Orville Taylor | British high commissioner is spot on

I might not like the fact that his head of State is the same as mine after 58 years of ‘Independence’, but the British high commissioner, Asif Ahmad, certainly lived up to his surname, which means ‘Most Praised and Commendable’ when he said the words that gave me no discomfort. “It’s a difficult thing to say, and perhaps even more difficult to hear,” he remarked, but “more Jamaicans will kill Jamaicans than COVID will kill Jamaicans.”

So far, we have had appropriately 1,300 cases with, thankfully, only 15 patients dying. Given the fact that we are only recording data of persons who have been tested, the total number of infected individuals could be multiple times that which we have recorded. However, since deaths are among the most reliable social demographic statistics, one can say with reasonable confidence that Jamaica’s fatality rate from COVID-19, is at worst, 1.16 per cent.

When he compares Jamaica with the United States (US) and his own United Kingdom (UK), he has to be impressed. Just as the little rock in the turquoise sea led these two countries to the tape in the women’s 4x100 in Doha last year, the American data are less flattering, with 172,033 deaths of 5,477,305 and a mortality rate of 3.14 per cent, and the UK, frighteningly, having 41,397 from 321,102 positive cases, almost 13 per cent. Whatever the reason, and despite the election carelessness and laxity in enforcement, the former colony is showing up the metropoles.

However, we are also leading them in homicides, with a homicide rate of 47.4 homicides per 100,000, 10 times the US’ 5 per 100,000 and dwarfing the UK’s 1.2 per 100,000. Even when the data are adjusted for race, the African American homicide rate is 20 per 100,000 and the UK’s blacks is only three times its national average.

HOMICIDE IS A DISEASE

What needs to be recognised here in Jamrock is that homicide is a disease caused by a ‘virus’. And like COVID-19, there are certain underlying or correlated comorbidities that increase the likelihood of death or killing. Standard psycho-sociological, anthropological, and social-work research coalesce around the consensus that homicide, especially in black communities, is a public-health issue and must be treated using a public-health paradigm

One side of the treatment for homicide has to be the measures, which has to do with vigilance. Thus, there is a major role for the agents of social control. Among the things are curfews, cordons, and where absolutely necessary, a very limited state of public emergency (SOPE). We certainly do not want to turn this into a large internment camp as it was in the plantation days. Therefore, the constitutional conditions must be met before and during the SOPEs. Indeed, if the present administration returns to power, as the polls predict, it will be a hard sell to convince anyone that the factors, which led to the SOPE being removed, are suddenly reversed after the election.

Doubtless, we need enhanced security measures. If we can find ways of integrating the COVID-19 monitoring protocols with the new technologies available to the police, their investigative and evidence-gathering capabilities would increase geometrically. After all, if they can identify around 80 per cent of credible suspects within a week of a homicide and clear up around half of them annually, just imagine if they had the kinds of resources the Americans and Brits have.

NO PREJUDICE

Notwithstanding the cordons and quarantines, the lessons from COVID-19 must also be that like the virus, crime has no class prejudice. Therefore, wherever the corruption that feeds the murders and other high crimes exists, let them be struck by the same equity of treatment as the virus metes out.

On the epidemiology side, there must be the recognition that as with COVID-19, no amount of restriction of movement is going to end the pandemic by itself. The solution is not even the discovery and distribution of a vaccine. So far, there is not for HIV/AIDS. However, there is the requisite behavioural change, which involves, among other measures, physical distancing.

Murder has certain socio-cultural variables, and these must be addressed. Policing will not reduce the homicide rates to ‘normal’ levels. Our homicide rates have deep historical roots. Research, not myths or narratives, point to a number of causes. These include a colonial past, indecent work practices, limited access to post-secondary education for males, and treatment within families.

Torture of young boys by their mothers is the single most telling variable regarding the likelihood of murderers being bred. This abusive behaviour is connected to the socio-economic status of partners and vulnerability at work. Add to the mix corruption and access to equal treatment, and we have a good prescription.

Thank you, Your Excellency. Hopefully, we can reciprocate by sharing some good practices with regard to COVID-19 and sprinting.

- Dr Orville Taylor is head of the Department of Sociology at The University of the West Indies, a radio talk-show host, and author of ‘Broken Promises, Hearts and Pockets’. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and tayloronblackline@hotmail.com.