EDITORIAL - Mr Bunting's credibility problem

Peter Bunting, the national security minister, has been proselytising recently about his new approach to Jamaica's epidemic of crime, which, unabashedly, includes calls for divine intervention.

Given the double-digit percentage hike in homicides last year - Jamaica recorded more than 1,200 murders - and the bad start to killings in 2014, and taken against his track record after two years in the portfolio, Mr Bunting's appeal for help from a higher power is quite understandable.

But the earthly aspects of his new approach have much to recommend it, not least that it appears to be an attempt at a holistic, joined up strategy.

In so far as we understand, Mr Bunting's explanation of the idea is to approach crime as you would a medical epidemic, which first requires isolating the hosts of the disease, thereby preventing its transmission and spread.

Simultaneous with the preventative elements of the strategy is to administer the cure, including efforts to ensure that it does not recur.

In this case, the project means effective efforts by law enforcement to isolate criminals, while weakening their ability to regroup. So, resocialising at-risk young people in Jamaica's too many dysfunctional communities is important. That will require significant spending, over time, on social-intervention programmes.

Proven strategy

What Mr Bunting now proposes is neither new nor unique. Indeed, he concedes that it is a strategy borrowed from other high-crime jurisdictions that have reaped success with similar programmes.

But it is not only the strategy that Mr Bunting has borrowed; it is also the narrative of its formulators. He now often makes observations to the effect that society's failures are left to law enforcers to repair.

The implication: Cut Mr Bunting some slack on the worsening crime problem.

This newspaper is inclined to accommodate the minister, hopes that he is afforded the resources to implement the plan, and wishes him success. But Peter Bunting faces a significant hurdle if he is to succeed.

He has a problem of personal credibility. For too many people, his acceptance of the socio-economic precursors to crime in Jamaica, and more important, its cure, rings hollow.

Tivoli incursion

In 2010, in the aftermath of the state of emergency that facilitated the security intervention in Tivoli Gardens and the eventual extradition of crime boss Christopher Coke, Mr Bunting sought, in many people's opinion, to belittle the effect of the state of emergency in lowering the rate of crime.

But more significant was his insinuation that most of Jamaica's homicides could be traced back to Coke and positive gains against crime flowed from degrading "the criminal organisation headquartered in Tivoli Gardens and the subsequent extradition of its leader". It is this view that might have informed the minister's promise, when he took office two years ago, to reduce homicides, then around 45 per 100,000 population, to 12 per 1,000 by 2016.

The Government's current target, which was sneaked into official documents absent pronouncement by the minister, is 25 per 100,000. And even that, on current trends, is unachievable.

While Mr Bunting's perspectives on crime and criminality may have evolved since his heady, naïve days, he has not specifically acknowledged the change. It is not too late to do so and to admit to personal growth. It would help.

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