Archive for February, 2010|Monthly archive page
Chicago USA and Kingston JA
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: ceasefire, chicago, guns, jamaica, murder, shooting
Comments (1) Both these cities have similar crime problems in their poorest neighbourhoods.
photo by michael kappel
I recently came back from Chicago where I reported on the violence going on, on the south side. I was mainly in Englewood and also went to Austin on the west side – and there were a lot of similarities with what is going on in Kingston. the shootings, the violence, the guns, the culture.
Dr Gary Slutkin heads Chicago Ceasefire
So it’s good to see that this guy, Dr Gary Slutkin, come to Jamaica to share some experience and offer his solutions, which seem like quite a shock to the usual answers to crime printed on the pages of the Observer newspaper.
He says that locking people up and aggressively handling criminals – popular with Jamaican police officers like Reneto Adams is not the way forward.
I know about Chicago Ceasefire as I met some guys who were a part of it – they wanted to be “violence interruptors” - that is people from the street, many of them former gang members themselves, out there at night trying to stop violence escalating into murder. So if they see something is going to kick off, they will advise a beating instead. It’s tough, it’s realistic and apparently, it works.
I am listening to …
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: cecile, ding dong, motion, movado, nah stress, serani, skip to my lou, slow, starlight, vybz kartel
Leave a Comment This cecile tune – I din’t think that I could like a song more than Slow Motion by Vybz kartel, but Cecile is really doing it on this riddim.
and also …
Jamaican Prison riots
Filed under: Gun Crime, health | Tags: 2010, adult, anti, centre, crime, gang, gangs, horizon, jamaica, jamaican, justice, kingston, nelson, prison, prisoners, remand, riot, riots
Comments (6) 
Photo by Anthony Chammond
The prison riot at the Horizon Adult Remand Centre in Kingston is just what is happening to Jamaican society as a whole. The riot was predictable as this has happened before and also happened another time and another time – too many times to mention in fact. Will any lessons be learned? Well none have been learned so far.
Will there be an investigation that will amount to anything? Probably not and the reason is because the Jamaican government and society think that they have more important things to worry about, rather than looking after its’ prisoners and criminals. But this kind of thinking would be a big mistake because if you don’t care about the people in jail, then you probably don’t care about other people you don’t know, it’s about lacking sympathy, lacking forgiveness, not caring.
I’m in a harsh mood because I was talking to some elderly Jamaicans about how things used to be in the 1960s (not that long ago!!) and how you used to be able to trust people, but nowadays people are more likely to want to cheat you, rape you, lie and threaten.
Back to the subject matter – this riot was predictable – if you’re not going to give people water then what do you expect? The human rights group, Jamaicans for Justice are trying to push for an investigation (someone needs to give Dr Gomes a gold medal). The prisons are overcrowded and underfunded – god knows what’s going to happen when the anti-gang drive comes into force in March – the national security minister says that he wants to put them all in prisons – it seems he’s asking for more riots. if I were a prison officer in one of any of Jamaica’s jails, i would be even more worried than usual!
