Commentary

Not responsible

AS THE NUMBER of murders exceeds 1000 for this year, a study conducted by researchers here at the University of the West Indies and aided by input from overseas agencies, has concluded that deportees are not responsible for most of the island's spiralling crime rate.

This study, if proven to be credible, will throw cold water on the belief within Government circles that deportees are a main cause of serious crime here in Jamaica.

However, if lawmakers take a closer look at the serious crime that occurs here in Jamaica, they may find that the study does make a point. It has long been established that the drug trade that has taken root here in Jamaica has spawned a new type of criminal.

This animal is far more ruthless because the stakes are much higher than ever before. The stakes these days include vast amounts of money and by extension power over the disenfranchised.

The burgeoning drug trade also means the illegal importation of weapons that outperform those in the possession of the security forces. All this is compounded by growing levels of corruption within the Jamaica Constabulary which is already perceived as inept at best.

This terrifying situation now demands wholesale changes in the ways in which crime is fought in this country. The police force needs to be dragged into the 21st century as it relates to the methodology by which they ferret out the criminal element, the ways in which the police are policed, and the ways in which the laws of the land are enforced.

This has become absolutely necessary now if we are to take back the country from the criminals who now control it.