While the public was being “buggered” by gays via the media and was been bitten by “mongrels”, Commissioner of Police , Mr Owen Ellington gave what I considered to one of the best speeches in modern time by a Commissioner of police.
While most if not all the speech was hardly reported in mainstream media, what we did get and which was the subjected of outrage by the Jamaican lawyers, was the fact that he had reported that ” too many gang members were being given bail by our judges“. Lawyers went has far as to call for the intervention of the Minister of National Security to “silence” the police commissioner.
I have decided (along with what Martin Henry wrote about in the ) to present to reader some of the more salient points of what the Commissioner had to say and allow Jamaicans to really focus on what they think is important.
In 2000, when American President Bill Clinton visited Colombia, that country was declared a “failed state”. Security analysts describe a failed state as one in which the state has lost the capacity and the political will to perform basic governance functions, such as efficient revenue collection; assure public security and safety; build and maintain critical public infrastructure; public services such as security, public health, education; enforce the rule of law and exercise sovereign control over the territory.
Drug lords and transnational organised crime syndicates had become so powerful that they had taken over court houses and killed judges. They recruited and paid young boys to kill policemen (1,000 policemen were killed in a single year); they slaughtered witnesses and innocent civilians and undermined citizen confidence in the capacity of the State to protect them and their rights.
Today, the state is in full control of Colombia’s territory; the country’s murder rate has dropped to around 30 per 100,000 of the population. Colombia achieved economic growth of 4.6 per cent between 2004 and 2009. The economy was described as a ‘rising star’ by the International Monetary Fund in 2011.
This turn-around in Colombia’s fortunes has been credited with the leadership of President Alvaro Uribe, which began in 2002. Anthony Harrington, writing in QFinance February 17, 2011, quoted from a speech by current Colombian President Manuel Santos in which the latter praised his predecessor for his decisiveness in leadership.
He notes that upon taking office, President Uribe applied a very simple, yet very important concept that the Romans invented — namely, security. Security must be the first law of the republic; otherwise the other laws will not operate effectively.
For President Uribe, security meant that every citizen should be able to go about their business, secure in their possession of their property and their rights. It also meant taking back Colombia from the rebels and drug lords. In the said speech, President Santos praised Uribe’s stance on security as paving the way for the present Government’s success against terrorism.
The commissioner further added.
I have visited Singapore and Colombia, seen for myself the progress that has been made in security, stability and economic prosperity. I have interacted with security officials at high levels and I know how well they understand the linkages between the fortunes of their nations and the first priority of public security.
I live in Jamaica. I am fully aware of Vision 2030. Every element of police planning, from the strategic priorities to station level plans, makes reference to Vision 2030. We remind ourselves in every discussion about our promises, and our contribution to making Jamaica the place of choice to live, work, raise families and conduct business by 2030. We are very conscious of where we are, a mere 16 1/2 years from that acid test.
Read the full address all the way to end, its worth reading.
Filed under: Corruption, Crime |
Warren's Blog 
I agree that the speech was important but it fell short in terms of the actual strategy that was put in place to create these achievements. Now perhaps there was no room in the speech to address specifics but that does not mean that Jay can’t address the specific strategies here and now. That is more concrete that regurgitating what Ellington said and will be of more service in enhancing the debate.
For instance, did Uribe change laws or add laws to reinforce the security and justice apparatus? Did he increase the personnel in said apparatus. How did he end the war that had been waging in the Columbian countryside for from all accounts, a very very long time. Since Jamaica is not at war, is there any strategic advantage in replicating what was done there?
I make these points to counterbalance the seemingly incessant need displayed on these pages and everywhere else in the Jamaican media landscape for a “Leader”! We keep on waiting for the perfect leader while Jamaica rots away because a “leader” means we can sit on our backsides and cheer or jeer from the sidelines. Well, there is no perfect leader! Furthermore a great leader does not always translate into action because our constitution specifically restricts said leader from recruiting the best and the brightest to run our country. Instead we get what we get through the vagaries of parliamentary elections. You want to follow Singapore’s model? Well you need a new constitution for that because in Singapore their MP bench is well educated, highly paid, highly recruited, highly tested and are encouraged to step aside after a few years. This does not become a problem because the real running of the government is done by, you guessed it, highly paid, highly tested, highly receuited, etc, civil service. Further to my counterbalance line of thought, you Jay has written on these very pages about Jamaicans love affair with fine speeches light on specifics, it seems to be the Jamaican way, yet when we fail in actual implementation, the blame is only cast in one direction, towards our politicians. Perhaps if we required specifics as a pre-requisite for praise, we would be more successful at implementation?
Btw, why is it that comments now need to be viewed by a moderator in order for them to be posted. Is this censorship?
Its only done, for your first comment once that passes, then your other comments can go through. The other thing is to prevent the site from being “spammed”.
Its not censorship, on average I get about 30 spams per day, so have to find a way to ensure they never make it in the actual comments section.
To be fair to Owen, its the Minister who sets policy direction and then people like Owen can move forward with the actual implementation once adequate support has been provided.
Elsewhere on the blog I recently added a post where I pointed to a link where a Colombian Minister provided insights into what was done to turn things around.
I don’t know where you get this nonsense from that the Minister of National Security sets policy directions. The facts are, our crime problem is not a result of “lacking policies”. The problem is a country not willing to come to grips with realities that our criminals are very sophisticated and coupled with the fact that senior officers within the ranks of the security forces are compromised, resulting in the severe “leakage” of very sensitive intelligence information. This, coupled with a public apathy towards the security forces, where there is a mistrust of the police as far as their ethical standards and whether sensitive information supply to them will be passed-on to the criminals.
You can go back to the time of Pablo Escobar, where Colombian government, working in concert with the United States, supported what could be described as a Right Wing Death Squads, that essentially launched a campaigned to rid the country of narco-traffickers who were raining terror on its citizens. They went about killing all of the supporting cast of the major drug traffickers and in the case of Pablo Escobar, he was left standing alone, which allowed the “official” government forces to assassinate him. That my friend, was the launching pad for Colombia’s crime fight strategy.
We need to do the same in Jamaica. Setup undercover hit squads to hunt down known gang leaders and their “soldiers (we know who they are) and eliminate them on the spot. This will drive fear into the hearts of those that might entertain the thought of joining gangs or replacing those that have already been sent on their journey to meet their maker. As I have said in the past, the US has been using Drones to eliminate individuals who are threats to their country’s security. Now these terrorists are leery of leaving their caves, knowing full well that they will be blown to bits once they pop their heads out their holes. It fulltime we stop pussyfooting around with these hardened criminals. Owen Ellington and his bunch of merry men has publicly stated that the would have dismantled ALL gangs by March of 2012, yet they have not had any level of success in getting rid of a single gang ( to my knowledge).
The Police force is pretty much an impotent organization. They solve less than 20% of the murders committed in this country each year and they pretty much have zero crime fighting strategy in place. Most murders are committed after 8:00PM, yet that is the period when the force have the lowest staffing contingent. Criminals are very mobile at nights, yet we see few road blocks at night, especially in the crime ridden areas. Frankly, Owen Ellington should step down. He is ineffective as a Commissioner and doesn’t garner any level of confidence from the public. I’m tired of his moronic edicts about the need for the people under his control to stop using social media, how they should dress and other irrelevant stuff, that has nothing to do with containing our run away crime stats. In the meantime, the terrorist are decapitating our women, children and other law abiding citizens. We need a Commissioner who is not afraid to confront these terrorists head on and eliminate them…. No questions ask. He need to stop writing articles and giving speeches. Those things don’t catch a single thug among the many that terrorize our country.
I read, in full, the pieces by the Commissioner and Martin Henry, and I am in full support of both of these thinkers. I also heard the lawyers, one in particular, saying that the Commissioner had committed contempt of court. The Lawyers are, of course, protecting their big money clients. They are just putting on a façade about human rights.
If we are serious about prosperity as a country, we would make security our priority – most things would fall in place thereafter, such as much needed investments by both locals and foreigners alike.
We like to talk about how Singapore is successful, but what about their relentless application of the rule of law?
How many of you have noticed the numbers of gas stations that are de facto taxi stands, some a few metres from police stations? Check the Total Gas Station in Ocho Rios and the Texaco in Port Antonio.
How many males just “water” light posts daily?
Sometimes I feel like there is really no government in place, except when new taxes are being announced.
The bottom line is that we are just not serious in this country – both the people and the so-called leaders.
Click to access d0971.pdf
More insights into how Columbia increased its security
http://www.airpower.au.af.mil/airchronicles/apj/apj10/sum10/08haddick.html
Quality vs Quantity
Your blog is interesting; but it would be good if you could adopt a more analytical approach. For example, I read Ellington’s speech and Martin Henry’s article, but most times your bloggers are only interested in vitriol not analysis. Your blog should become more academic