Even a dozen crime bills is no fix

Wilberne Persaud, Financial Gleaner Columnist

Well do we remember the Gun Court, don't we? Red and dread, immediate in impact, it was billed as decisive - one bullet, perhaps even a spent shell in one's car, was visited with a draconian, mandatory sentence. The legislation creating it, and upon which its operation rested, was exceedingly bad law. It never achieved the purpose for which it was designed. Among its architects was one of our most qualified and highly accomplished psychiatrists of world repute. He and others, advisors to late Prime Minister Michael Manley, were all well meaning people, intelligent, fully committed to building a strong, peaceful nation of people achieving at their highest potential. What went wrong?

Why is it that we now believe, belatedly, that we must seek a fix made up of six crime bills that some would stampede through Parliament? The reason is straightforward. To borrow a phrase, the 'urgency of now' forces us to do something. If we pass six bills we have done something! Then why not do a raindance while we are at it?

Along with remedies and punishments for flouting it, the law provides a set of rules to govern behaviour. Human behaviour conforms to a set of norms that are not always static. These norms are adaptive and they can change with circumstances, particularly to the extent that they affect people's life chances. What is the impact of Gun Court rules in the face of the garrison community as a norm? The impact is that often, individuals without influential connections, whose behaviour is of little consequence to the overall system, bear the brunt of punishment with no true impact on positive change of the behaviours the legislation aims at.

Important point

Former United States (US) Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter in his recent Harvard Commencement speech argued that we "want order and security, and we want liberty. And we want not only liberty but equality as well. These paired desires of ours can clash, and when they do a court is forced to choose between them". Perhaps, however, the more important point he made was the fact that, and he was speaking of the US Constitution, constitutions contain "values that may well exist in tension with each other, not in harmony." This is the crux of the matter.

Legislation shall not solve the crime problem we face. Well do I remember the vexed rebuke and admonition of a colleague who complained of my never making a public comment on the way in which I viewed the fingerprinting process for our electoral register. I refused on principle to be fingerprinted and, therefore, could not vote. Why did I do this? Even if 100 per cent of the electorate was being fingerprinted, that meant nothing if garrison constituencies practised open or over-voting and ballot box stuffing. Why, therefore, should one be subject to such a procedure when, in effect, it was rendered a sham by the reality of our voting system? Why subscribe to a mere pretence?

Legislation and rules merely set a framework. Once we are agreed and admit of Justice Souter's "values that may well exist in tension with each other, not in harmony", then we, as a society, can go about righting the wrongs we have accumulated over the years. Crime, and its association with garrisons, political parties and governance, did not develop overnight. It will not be defeated by six bills passed in a six-hour debate by a parliament, of which many members owe their very seats and ability to participate in that debate, in any debate for that matter, to the cancer they now wish to force into remission.

Legislate yes, but understand these tensions that exist among liberty, equity, equality and security. Understand the fundamental and systemic biases our society perpetuates, and seek to remedy them. Behaviour cannot be legislated, and just as the militia under slavery could never guarantee security, similarly draconian law and a well equipped police force shall not. Until our people, all of our people, see and feel a reasonable chance of success, too many shall remain prey to those who benefit from luring them into support for, or participation in, forever morphing forms of criminal enterprise.

wilbe65@yahoo.com