Beheadings an outrage

The State failed to protect 19-year-old Joeith Lynch and her mother, who were beheaded this week by slimy cowards pretending to be men. The fact that these were helpless women and upstanding citizens in the Spanish Town community of Lauriston underscores the wimpish nature of the act - a clear attempt by the perpetrators to send a message that they were bad and in charge by killing the weak and defenceless.

The beheading of the women and a man in Spanish Town this week is the latest manifestation of the ongoing lawlessness in the Old Capital that has continued unabated even during the security operation in west Kingston and the accompanying state of emergency in May 2010. The killings are NOT isolated incidents - they are part of a pattern of intimidation and terror perpetrated by feuding gangs. The police know this, the minister of national security knows this, and the political leaders in the town and parish know this.

So it remains a mystery why parliamentarians did not extend the state of emergency in St Catherine last year. We recall that the Opposition had abstained from voting on the motion to extend the public emergency law, while only 25 government members were present to pass it, resulting in the defeat of the motion by six votes.

Parliamentarians made this decision despite the police request for an extension of the emergency powers in the Corporate Area and St Catherine. This, despite clear indications that the police did not have the marauding gangs in Spanish Town under control. Our parliamentarians fiddled while criminals burned the ramparts in Spanish Town.

Because of the inaction, our policymakers are culpable in the death of this promising teenager, her mother, other women as well as men murdered in Spanish Town as collateral in the ongoing gang war. Never mind that these selfsame parliamentarians passed the Charter of Rights bill that guaranteed the right to life.

This right was snatched from Joeith Lynch. Policymakers and, by extension, law enforcement betrayed The Queen's High School graduate with bright prospects, leaving her helpless to ravenous wolves. Her teachers who nurtured her through the tragic death of her father last year are shattered. She had survived the ordeal and was accepted to attend the University of the West Indies in September.

A sad day

"The untimely and tragic death of Joeith Lynch has caused us grief and bewilderment. It is a sad day in the history of our school and in Jamaica," the principal circulated to the school family on Wednesday.

Sad, indeed! The beheadings are a slap in the face of the forces of law and order. The bloody madness in Spanish Town has been allowed to continue for too long. The community and the State are under siege.

In May 2010, when lawless elements were confronting the security forces in the Corporate Area, you could feel their collective resolve to push back the thugs. Commanders in both the military and police were hard-pressed to keep their fighters in check. In the end, a telling blow was made to the criminal underworld. Nothing less is required to beat back rampant criminality in Spanish Town.

The security forces must stop the cat-and-mouse approach to crime-fighting and, instead, concentrate some resources in Spanish Town to deal with the murderous mobsters there. It must stop, once and for all, in the name of Joeith Lynch, her mother and the other women and men that have been routinely slaughtered in Spanish Town.

The people of Lauriston and other troubled communities in Spanish Town must not cower in fear; and if they understandably do, the rest of Jamaica must rise in their defence. We must together agitate for the sustained deployment of the security forces to Spanish Town for the crime wave to abate.

If Spanish Town is under attack, so is all of Jamaica. Will we, as a society, sit back and allow Joeith's life to go in vain?

Byron Buckley is The Gleaner's associate editor - special projects. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and byron.buckley@gleanerjm.com.