Sunday, October 02, 2005

Jamaica – 28 Sept 2005 – If It Bleeds, It Leads

Every Wednesday we have a little BBQ, just to get a break from the monotony of chicken and rice. Today we broke the BBQ monotony by ordering some pizza and patties. As we are eating (about 7pm) we watch the local Jamaican news. There were 4 murders in the last two days in an area of east Kingston called Mountain View. Two women and a 3 month old baby were killed yesterday. Today, as many people were moving out of the area, packing clothes and stuff into cars, shopping carts, anything with wheels, another woman was shot and killed. She had packed some stuff, went back into the house to get a few more things, and was killed. She was 22 years old and the mother of five children, ages 9 years to 5 months. Now, usually the people who are targeted are involved in some sort of criminal activity and the word in the community is that these acts are a “reprisal”. Jamaica is somewhat of a macho society, so I do not think these women committed any crimes, but were likely related to other criminals. I am told that it is not unusual for revenge to be taken against a person by killing their entire family. The newspaper mentioned that the grandmother of the dead woman, 65 years old, has left the community because she has received death threats.

I do not condone any type of criminal murders, but even Tony Soprano leaves the women and children. What did the 3 month baby do? Or a 65 year old grandmother? Some of this stuff makes me sick. I am not a big fan of death squads, but it makes you want to just sweep through the city with a few good men and kill the type of people that would kill a 3 month old baby. The pictures from Mountain View show the area under a curfew and crawling with cops and soldiers.


After that happy story, they go to an item about a 10 year old boy who was hit and killed by an SUV. His grandmother is on the news, talking about what a nice boy he was, how he called her on the phone to tell her he was coming home, how she went to meet him at their usual spot and how she called him on his mobile phone when he did not show up on time. She then went looking for him, noticed a commotion down a street and, when asked, was told that a boy had been hit and killed. She immediately knew it was her grandson. Depressing.

I cannot comment on this particular accident, but I have to say, we were driving a few weeks ago, and three boys, about 10 years old suddenly darted in front of our van. The driver, a JDF soldier, slammed on the brakes and managed to miss them by a few inches. He actually had been slowing down, seeing the kids at the side of the road and anticipating that they might try to cross. That said, we have had drivers who are not so cautious, and I have personally seen many examples of people who drive recklessly. The only surprise is that more people do not get killed. A bit of advice passed to me: If you ever get into an accident where you have hit someone, don’t stop, and drive directly to the police station. Jamaicans tend towards the mob mentality, and there have been instances of people getting hit or killed, the driver stopping to help and a mob literally tearing the driver apart. No trial, no appeal.

One of the Jamaican officers watching the news with us mentioned that for many years he did not watch the news as it was too depressing. I can see how that would be. The last story was about a woman who had her baby stolen. This sounded like the usual mentally unstable women who asks to hold you newborn and then takes off. After this piece, the anchor gave an update to the story saying the baby had been found. One good story after all.


My faith is restored until tomorrow.

No comments: