Alfred Dawes | Safeguarding clay pigeons and stool pigeons

Eighty-five per cent of all murders in Jamaica are committed using an illegal firearm. None are committed by children under age 17 using competition rifles. The current debates surrounding the imposition of tough gun control laws on law-abiding citizens is a very wide miss of the mark. If we are truly concerned about gun violence in Jamaica, we ought to be debating how to go after the creators of that violence and not punish those who use guns for sport, or feel it is necessary for them to legally own one, to protect life and property in a violent society. It is easier for a government to abrogate the rights of those citizens who are already compliant with the laws of the land, rather than to expend the political capital that is required to rein in the lawless. The latest gun laws being debated in Parliament are a prime example of this.

It was only recently that it was the dark tints on cars that was the object of fascination by the security forces. Criminals were using dark tint cars to carry out their murderous missions. Removing the tints would be one way of tackling them. A few news cycles later, we are unsure of how well that campaign fared. With the number of crimes committed by motorcyclists, it is a matter of time before our fortunes are linked to a reduction in the number of bikes on the road.

The gun culture we see on display in our songs, dances with gun fingers in the air, and our obsession with making videos displaying illegal weapons, have zilch to do with sporting clays. This is only another straw man that is being built up and torn down, under the illusion of definitive steps being taken to address crime. The opportunity cost of these debates is paid in human lives while we dither. In ridding this island of violent crime, we need to foremostly break the links between politics and organised crime. Only then will our lawmakers be unhindered in passing meaningful laws such as those governing the proceeds of crime, while strengthening the judiciary and reforming the police force. That is the reform that we need at this time to protect Jamaican lives.

WISHFUL THINKING

Of course, this is only wishful thinking. As recent revelations in the media have shown, policemen are a part of criminal gangs. The other breaking news is that water is wet. It is not that we do not know what are the root causes of crime. We just choose to tilt at windmills rather than confront the real dragons in our society. The states of emergency that are supposed to be short-term fixes, but rapidly becoming the gold standard of fighting crime in Jamaica, were just another superficial attempt to put make-up on crime statistics. Meanwhile, unemployed young men are free to cavort in high-end vehicles, buying bottles of expensive cognac without any visible sources of income. Containers still leave our ports with guns in spite of expensive scanners to detect their presence. Our justice system is a headache for anyone unfortunate enough to require its service. Backlogs of cases caused by inefficiencies in the system and the people make it impossible to get a fair trial in a reasonable time. The police divulge the names of informants, stool pigeons if you will, to gang leaders minutes after they leave the police station.

The laws, shaped in Parliament by lawyers-turned-lawmakers, cleverly leave room for criminals to pay defence fees without any questions as to the source of funds. The money paid to a hitman for a murder can be used to pay their lawyer without any questions asked. Crime is lucrative and there are more than enough facilitators to get that underground cash into the formal economy. We know exactly which businesses are used by the scammers to launder their ill-gotten gains. The country is not that big to police. Taking the profits out of crime is a start and we know exactly who the big players are. But we won’t. Because it is easier to attack imaginary enemies than to attack our friends who are the real enemies of the state.

FOUNDED BY CORRUPTION

British Jamaica was founded by the corruption of the English governor Edward D’Oyley and blossomed with the piracy of Henry Morgan et al. We were always a nation that embraced criminals as major contributors to our economy. The latest set, in the form of scammers, has a special place in our hearts and lives. The songs paying homage to “chopping” dominate the airways and the music videos and TikToks embrace scamming as a part of our culture. The profits from scamming permeate areas of society from real estate, the used-car industry and even the financial sector.

If we are really serious about stemming the flow of guns into the country, maybe we ought to get some stool pigeons in the scammers’ and other gangsters’ networks. Getting at the source of funds can bring them down with an enhanced Proceeds of Crime Act if conventional policing doesn’t do the job. But we won’t. Because clay pigeons are a much easier target. No pun intended.

Dr Alfred Dawes is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons, CEO of Windsor Wellness Centre, and medical spokesman for Lifespan Spring Water. Follow him on Twitter @dr_aldawes. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and adawes@ilapmedical.com.