the right time to place any emphasis there. Emphasis should be on bringing criminals to justice, or to ensuring their termination. Rehabilitation is always a solution, but is it going to work with this current generation of criminals? I would warn against giving the police and law enforcement mixed signals on crime control.

We then need to consider the future impact: crime and violence are one of the main drawbacks in Jamaica’s tourism product.

We should be at a point now of promoting Jamaica’s tourism for 2013 — how will these incidents change our approach?

Can we say that these matters are now being controlled, and approached and that they will not recur, or are we wrapped in a sea of troubles and do not know what to do?

Ramesh K Sujanani can be reached at rsujanani78@gmail.com.

Note: the opinions expressed in Caribbean Journal Op-Eds are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Caribbean Journal.