Solution - Silent coup on gangs - Millions being spent to train and get employment for reformed gang members

Jamaica Gleaner Online
Silent coup on gangs - Millions being spent to train and get employment for reformed gang members
Published: Tuesday March 31, 2009
Tyrone Reid, Staff Reporter

( L - R ) Hinds, Charles
Gang members are reportedly giving up their guns for training and gainful employment, thanks in part to an in-your-face Government initiative.
The bold state-run venture has a multimillion-dollar price tag and targets current gang members, as well as prospective recruits.
However, though no immediate statistics on the level of impact were available, the initiative might prove a small price to pay on the country's path to peace and prosperity. Minister of Labour and Social Security Pearnel Charles, revealed that the Government initiative has put a dent in gang operations without firing a single shot as some crews have been losing members to the multimillion-dollar government programme.
"We have put a few million dollars together to challenge some of those kids who are in the gangs," said Charles, while speaking at the Yes You Can Survive 2009 seminar earlier this month. "I said to a guy, 'You break the chain of the gang and join me and I will train you and give you a job overseas or a job in Jamaica, and we have put millions of dollars there and I want to tell you, they are coming."
The minister said a few young men had told him that they would rather be gainfully employed than be out stealing and running afoul of the law. Charles said a man asked him if he thought stealing was easy. Others told the minister they stole to supply the needs of their families.
"Those who we are breaking through the gangs to said to us, very clearly, they only go in there to eat a food and if they can eat a food outside, they are not going in there."
He added: "So we are taking them out and we are preventing those who want to go in to eat a food from going."
The labour minister believes much of the country's crime and violence could have been averted if jobs had been provided for many unemployed youths before they were initiated into gangs.
"You would be surprised to know that there are many young people involved in crime out there today who, if they had an opportunity to get a job, either here or abroad, they would not have been involved."
Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Glenmore Hinds told The Gleaner that there had been a reduction in the number of shootings and murders so far this year when compared to the corresponding period last year.
Hinds said most shootings and murders were gang related. "That would indicate a decrease in gang activity," he said.
Factors
Though it might seem the Government's plan was working, the senior cop hastened to point out that the reduction was due to a multiplicity of factors or "a series of interventions".
"It is really a combination of intervention measures. You don't want to put it down to one single measure. That wouldn't be accurate."
Hinds explained that the police's focus on gangs and the hot spots in which they operated, coupled with the efforts of social-outreach programmes, had contributed to the decline in shootings and murders.
The senior cop said the Government's train-and-transform programme was very important to controlling crime.
tyrone.reid@gleanerjm.com
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Listen to the Dons, they understand much more than credited.

It is about time the Dons in Jamaica were asked their opinion. The garrison Dons are the same men and women who have cared for their communities purchasing among other things water, food, shelter, clothing, and medicine. They are the same leaders that community members look to when afraid or anxious. Several of the Dons are more reliable than the often ludicrous and dishonest Jamaican Police. One is hesitant to contact the police, after all probabilities indicate involvement in engineering Jamaica’s internationally noted crime levels. The Police are also unreliable. They may or may not turn up when called for assistance. It is easier to contact the Don in the village; his allegiance is more loyal, more predictable. He tells the thieves to bring back your things. If your family member is murdered you legally contact the Police, for fairness, you contact the Don. For payment, the police will ‘handle’ the matter. The Don will handle the matter for justice and allegiance.
A brief look at the individuals that built respectability for Scotland shows the same fiefdoms, civil war, civil disobedience, and eventual meeting of the minds. We are coming out of a British system, look at the history, and understand why Jamaica is in a state of unrest. We have worthy tropical judges in British powdered wigs, dockets that disappear for payment and although the law says no, prisoners deemed guilty will face execution in prison. Who is responsible? The Dons have proven to be unafraid, tenacious, determined, and clear thinkers with allies. Jamaica, whether we like it or not, is in social upheaval, poised for revolution of literally stupid and unrewarding governmental systems.
Not all Dons are good. Some are just the usual strain of corruption visible in any field. Some just think they are Dons. There are some however, that are well educated. They understand international relations and diplomacy, economics, income production and the all-important security and well-being of their communities. Forget the soft, bigmouth microphone-waving politician. They have proved puffy and self-indulgent, money begging incompetents, shouting Colonial “Order” and sowing the disorder of unreliable rusty water, not enough food, poor shelters, sewage lined and bloody drainage bad roads, dust bunny attacked electrical systems, and inadequate education.
After you ask the Dons about security issues, ask them about agriculture, ask them about global marketing, transportation, and economic development. Discuss low rates of productivity, inadequate investment capital, regional free trade groups, inadequate communication systems, and Jamaica’s dependency, and vulnerability to foreign forces. The Dons are a separatist movement with the same concerns that face us all, health, education, and welfare of Jamaica’s citizens. Many of them will face disgrace and die in their efforts, but who knows maybe one day, they will get a statue in Emancipation Park, a government holiday in their name, and their faces on more worthy coinage of our homeland. It is time for Jamaicans to take back Jamaica and rebuild our name as decent people with active, well-thought out, implemented, enforced, and sustainable interests. Listen to the Dons, they understand much more than credited. This is a solution to some of Jamaica’s embarrassing difficulties.