Revisiting the Concept of National Security in a Jamaican Context: by Donovan Reynolds Human Rights Activist and Independent Writer

In 2005, Jamaica had 1,674 murders for a murder rate of 58 per 100,000 people. That year, Jamaica had the highest murder rate in the world. In November 2008, the Jamaican Parliament voted to retain the death penalty, which is performed by hanging. Some areas of Jamaica, particularly cities such as Kingston, Montego Bay and Spanish Town, experience high levels of crime and violence. Jamaica has had one of the highest murder rates in the world for many years, according to UN estimates. It is estimated that currently Jamaica  has the seventh highest murders rate per 100,000 population in the world. Former Prime Minister P. J. Patterson described the situation as "a national challenge of unprecedented proportions.

 Over the past two years there has been a minuscule decline in the domestic murder mainly attributed to window dressing or a robust reactive response to crime as a consequence of external pressure.  Statistics have shown that over the first quarter of 20 12 that there has been an increase of murders by 12% over the corresponding period of last year.These frightening statistics for an island with a small population of 2.7 million people hails for a radical reworking of its crime reduction strategy. This writer suggest that there needs to be paradigm shift from a centralised crime strategy to a community based response here citizens of communities set their crime reduction strategy and are incentivized  by the government of Jamaica for meeting or exceeding their targets.

The concept of national security and crime prevention in Jamaica has long been viewed by politicians and Jamaican law enforcement practitioners in a narrow framework of policy response that is mainly militarised. The burgeoning murder rate poses a threat to our acquired democratic values and sullies our international reputation. The constant indiscriminate loss of lives pose a continuous challenge to our collective safety and traumatises our communities. Increased criminal activity prevent the inflow of direct capital investment from external sources and smothers our economic growth.

The blame for this burgeoning murder rate has been squarely place at the feet of an unrelenting criminal class of violent gangs obsessed with the acquisition of guns and the cruel use of it. This top-down vantage point of viewing the crime problem often excludes the contribution of poverty, corruption, social exclusion and post code prejudice as a contributory factor to our increasing criminal sub culture . The response to crime in Jamaica has always been a centralised military approach the assumption seems to suggest that communities are constantly screened out from taking responsibility and participating in formulating their local crime reduction strategies. The first quarter of 20 12 has seen the gruesome killing of ten children and thirty women and the militarised response to these gruesome murders there  has been an extrajudicial killing by the police of over twenty persons. This drew criticism from Amnesty International a respected  and influential international human rights organisation. Jamaica has long been under the radar of a number of human rights organisations who have viewed their crime fighting strategy with a bevy of disdain.

 According to Amnesty international Jamaica has the highest rate of police killings per ca pita in the world. In April 2001, Amnesty International launched a world-wide campaign to highlight the pattern of extra-judicial killings and other human rights abuses committed by members of the Jamaican security forces - the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) and the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF), with the launch of its report, JAMAICA: Killings and Violence by Police - How many more victims? The report cited the loss of life at the hands of the Jamaican Constabulary Force (JCF) borders on a human rights emergency. The rate of lethal police shootings in Jamaica is one of the highest per capita in the world. More than 1,400 people have been shot dead by police over the past 10 years in Jamaica; in a country whose population is only 2.8 million. Amnesty International has made this assessment purely on the valuation of Jamaica’s human rights record but locally it’s an open secret that these killings are a frustrated response to an ill-conceived crime strategy response. The twisted assumption is that if you liquidate trigger happy criminals the crime rate will reduce.

The ministry of security and justice under who’s the crime portfolio at a policy level is crafted is hampered by a lack of resources. Despite the introduction of useful initiatives such as community policing, neighbourhood, restorative justice and community peace initiatives though well intentioned have been implemented in a fragmented and incremental way. So the policy response to crime has been centralised and has a long history of top down approach. The social services that should provide a safety net for vulnerable youths at risk of participating in crime are residual and woefully lack the necessary investment. There is a basic gap in understanding by the policy directorate that crime is a community problem and the solution to crime must come from working in partnership with communities to empower them to seek solutions to their own collective security- crafted at a community level and fed into a parish divisional command and trough to a central command and policy directorate.

This is a proposed radical re working of the current strategy that would put the onus on communities to  set and own their crime reduction strategies and be incentivised by increase investment . In the form of social amenities to their communities on a priority needs basis. This new proposed approach to crime prevention should be facilitated trough and supported by divisional community safety units drawn from existing local professionals and NGOs a multi-agency approach to crime. With the use of existing professionals such as Education practitioners, the local police, the SDC, local Magistrates, health professionals, mental health services, faith based communities and other civic organisations. This approach of utilising existing professional resources to support the local crime strategy would prevent the need for a huge capital investment that the country can’t afford in a rigid financial environment.

It is quite obvious that the system of a top down crime fighting strategy is not working it has failed us for the past forty years. As a consequence there is an alarming high murder rate and ugly statistics of police extra judicial killings has damaged our human rights credentials as a decent democratic nation state. Every life that is loss matters and something radical has to be done to reverse this malaise .It is almost as if we are imploding the statistics suggest that we are at war with ourselves but in a paradoxical state of denial.

 That is why I am proposing a neo-realist response that places communities at the heart of involvement in planning and taking responsibility of their personal safety and security. The overarching philosophy of this proposed radical response is the decentralisation of Jamaica security and safety strategy. The assumption is that in the long term it will create safer communities who are accountable to themselves and the nation-state by setting targets that will improve their security and safety at the community level. These targets will be backed up by government incentives in terms of improved social amenities and the focusing of scarce resources on persons at risk and vulnerable to committing crimes. So the government role will be to collate these agreed targets set benchmarks and identify investments and allocate resources efficiently in order for the overall strategy to work. Crime is devastating for any countries prosperity but what is even more devastating is a continuous failed policy response to it.

Donovan Reynolds is a human rights activist,independent writer and has 23 years of experience working in the criminal justice system.Readers are invited to comment on this blog in the space provided or to give feedback at dannygerm63@hotmail.co.uk