THE EDITOR, Sir: Minister Bunting is being criticised because he encouraged his audience at a religious service to seek divine intervention to find a solution to our crime problem.
Why? One of the primary objectives of holding a religious service is to seek divine intervention in our lives and activities. And people who fail to use the talents God gave them always end up seeking His intervention.
During the Bruce-bashing years, I distinctly recall Mr Bunting – on several occasions – attributing the crime problem to ‘Dudus’. None of us demanded one sensible answer from him or his fellow party members about how they proposed to deal with the country’s problems if elected.
A more sophisticated analysis of the crime problem by Mr Bunting would have revealed that our crime problem is not really a police problem. There is a growing body of clinical experience and research which reveals that domestic and child abuse occurs in the same families and are highly associated with similar social and economic risk factors.
Early childhood victimisation, either through direct abuse, neglect or witnessing parental domestic violence, has been shown to have demonstrable long-term consequences for adult violent behaviour and other forms of criminality.
Mr Bunting needs to understand this, because in Jamaica, institutional and grass-roots responses to child abuse have proven to be woefully inadequate. This, along with a failing school system, ensures that we have a large army of angry, bitter, poorly socialised candidates for criminal activity.
So how does the State respond? We have a jaded, jaundiced judicial system, and despite the fact that we are known as the murder capital, the authorities have studiously resisted the temptation to acquire the most modern technology or enact much-needed legislation to solve crimes.
POLICE BRUTALITY
It is impossible to effectively deal with the crime problem without the help of citizens. It is the citizenry that will make the difference. But with the almost daily illegal and extralegal slaughtering of citizens by the police, it is highly unlikely that any cooperation will come from this source. That situation is now so bad, there is silent satisfaction in some communities when a policeman loses his life.
Domestic and child abuse take a devastating toll on children and the society at large. We must start by changing the social norms that ignore and support child abuse.
If the Government refuses to commit the resources needed, we all had better join Bishop Bunting in seeking divine intervention.
– GLENN TUCKER