Does our experience of violent crime constitute a public health emergency? Despite the cynical mockery in some quarters, it certainly does. It meets all the globally accepted criteria related to causes, effects, and possible responses.
However, since a Caricom resolution almost
two years ago to employ such an approach, there appears to have been little
effort anywhere to build appropriate levels of both public and official
awareness to generate the required broad support.
In essence, such an approach recognises the
impact of violent crime on high mortality and injury rates, negative
psycho-social manifestations, and adverse implications for delivery of public
healthcare.
There is a lot more to it than these
principal elements, but I want us to spend some time considering the
additional, and not entirely unrelated, crisis unfolding on our public
roadways.
In many respects, acknowledgement of these
two plagues – violent crime and road traffic mayhem - as critical challenges to
national health, safety, and security is an important first step in recognising
our joint responsibility for addressing them.
Among the last things people here want to
be punished with are PR-nuanced statistics about reductions in the number of
homicides and road traffic deaths.
Find a way of recording and acknowledging
fear and you will better understand what I mean by this. People are witnessing
the carnage daily. I have obviously not seen today’s reports yet but turn the
pages of this very newspaper and you will understand what I mean.
There are people deciding not to go about
what is expected to be their normal business because of the fear generated by
the prevalence of both forms of violence, property loss, injury, and death.
In the process, public participation in
defying the instinct to surrender is diminished.
In much the same way there are so many of
us who know at least one person who has been affected by crime in its numerous
manifestations, we can also point to a friend, relative, colleague, community
member, or other acquaintance who has witnessed or been the victim of a
horrible road experience.
Don’t look at the big turnouts at seasonal
events alone to argue against these observations. They provide evidence of a
resolve not to yield to pervasive anxieties about the prospect of harm and are
not outright dismissal of pervasive realities and risks.
This is also not to point fingers at the
poor policing of violent crimes and traffic laws, because the sustenance of
fear is a joint enterprise that goes beyond the role of a single underlying
factor. The police enter the picture rather late in the process of decay.
However, this is not to take them off the
hook. People predisposed to violent or reckless behaviour thrive in an
environment under which they are more likely than not to escape untouched (if
they don’t suffer injury or death in the process), as opposed to being promptly
intercepted, properly judged, and punished if responsible.
There is also the near complete absence of
pre-emptive policing measures as contemplated by advocates of so-called “broken
windows” theory (with all due provisos regarding its non-discriminatory
implementation). For this, it is proposed that early symptoms of disorder in
the form of ostensibly benign violations (Littering? Noise pollution? Public
peeing?) should be summarily nipped in
the bud. (Yes, “nipped.”)
So, no objection from me regarding the
prompt and widespread ticketing of drivers for everything from unlawful window
tints to failed sobriety tests. No, there aren’t “more important things they
should be spending their time and energy on.” If the authorities can’t meet
their elementary mandates, then what’s the sense?
Ditto actions to address breaches of the
public peace. I have been following the futile public complaints of one
community regarding the loud noise generated by a single bar in the area. The
police have a role to play outside of the limited actions related to the
country’s Noise Pollution Rules. Hint: see what the Summary Offences Act
[Chapter 11:02] says about “public nuisance.”
No, the amorphous “culture of noise” is a
broken window to be repaired and the people who routinely break it need to be
held responsible.
Even so, don’t get me wrong. A “solution”
to the current mayhem is thus more than addressing a clearly deficient police
response. While “terrorism” might be an appropriate metaphor and legislative
stimulant it does nothing to address some fundamentals.
Impunity through ineffective policing bears
tragic fruit elusive even of declared states of public emergency. Nowadays, we
are experiencing its bitter taste.
