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Jamaica wages its ‘battle’ of the ‘Boyne’

12 Thursday Jan 2017

Posted by The Grasshopper in Commentary

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Civil liberties, Crime, Jamaica, Media, Security issues

Ian Boyne is articulate. He is also, by his own admission, well-read. Those two things together tend to give opinions a certain power, whether or not that is merited. I say that simply because I am driven by the power of strong argument, not the power to make me think the argument is strong. The art of the con man is to make the story sound convincing. But, don’t get me wrong: I am not arguing that Ian is a con man. I just want to make sure that I think about the substance not the superficial.

A few days ago, Mr. Boyne put forward some ideas for dealing with crime in Jamaica, under the title ‘Is Holness tough enough?‘.

Now, the first part of the superficial is the positing that it’s a problem of one person (as the title suggests) rather than the problem of a government and all its part. In other words, we are asked to believe that it’s all about whether the leader has the right mettle, rather than whether the Cabinet is made of the right stuff. At it’s extreme, it could be that, in the face of a split Cabinet, the PM will have the casting vote. That would not be about his toughness, but about his deciding where the balance of power really sits more comfortably. But, let me not dwell on that.

But, let’s dig deeper into the commentary.

‘…our elite dominates traditional media discourse on the issue, and our politicians are in terror of them the way ordinary citizens are in terror of gunmen.’ I noted immediately that Mr. Boyne is himself part of ‘our elite’, so I was stumped when I tried to think of who he meant. I’m still stumped by the implicit idea of ‘except me’. I was also struck by the mention of ‘traditional media’, noting that Mr. Boyne, as far as one can tell from checking does not step into the arena of ‘non traditional’ media, by which I mean social media, such as Facebook and Twitter. I then have to wonder whether the balance of opinion in traditional media is what matters, as opposed to balance of opinion is a much wider setting. I got confused by this argument, though, when Mr. Boyne acknowledges ‘We have a prime minister who is social media savvy and who is directly in touch with multiple tens of thousands of people through those platforms. His thinking is not just influenced by what traditional media discourse is.’ I now have no idea why the first postulation is relevant. (That last point about being ‘in touch’ also begs questions about whether the nature of social media interaction is well-understood.) 

More important, is discourse in the media what really matters on weighty issues? It gives the media a superiority over opinions that makes me feel uneasy. But, think about it. That’s more powerful than, say, discourse in parliament? 

‘The politicians don’t have the guts and courage of leadership to take the tough decisions which they need to make to send a signal to criminals because talk-show hosts, articulate, well-spoken defense attorneys and other human rights fundamentalists will clobber them if they dare to act decisively and tough.’ Not having the guts because is odd. It suggests that the politicians have guts in other instances, but wilt in this area. I find that laughable. Jamaican politicians do not display guts in many areas, so the ‘fear’ of being bashed cannot be what is holding them back. I think if one looks across the realm of political decisions over decades one can find easily many instances where weak decisions are the preferred way of doing things for Jamaican politicians. You can take that from the decision to not deal with squatting and land capture, through the facilitation of stealing of water and electricity, through the building of garrison constituencies (to make it easier to win votes by the rule of fear, rather than the power of argument), through the general aversion to political and financial transparency, through the unwillingness to address clear economic problems UNTIL it is a necessity to get any more financial support from the international community (let’s call that being ‘beaten by the IMF to do it’) and much more. So, Jamaican politicians are better described as gutless. PERIOD.

‘our journalists, columnists and civil society activists have the gall to be making calls for the Government to ‘do something now’ and to ‘act decisively’ to deal with crime…Not one would have any effect on murder today or next week.’ This seems like a self-serving accusation, not least by scooping all things together and listing noting in particular. One of the problems with Jamaican politicial decision-making has been its willingness to put things off. So, we are forever pushing past the point when decisions should have been made to get maximum effect, and so it is actually harder to find a solution that can deal with almost any of our problems in an instant, because we have allowed them to become deeply ingrained. It does not only relate to crime, but to almost any aspect of our social and economic life. Look at the creaking infrastructure. Look at the simple matter of road signage, that was pointed to yesterday. Look at the systemic weaknesses in so many aspects of public service provision. Look at the feather-bedding in public employment. Look at our serial inability to hold anyone to account. We have wasted time (and money), so will always have to do more now to correct that weakness. 

Whether Mr. Boyne can find one journalist who can say what can be done to affect crime now is not the point; it has been said, by others, at least. I and others, including academics, for police officers, lawyers, the US State Department and more have written and spoken often about how the risk:reward relationship of crime in Jamaica is badly and wrongly skewed. Getting away with crimes is far too easy in almost all spheres.

One simple thing to do now is for the police to do a better job first of policing, including catching criminals, and for the justice system to do a better job of trying and convicting them. Without fighting over the meaning of ‘clear up’ rate, we know that a low percentage of alleged murderers get caught and under 10 percent of them get convicted. That is either because the wrong people are caught, the defence lawyers are better than the prosecution, the juries are more complicit, or judges are more lenient, or some combination of those factors. That can change with the very next trial (call that ‘today’) and go back to the process of police investigation to be able to mount strong cases in court, so help raise the success rate in the future.

Now, the meat of the matter. Mr. Boyne is happy:

‘I was happy to hear the prime minister announce that “we will be creating the legislative environment to support the establishment of the rule of law in communities where it is absent and to separate criminals from communities they have captured.” He went on to say: “We will be creating under this framework, zones where the security forces and other Government agencies will be able to conduct special long-term operations in high crime areas, including extensive searches for guns and contraband.” Excellent!‘

‘People in inner-city communities know that there are certain criminals who are well-known but whom nobody can testify against in a court of law. These guys can hire the best attorneys to defend them or to get them on bail where they can kill more people.’

‘But I am calling for locking down certain communities, locking away certain known crime perpetrators; going into homes without search warrants and stopping vehicles on the road. Curtail some of my civil liberties in the interest of all. You can’t have human rights if there is not a viable state. We cannot allow Jamaica to become a failed state and to let our prospects for economic growth evaporate before our eyes because our politicians and chattering classes are cowards.’

Yet, this happiness is based on a disturbing proposition. The crime monster that he perceives is an inner city monster. It supposedly lives and breathes nowhere else, or if it does, it is not thriving there. I stopped my breath immediately with a sudden recollection of testimony during the West Kingston Commission of Inquiry, about how the security forces went looking for Michael ‘Dudus’ Coke. The man resided in Red Hills (amongst other places), not known to be part of any ‘inner city’; and one of the signal failures of the operation in 2010 was to not find Dudus in the inner city places. So, if that were a precursor for what the likelihood of success is for such an idea, I’d say, please do not waste our time and money. 

Going into homes in selected areas sounds fine, so long as it’s not YOUR area, and as it’s the inner city that seems targeted then ‘our elite’ can sleep a little more soundly. But, maybe, it’s not so limited and the prospect of being stopped on ‘the road’ is wide and worrying. 

I have an aunt who lives in Montego Bay. She does not live in the inner city. But, she can tell me of the lotto scammers who live in the neighbourhood, who she can overhear from her balcony, and ply their trade from the well-appointed homes on the hills. 

Let me finish with a few other thoughts.

Mr. Boyne’s monster is not the monster of crime, but of particular crimes. I have written already about whether culling murders will change the crime landscape in Jamaica, if we are still plagued with tens of thousands of abused children. It is not the crime of the pastor raping an underage teenager. It is not the crime of the schoolboy being stabbed on the bus for his phone. It is not the crime of the corrupt, who remain faceless in their corrosive walk through the coffers of the country. It is not the crime of the person who stole phones from President Obama’s entourage at the hotel. It is not the crime of the judge who was more lenient in that case than over the man who stole mangoes. Those are not crimes that will be touched by curtailed civil liberties. It is not the crime of the corrupt police officer (and you can choose which of the recent cases you think fits the bill regarding what misdeeds go on under the cover of uniform or without it).

Bashing the media and those advocating civil liberties is easy. But, why not bash those charged with upholding the law? Who controls the police who will not pursue criminals? Who controls the judiciary that will not bring harsh sentences? Who admonishes judges who seem to imply that children under the age of consent can consent to sexual activity? Who controls the parents who ‘shop’ their children to make money to live another day? Who controls the teachers who cannot understand that they are protectors of children, not predators of them? Who controls the society that condones the petty crimes that lay the ground for the acceptance of many crimes? Who controls the politicians who knowingly and repeatedly transgress the laws of the land which they frame? Cherry picking is a great exercise, but it’s not real gardening. 

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Why honesty is the best policy and examples of why Jamaican leaders fail badly: The Dr. Carl Williams debacle

24 Saturday Dec 2016

Posted by The Grasshopper in Commentary

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Dr Carl William, Governance, Integrity, Jamaica, Jamaica Constabulary Force, Policing, Security issues

Let me be absolutely clear. I have no personal gripe against Dr. Carl Williams, who recently found himself forced to admit that he would be resigning as Commissioner of Police. However, I do have a gripe about what he represents or represented. Jamaicans have a serious problem with candour–the quality of being honest and telling the truth, especially about a difficult or embarrassing subject (as defined by Cambridge (University) English Dictionary). That singular inability to be totally honest led Dr. Williams to paint himself into a ridiculous corner. But, he is but a child of a system where covering real intentions is par for the course, at many levels, and often disturbingly so at the highest levels. Rather than leading with information, leaders often have to have information dragged from them. Transparency is something that many Jamaicans appear to fear with a serious dread. I have thoughts on its origin, but will leave that for the moment.

When I had an exchange with Dr. Williams a few days ago, while participating in a #Talkback chat on Twitter, several of his replies to questions left me uneasy. He dealt reasonably well with a range of sometimes awkward questions about police conduct. One of the replies that left me ill at ease was that to the question of how many of the 400,000-odd tickets issued by the police for traffic violations had been paid, and what was the amount. Effective policing is about making people abide by the law, amongst other things. Issuing tickets does not matter if transgressors do not pay and merely ignore the violations and sanctions, and worse repeat the behaviour. So, I wanted to know how good the police were in that regard. I also wanted to know (as an economist would) how much of a contribution ‘crime fighting’ was making to the government budget. Then I got this reply: ‘JCF is not responsible for collection’. Now, my first reaction was shock at what I took to be a flippant reply. But, I paused and took into account the nature of Twitter and how short, clippy replies might give a wrong impression. But, I had a sneaky suspicion about police attitudes to what they do: we issue tickets, and that’s all. You can see from my follow-up reply that I wanted reassurance about the police attitude to what I saw as the totality of policing.

img_0369

Twitter exchange with Dr. Carl Williams

I was happy to know that our dialog was going to continue, however, as Dr. Williams assured the audience in his parting words, before wishing us all a merry Christmas.

Dr. Williams signs off for Christmas

Dr. Williams did not need to make any reference to future exchanges, and knowing what he knew about his planned future, had every reason to say nothing. But, he didn’t do that. Instead, he gave a palpably false indication about his intentions. Why paint yourself into that corner? What was so scary about the truth?

I did not know how small the corner was at the time, because I had been unaware that Dr. Williams had recently been on the radio and denied publicly that he would be stepping down in 2017. So, he went on the radio yesterday to apologize for misleading the public and his justification was that he’d been caught off guard. So, now the lack of candour comes and bites as hard as it can.

Singularly, he mismanaged a process that he had in his hands to control. But, he chose the route of less information is better.

Dr. Williams has as his motto ‘quality leadership inspires performance’; it’s written simply on his Twitter profile. He showed in this series of ‘parting shots’ what seemed lacking in leadership–a certain high quality in the form of respect for truthfulness. That sign of dissemblance is the sort of thing, if shown at the top, can only be assumed to be shown and condoned lower down. That is the knell of doom for ordinary citizens. 

Being caught off-guard over something you were hiding is either naive or careless. My father says (and I repeat to my children) ‘Don’t be surprised by the obvious!’

If one is to be interviewed, by a journalist of some sort, the least one should do is prepare for the awkward questions. This is media training 101. When one knows that a very awkward personal development is being kept from the public, why would one not be prepared for a question about that? It’s basic! In fact, the interview gave a perfect opening to come clean with the public, and say something like ‘I did not want to announce it yet, but I will be stepping down soon. I will advise of the precise dates, shortly.’ Instead, the Commissioner lied!

I wrote recently about the integrity of the police. Whether I am alone in my concerns doesn’t really worry me. I cannot see how a security force that is there to protect citizens but constantly tries to hide from citizens what it’s really doing and how badly it’s doing it has a bright future. That Dr. Williams had the gall to lie about his resignation speaks volumes.

I spoke yesterday on Facebook live chat about tensions within police ‘high command’ that were discernible if one listened to the many voices that were speaking discordantly from the top. That told me that the leader was not fully in charge, his leadership was barely respected at the top, and likely less lower down, and therefore little positive was going to change. One can only hope that the interim Commissioner understands what significant betrayal of trust has gone on and tries to rebuild that quickly.

Dr. Williams said he was glad he was not leaving under a cloud. I guess if you really are not aware of where you’re standing and what the shadows at your feet tell you then that’s a reasonable misunderstanding of what is going on above your head. Remember, this was the man who gave himself a perfect score, “10 out of 10”, after 10 months in the job. I rest my case. 😦

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