'Losing our heads'

Recently, 37-year-old Gary Smith of August Town was beheaded.This was preceded by the decapitation of three persons, including a mother and daughter. The mother, Charmaine Rattray, and her 19-year-old daughter, Joeith Lynch, were members of the New Life Church of God. These beheadings are symptomatic and symbolic of the country 'losing our heads'.

The actions of these persons who are beheading others signify that we have gone crazy. These beheadings are a sign that segments of the Jamaican society are dysfunctional. Our people have forgotten that violence begets violence.

Beheading is a sign that we have not placed a high value on life. We are not doing enough research and interfacing with our youths. We do not understand their thought processes and their values.

It was an informative analysis by Dr Orville Taylor, senior lecturer at the University of West Indies, Mona, who suggested that the beheadings are informed by the Mexican drug cartel. It could also be linked to the steady diet of senseless violent films that are being fed to young minds. Too many films glorify violence and promote revenge.

And worse, our young people are exposed in their communities to violence and murder. It is instructive that it was a young person who discovered the head of the deceased and took it out of the river. What psychological effect will this discovery have on the people who witnessed this sight, especially the young?

Watershed 1980s

It seemed a watershed period in our history when approximately 800 persons were killed in 1980, mainly during the election campaign. It speaks to the nexus between violence and politics. About the same time, there was the publication Time for Action, the West Indian Commission report which warned of the danger posed by the drug trade. Nevertheless, according to documentaries, drug traffickers were given status and influence in politics, using money to fund election campaigns. And drug dons have grown powerful and have triggered the escalation of our murder rate.

Also, it seems that we have never really dealt with systemic state violence against citizens. In the aftermath of the Paul Bogle-inspired protest, the colonial authorities responded with brutality. Edwin Palmer, Baptist pastor, estimated, based on several witnesses that there were between 2,000 and 3,000 victims.

In addition, an unnamed old missionary estimated that 3,400 were killed, which was much more than the official estimate of 439. In my book The Cross and the Machete, there is a quote by James Phillippo, English Baptist missionary, who, in a letter dated January 5, 1866, described the swift punishment of the protesters thus:

"Of men wantonly shot down from the roof of their houses when employed in repairing them; of women stabbed, in their huts, with children at their breasts, or in other indescribable condition, the children dashed upon the ground and murdered - of men flogged and then hanged - of numbers paraded through the town to execution, with halters round their necks - and of still greater atrocities perpetrated in the woods and open fields."

There has never been any compensation for these atrocities by the British authorities; not even an apology. In fact, this part of our history has been sanitised so much so that when the question was recently asked of Jamaicans, the majority felt they would be better off under British rule. The status quo continues to get off easily.

There is far too much brutality emanating from the State, agents of the State, and citizens of the State that will haunt us for a long while until we confront the monster honestly and decisively.

Devon Dick is a Baptist pastor and author. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.