FINISH THE JOB!

 Ian Boyne, Contributor

TRUTH IS the first casualty of war. So let's start with some undeniable truths. It is true that some of the most dangerous criminals in Jamaica have been chased out of their enclave in Tivoli Gardens. It is true that gunmen who used to openly and brazenly walk the streets of Tivoli with their big guns can no longer do so today; that criminal 'soldiers' have had to abandon their fortresses.

It is true that Christopher 'Dudus' Coke has been finally routed from Tivoli, fleeing like a scared cat, and that his presidential palace no longer has any click, after the incomparable military enterprise mounted on Tivoli. It is true that Tivoli Gardens, after so many years, is finally liberated from terrorists who used that base as an axis of evil. Dudus has not been caught but the 'President' has been deposed and his territory occupied by peace-keeping forces.

It is true that if Dudus had simply walked with Rev Al Miller and turned himself in, the criminal elements who had for so long held the people of Tivoli in captivity and wider Jamaica ransom would still be in place today and it would be business as usual.

Those who say that the Tivoli operation have been botched or has been a failure have to reckon with those ineluctable truths. The fact that media reports say people from across Jamaica have been coming to Kingston to collect their dead shows that it is true that Tivoli acted as a command centre for terrorists and that 'shottas' were recruited from all over in this war to defend what street-smart columnist Mark Wignall last Sunday called "easily the most heavily armed and well-organised garrison community".

Criminals terrified

Whatever you say about what happened in Tivoli - whether you feel it was genocide or appropriate action - one thing which can't be denied is that life is totally different in Tivoli Gardens today and those who formerly ruled have been ousted. For the first time in a long time, criminals are also terrified, not just decent citizens. Criminals are on the run. Big, bad dons are clutching on the coat-tails of clergymen and turning themselves in to the police, in deadly fear of their lives. The military onslaught on Tivoli has sent a clear signal to the criminal underworld that they are no match for the state. If they ever thought they could take on the state and win, now they know.

The firewall that had been so carefully built around Tivoli for so many years was finally breached, and criminals who felt protected all these years - using innocent women, children and youth as a shield, literally and otherwise - were finally thrown to the forces of law and order. We must not underestimate the significance of what has taken place in Tivoli Gardens and its broader socio-political implications.

There is a new wind blowing in Jamaica. There was a time when an operation like the one conducted in Tivoli would have brought out certain people to scream at and try to intimidate the security forces or, more benignly, to "stand up for the poor, innocent black people of Tivoli" faced with "the wicked brutality" of the "PNP-influenced" security forces.

The media would have reflexively and uncritically thrown in their support, with television images of wailing women and shouting men bawling for justice. It would be followed, as night follows day, by commentators and columnists lamenting human rights abuses and "the historical prejudice against Tivoli Gardens".

The tactic worked marvelously all these years while the criminals were safely carrying out their narco trafficking, controlling the wharf, running their extortion ring in downtown Kingston and other places, getting their big state contracts and consolidating their strategic alliances with satellite communities.

While we in civil society were busy defending the human rights of innocents, as we should, criminals were cynically exploiting that to maintain their control. This time the residents themselves were bitterly cursing their political representative for "abandoning" them - indeed, for initiating action "against them". This time the former political representative was seen yelling on television for his successor to call off the action, shut it down and make things return to "normal". You make your judgement.

Many of us in civil society had complained for years that politicians were too corrosively and intrusively involved in directing and influencing the security forces. We have all heard of politicians who would call up police stations to demand that their gunmen be released and who would talk to 'bigger heads' in the police force to ensure that they were released. We have heard of politicians who hired lawyers to defend their gunmen who had committed atrocities to get them in Gordon House.

Political Interference

For years we have longed to see politicians leave the security forces to do their job without any interference. The running up and down of members of Parliament in their garrisons in times of unrest, shouting abuse at the security forces and acting as though they are on steroids, must stop. We must demand that members of Parliament must no longer feel that they have an obligation to obstruct law enforcement officers in the lawful execution of their duties, to score political points with constituents and show that they are in charge.

It is time members of Parliament in garrison communities lay back, step aside and leave the security forces to do their jobs without obstruction. If the media and human rights groups who have no axe to grind can't be on the battlefield during an operation in a community, I see no reason why the member of Parliament should be there. We in the fourth estate are also representatives of the people - and of all the people, unlike politicians who usually look out for their own.

There is a game change taking place. Let's hold both the applause and the swiftness to take away credit for a moment. Let's simply note it. The security forces seem to have a boldness which they did not always have. They are swooping down on the homes of prominent politicians without feeling the need to get permission from people in high places. This is a welcome development.

I loved The Observer's front-page lead on Thursday, 'No respector (sic) of Persons'. Now, we must be very careful of not inadvertently tarnishing people's reputations. We can't damage people's reputations implicitly with our sloppy intelligence work. But nor should any politician, no matter how highly placed, feel that he is above the security forces coming into his house, as they would any the home of any other citizen of Jamaica. That message must be sent clearly. No respecter of persons, indeed.

And now that the security forces have demonstrated that no community is beyond policing, the assault against criminal forces must continue. The state must go into other garrisons, smashing their criminal infrastructure and freeing the residents and this country of terrorist rule. In a sharply worded editorial on Tuesday, The Observer, which, along with this paper, have editorially done a highly laudable job of advocacy journalism, said: "The sad fact is that what obtained in Tivoli before this security forces repelled the gangsters who had captured that community is the stark reality in many other neighbourhoods across Jamaica."

It called for extending the operation to other areas to "rout gangs and crush their criminal enterprises". Indeed. However, as The Observer noted, we cannot be unmindful of issues of human rights. The leadership of the security forces will have to redouble their efforts to get their men to understand that disregard for human rights and human dignity is equal to support for criminal forces. It's as stark as that. When security forces personnel abuse citizens in going after criminals, they deepen resentment against them and set back the fight against crime.

Irresponsible force

We have a media only too eager to believe the worst about the security forces and the behaviour of some of those men would give some justification to that bias. The leadership of the security forces must somehow get it into the heads of these arrogant, power-mad, trigger-happy and irresponsible security men that we are in a serious war against terrorists and we need the support of all decent people, including decent poor and unemployed people. Mashing up people's equipment needlessly and physically abusing them set back the country and set communities against them.

We must carefully, systematically and surgically investigate the various charges flying about soldiers just taking out people and killing them in cold blood; soldiers lining up people in their homes and killing them. Scepticism is always a good starting point in trying to evaluate truth claims. Many of us are too gullible - including many in media.

There are commentators who believe that young, innocent boys were taken and murdered just because people told them so. Just on hearsay "evidence". They were not there. They know some of these people have reasons to lie. They see bloodstains and conclude "murder!" They would flunk any first-year philosophy college course in logical thinking. I plead for less gullibility among my media colleagues.

Don't believe the security forces automatically. Question official reports, but don't assume that residents are necessarily telling the truth. Some of us have been too reckless with the rules of evidence and logic. I am for a commission of enquiry to get the stinking truth. I am for rigorous investigation. Violations of human rights and human dignity harm terribly the fight against crime. We need citizen support. We need the support of Jamaicans for Justice as well as Families Against State Terrorism.

We need the support of civic groups and ordinary working-class Jamaicans. If the security forces are proven to be abusers, we can't win this fight against criminality. But, please, we can't stop the fight against the criminals now. We must "move on to Baghdad", as it were. Don't let our grieving for the loss of life immobilise us. Indeed, we should not let the innocents of war die in vain.

Ian Boyne is a veteran journalist. Send feedback to ianboyne1@yahoo.com or columns@glreanerjm.com