Deaths of Sgt. Wayne Henriques & Constable Jason Davis Speak to Culture of Corruption Dogging Jamaica

Let me pay tribute to the fallen police officers in Kingston. Their families are now left with an enormous hole in their hearts. The officers have been identified as Sgt. Wayne Henriques and Constable Jason Davis, both worked in the Motorized Patrol Division, according to the Jamaica Observer. It is never easy to accept a police officer dying in the line of duty. I am most saddened by the fact that the killers may never be brought to justice for this reprehensible act. They died because this tenuous situation was poorly handled by the political parties poorly from the start. The Jamaican government has failed these two men and their families.

Commissioner of Police Owen Ellington, in condemning the murder of the policemen, advised members of the constabulary to take swift and decisive action to protect themselves in the face of orchestrated attacks on police personnel and facilities by gunmen supporting Coke. The lifelong love affair both parties have had with criminal elements in their constituencies must come to an end immediately. The current Police Commissioner Owen Ellington recently told police officers,

"Do not hesitate to respond quickly and take decisive action when attacked by these criminals as it is now patently clear that they are hell bent on causing mayhem in the society by their calculated, vile and cold actions against police personnel."Police personnel have the full backing of the high command to take any response to protect themselves, their colleagues and the law abiding citizens of Jamaica." Source: Jamaica Observer

Really? Isn't this the same vileness being spewed by rogue police officers? This is the same vileness that has been tolerated in Jamaica for decades and this urban war was bound to occur at some point. The families of the fallen police officers and soldiers need more than just condolence from the Mr. Ellington. They, like many Jamaicans, want the culture of violence and corruption to end. The brazen criminals were created by that culture and the lawlessness must come to an end. The Jamaican leadership needs a cleansing.

The reality is that the outbreak of gun violence in West Kingston, Jamaica, was a long time coming. When have you ever heard of police stations being attacked, pillaged and burnt, as was the case at the Hannah Town Police Station, as well as the Fletcher's Landing, Darling Street and Denham Town stations in western Kingston. The Jamaica Gleaner has also confirmed that the Spanish Town and Cross Roads stations were also fired on. The Peoples National Party and the Jamaica Labor Party both have a hand in coddling dons like Christopher "Dudus" Coke. No matter how Opposition Leader Portia Simpson-Miller tries to spin this, she is just as complicit as Bruce Golding in this mess. She picked up where her predecessor, P.J. Patterson, left off -- utter mismanagement of Jamaica's resources. Under her leadership, Jamaica was not better off. Instead, conditions worsened, including crime and unemployment rates.

To utter the sentiments of Malcolm X, the chickens have come home to roost indeed. I can aver that the Dudus affair is comparable to the detonation of an explosive device to Prime Minister Bruce Golding's political career. He is now a political liability and his political capital is toxic. He will not win a second term and should not be allowed to even entertain the thought of running. It is a sad commentary that tribal politics managed to take root in Jamaica and has wrecked the island. It is incredulous that an island that is so gifted with brilliant people could sink into a weak civil society, deficient of foresight, wisdom and a deep conviction to do the right thing. Instead we have a society in which corruption and crime rule the day. This isn't the Jamaica I spent my formative years. It is equally reprehensible that Bruce Golding is no where to be seen since the war began.

Thanks for PM Michael Manley for starting Jamaica on a downward spiral with his democratic socialism experiment in the 1970s. He started Jamaica down a dangerous path of reliance on the government and ended the notion that national sacrifice and collective responsibility were guiding tenets. The reality is that it is time for new leadership in Jamaica. The country needs new leaders who do not ascribe to the tenets of former Prime Ministers Micheal Manley, Edward Seaga, Percival J. Patterson, virago Portia Simpson-Miller and Bruce Golding. It is time for a paradigm shift in Jamaica and that will only occur with new leaders. Let me end by echoing the words of Sam Cooke's song, "a change is gonna come." Yes, Jamaica needs a change right now.