We have to do something about lawlessness in Jamaica

With all the recent talk about the nuisance and danger that taxi drivers present and the wanton killing of our fellow citizens each day, why do I feel like we’re stuck in this inertia where no one seems willing enough to be proactive in dealing with these issues?

On Wednesday morning, I woke up to the news of this triple murder in Kingston, one of the victims being a 16-year-old female student. This is just days after gunmen shot dead a sad little boy along Mountain View Avenue.

I ‘bucket bathed’ because, inexplicably, I had no water in my tap despite the Hermitage dam being almost three-quarters full, and then I headed out to work, where within minutes, three separate taxis nearly ran into the side of my car.

There was not a single police officer around anywhere.

When all of this occurs within the space of an hour, you get the sense that lawlessness and ineptitude are beginning to overwhelm society and that here is not a thing anybody can do about it.

Now I am not saying that this is what it is. I am simply saying that you can draw this perception from the collective of things happening around you on a daily basis. It is a perception so strong that you almost feel like you are being swept along in a raging river towards your demise and there is nothing you can do.

Mind you, there are many good things happening. Unemployment is down, Jamaica now has B+ economic rating, tourist arrivals are up, etc, and etc. However, to the average person, the picture seen is a very different one.

There was that horrific shooting incident in Half-Way Tree just last week that made me feel like I don’t even want to drive that way anymore to go anywhere.

What is clear is that we have to get a grip because I am sure I am not the only one who feels this way. You go to bed at night, glad to be off the streets and not having to think about all the bad stuff happening around you.

Then you get to thinking, ‘Does anybody want me dead? Should I be worried about anyone kicking my door in and doing harm to my family?’ because it does not take much these days for someone to want you dead.

However, we have to do something. It cannot be healthy for so many of us to be walking around each day with this fear in our hearts that overwhelms our minds and our very existence. This cannot be the way we should have to live.

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