EDITORIAL - Wanted: bold crime-fighting plan

Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller has spoken on the crime situation - at long last. Addressing a function in St Andrew earlier this week, she made an impassioned plea for communities to get involved in finding solutions to crime and appeared to suggest that peace could be achieved through community efforts.

In answering media queries, the prime minister disclosed that islandwide community consultations are due to start shortly. It is urgent that crime-fighting initiatives are explored because the victims of violent crimes are featured in the news with monotonous regularity.

Yet, Mrs Simpson Miller's response is not the bold, innovative solution for which the country has been clamouring. In fact, as the country tries to grapple with the horrific levels of crime and violence, a common refrain has been that the police alone cannot solve the problem. The point has been made repeatedly, along with efforts to enlist the help of the Church, the private sector and the community.

This newspaper has repeatedly called for all options to be placed on the table in order to design a comprehensive policy overhaul to deal with crime. We strongly suggest that the greatest burden of fighting crime and making the country safe falls on the administration and the various branches of the criminal justice system. We have a common interest in dealing with violence, but making Jamaica safe must be Government's core responsibility.

Given that community policy has been tried for many years, and that previous community consultations were not successful, the sceptics among us may ask: How much can be expected from communities in any effort to fight crime?

The answer depends, in part, on whether the communities are supportive of new mores or traditional values; whether they are anti-police or supportive of law and order; inward-looking or nationally focused.

Solidarity with criminals

There are deep-seated cultural issues involved here. All too often we have witnessed community members, far more interested in their own survival, embrace wrongdoers and demonstrate their solidarity with criminals.

Suffering and deprivation can change people's perspective. There is a lot of suffering in many inner-city communities, for example, where work is scarce and job prospects extremely low. This may explain why the disgraceful lottery scam was able to flourish in many communities where citizens dubbed it 'payback for slavery'. The cure for poverty can only be found in a meaningful, reliable job.

Does the Government understand what it will take to galvanise community support and change the culture of silence and secrecy that is entrenched in many of our communities? Who will explain to those who support the criminal element that every violent act inflicts collateral damage to Jamaica's reputation? How will the prime minister and her team go about building community consensus around issues like honesty?

We submit that political will is what is needed to tackle crime. Without a clear path to peace, many will remain sceptical that Jamaica will ever become the wonderful country in which to live, grow families and do business.

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