Commentary

Who and what is important

JACKASS SEY DI worl' no level. Jackass sey who an' wha important inna Jumaica no mek too much sense to dis ya hee haw.

The big news over the course of last week was the crashing of Beenie Man. Not the crash of, but the crashing. There is a difference.

The media was full of it, from newspapers to television stations to radio. It was the big thing.

On the day that he crashed, though, there was another crash, this one in St. Elizabeth. The car was much smaller than the Hummer the popular deejay was driving when he came to a sudden halt, there were many more people in it and the cause was clear.

The police chased a car and fired shots into it, hitting a 60-year-old woman, Viola Barrett, in the back.

Beenie Man is OK, it would seem. Heck, there has never been such a flood of 'Beenieism' in the media - well, not since he and Carlene were an item anyway. Ms. Barrett, on the other hand, is at least partially paralysed.

The world is not level at all. Why is it that the crash of a deejay occupies more - much more - of our attention than the unprovoked shooting of an elderly lady by the police? It is a matter of what, and by extension who, is important to us in this country.

Questionable shootings

Beenie Man is undoubtedly wealthy. Ms. Viola Barrett is undoubtedly not. Beenie Man ­ at least his image ­ is known to millions of people. Ms. Barrett's face is certainly not projected on television for all to see on a regular basis. Beenie Man works in a glamorous setting, entertainment. Ms. Barrett handles mops and pans and such the like.

To put it mildly, scrubbing floors is not exactly the picture of a glam job.

But the issues surrounding Ms. Barrett's shooting are so much more critical to us as a nation than the circumstances surrounding Beenie Man's crash. The police are notorious for questionable shootings in Jamaica. It was only a few weeks ago that Flankers in Montego Bay, St. James, erupted in protest when two elderly men were shot dead by the police in similar circumstances ­ they were in a taxi, which the police shot up.

That 'incident' came and went just like that ­ just like Ms. Barrett's will, at least from the media.

In addition, the police manage to kill quite a few persons, almost invariably poor, each year in this country and a stock story is always trotted out, that the persons assaulted the cops with gun, knife or bottle or something first.

In the case of Ms. Barrett such a claim certainly could not - and was not - made.

To top it off, the policemen involved have been "removed from front-line duties". Again, that is something we have heard time and time and time again.

Ms. Barrett's injuries go to the heart of the concept of justice in Jamaica. But it is Beenie Man's crashing which has received the overwhelming press and public attention. And we wonder why we have the police force that we do.

Jackass sey di worl' no level. Jackass sey a life is a life an people fi show more intres inna de lady whe de police shat fi nutten. Oonu more likely fi inna taxi whe police bus shat inna dan Umma whe tun ova.