Alkaline is not to be blamed
WE have once again been forced to participate in yet another “controversial” occurrence involving the dancehall community and the standards it upholds or fails to uphold within the Jamaican society.
The recent investigation ordered by new Commissioner of Police George Quallo is arguably just another attempt by the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) to highlight dancehall as a scapegoat for their failure to control the country’s ever increasing crime rate.
At the centre of the investigation is that of Alkaline’s recently released ‘After All’ music video in which various individuals dressed in police uniform as well as numerous firearms could be seen throughout the nine minute forty seconds short film.
There was also a scene where a woman wearing a police hat was seen performing an explicit sexual act on a male character in the video, which has seemingly become the greatest concern for most members of the police force.
In the news that broke on Sunday morning, it was claimed that commissioner Quallo gave specific instructions that those in the video wearing police uniforms be found and statements taken from them immediately.
This entire uproar concerning the different circumstances and activities that were mentioned above has caused yet another controversial discussion as to whether the music being filtered into our society is causing more harm than good as it relates to the upsurge in violence that the country has been experiencing.
However, a sensible person would acknowledge that music is not the only medium through which violent intentions are portrayed but also through avenues such as video games and movies which continue to be a major factor in our youth’s and adult’s lives.
Why then the constant clamp down on the dancehall industry? Similarly with the sex scene concerning the woman in a police hat, surely our society has been influenced through many movies depicting even more explicit content than that.
Furthermore, how does the police men and women’s insistence that they will not be performing any duties at future Alkaline events solve the problem at hand? Does that not indicate a rather immature approach to the situation? Is it okay to neglect the safety of the persons you are obligated to protect because you are offended by a music video?
The uproar that has been caused over this simple fictional music piece is indeed laughable and the entire Police Department as well as the commissioner should hang their heads in shame for this.
We have simply too many other pertinent issues to worry about than to be spending time on a music video that portrays the corruption that occurs in our Jamaica Constabulary Force.
Why not focus on that aspect of the video instead of neglecting it and wasting resources on other trivial depictions.
Our country is in the middle of fighting crime rates that threaten to become our worst ever with the Prime Minister recently reallocating funds to stem the problem.
The western section of our island has been plagued with scores of killings in the last few weeks and our girls continue to go missing and show up dead days later. Where is the uproar from the police department regarding these issues?
Thus, the commissioner along with his compatriots is painting a very deluded and misguided representation of their department, which is already being criticised severely for the incapability to protect the Jamaican populous.
The fundamental conclusion that can be drawn from this rather unnecessary uproar is that as a nation we have indeed lost respect for our Constabulary Force but also, our Constabulary Force has lost respect for us.
There is no denying that what can be seeing in the video are not morals or standards that we wish to uphold in our society.
However, with music being a form of entertainment, especially dancehall, that has been known to be lewd, violent and offensive since its inception we cannot continue to blame the industry for our declining in morals.
This is rather a failing of our social intuitions such as our families and our schools that have deviated from teaching principles and enforcing characteristics in our youth that is needed to ensure the continuation of a normal consensus.
Because of the lack of emphasis placed today on respect and being our brother’s keeper as well as the correlating factor of elevating out of poverty by any means has caused our nation to become as how it is today.