Why the August Town 'zero murder' project failed

Danae Hyman, Online Reporter

Residents of August Town have said that the zero murders experienced in the St Andrew community in 2016 could not have been sustained because of the little to no action by police to enable the peace to last.

Yesterday, the Caribbean Policy Research Institute (CAPRI) launched a report examining the community’s zero-murder year, in which it explored various theories with the objective of extracting lessons from August Town’s experience, particularly as it regards anti-violence interventions.

“I remember when I come out of my bed 2:30 in the morning when that little thing just started between Nineteen and Jungle 12, and I sit with the two sets of guys myself, and I took one in my car and drove to Jungle 12 and say, ‘Nobody can’t kill you because a me a carry you down there.’

“If the police had acted upon that from there and continued to monitor this thing, it wouldn’t have escalated,” one resident, who asked not to be named, told The Gleaner.

Another resident expressed the view that the zero-murder experience was short-lived not only because of the inactivity of police in the community but also because of the prevalence of adolescents with guns.

He added that the police should have adopted and implemented strategies used in other volatile communities in August Town to cauterise the then looming murder crisis.

“The police them know who the boy them be because people will report it, so them just needed to do like what the police them downtown [Kingston] do and just take them up when them see them with gun. The police have to do something drastic and stop just talk,” the resident said.

According to him, in 2016, most of the long-standing gunmen in the area either were imprisoned or ‘retired’, which lead to the community’s most peaceful year in recent memory.

The CAPRI report shared similar findings, noting that some of the area’s most lethal violence producers were not in the community in 2016 to carry out their regular homicidal activities.

It was noted that the robust anti-violence effort was partly effective in the impactful but short-lived peace effort in August Town that year.

“Nevertheless, August Town’s experience does actually contain lessons for anti-violence initiatives throughout Jamaica’s vulnerable, violence-plagued communities.

“With specific regard to the ‘zero murders’ in 2016 in August Town, even in the absence of rigorous evidence, the community’s anti-violence efforts may have also played a role, but such efforts generally do not have long-lasting effects, nor were they were sustained, hence the results were short-lived,” the report read.

In addition, the report highlighted: “There were two incidents of shooting with intent, including one attempt at a reprisal killing, that resulted in the wrong man being shot. He was hospitalised for seven months and died in early 2017. His murder was, however, included in the 13 that occurred in 2017 and not counted as having occurred in 2016. And so, taken at face value, with an average of eight murders a year in the years prior, ‘zero murders’ was considered an achievement for the community and an example for the whole of Jamaica.”

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