Whip farm thieves, says Grant
Published:Thursday | January 26, 2012 | 12:00 AM
Christopher Serju, Gleaner Writer
THE TIME is well overdue for judges to crack the whip in order to arrest the rampant farm theft which has plagued Jamaican farmers for years, leaving many destitute while others continue to enjoy the benefits of their hard work. That is the view of Praedial Larceny Prevention Coordinator Reginald Grant who is spearheading the renewed drive to put praedial larcenists out of business. He is adamant that whipping would be more of a deterrent for offenders than other sanctions now on the books.
"Maybe I'm the lone voice in the wilderness but I think (it is) the solution to praedial larceny if judges exercise that power. Why don't we call for that?" he asked participants during a seminar on praedial larceny on Tuesday. The event was held at the police academy in Twickenham Park, St Catherine, to sensitise a batch of 141 graduates about the scourge of praedial larceny and their role in addressing it.
In the law books
Grant, a retired assistant commissioner of police, was adamant that with fines and sanctions proving to be little deterrent the time is right to have these thieves whipped as prescribed by law. He referred AgroGleaner to Section 13 of the Praedial Larceny Act which states that: "Every person who steals, or with intent to steal, cuts, breaks, roots up or otherwise destroys or damages the whole or any part of a tree, sapling, shrub, underwood, plant, root, fruit or vegetable production growing in any place whatsoever shall be guilty of a felony, and upon conviction thereof liable to be punished as in the case of simple larceny, and if a male, in addition thereto to be whipped."
"Whipping worked in the past and it will work again," Grant shared with the Agro Gleaner afterwards. "We need to show those criminals that we are serious. For too long farmers have been suffering at the hands of people who have become more organised in their efforts to deprive people of the fruits of their hard labour."
Direct losses to farmers each year as a result of praedial larceny has been conservatively estimated at $5 billion, with the thieves becoming more organised, and in recent years gangs of gun-toting hoodlums have stolen entire crops, killing or wounding farmers in the process.
Strict laws needed
Grant's call for the whipping of praedial larcenists comes more than 20 years after farmers demanded the right to arms and to be allowed to "shoot the thieves on sight". The Gleaner lead story of Monday, May 7, 1990, headlined 'Kill de 'tief yuself', written by Sylvia Lee, details the concerns of farmers who used the annual general meeting of coconut growers held at the Coke Methodist church in Kingston to air their frustration.
Lee wrote: "Isaiah Crossley, a 93-year-old grower of Harewood in St Catherine, crouching over his walking stick, called for the imposition of strict laws to 'shoot thieves on sight' because, he said, 'they don't plant but only reap what others plant'. He said he had over 200 bearing trees, yet he had not been able to reap a single dried coconut or jelly coconut."
The farmers' call came across the background of the widely held perception that the police were not taking their complaints seriously. "As far as praedial larceny is concerned, when you call the police, they pay you no mind," Alan Mitchell told the meeting.