“How do they sleep at nights,” a caller to a radio talk show asked, last Monday, this in relation to the heinous murders of eight fellow citizens in Cherry Tree Lane, Four Paths, Clarendon, last Sunday.

I am not an expert on sleep and related matters, but I believe the fiendish monsters that killed seven-year-old Aiden Bartley, who was a student at Four Paths Primary and Infant School; 27-year-old Kavel Daley, a therapist; 50-year-old construction worker Lawrence Francis; 20-year-old Diamond Bennett, a cashier; 58-year-old butcher, Errol Stewart; 32-year-old Jermaine Boothe; Courtney Messam; and a woman who was identified up to the time of writing only as Margaret, sleep like a baby at nights.

The State, therefore, has an obligation to dedicate every possible resource to interrupt their doze. The reasons should be obvious.

One does not need to be a psychologist, psychiatrist, and/or trained in behavioural scientist to recognise that there are some among us whose every breath and every step is devoid of empathy.

“Evil, I think, is the absence of empathy,” said Captain Gustave Gilbert, the army psychologist assigned to watch the defendants at the Nuremberg trials. I think Gilbert’s definition of evil might explain the savagery at Cherry Tree Lane.

“A genuine incapacity to feel for their fellow men,” according to Gilbert, was the “one characteristic that connects all the defendants”.

Eleven citizens were injured in the massacre last Sunday. An ongoing feud between rival gangs is said to be the cause of the bloodbath. These are the same types of gangs which former Police Commissioner Major General Antony Anderson told us are “charging as little as the equivalent of US$100 to carry out murders”. (RJR News, June 8, 2022)

These are terrorists!

A terrorist is a person who uses unlawful violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims, according to some texts. This definition should be expanded to say a terrorist uses unlawful violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims, and their ultimate design is to change a people’s way of life. This is the goal of these sociopaths, I believe.

Reports in the media say the citizens were having a birthday party. As is typical in many, especially rural communities around Jamaica, they were playing board games, including bingo.

Community get-togethers have been practised in our culture for hundreds of years. Scholarship shows that communal activities were one of the popular outlets of relief from the brutality of the slave plantation, for example. Communal gatherings, in additional to being conduits of social and emotional therapy, also serve today as well-established and critical tools of economic survival, especially for rural communities.

For example, a shop owner will get the chance to boost sales. A small farmer might get an added opportunity to sell a goat and/or some ground provisions. Those who specialise in selling or renting the accoutrements used to play board games will get increased business. The operator/owner of a sound system will get hired. He/she will, in turn, employ a disc jockey and individuals to ‘string up’ or set up the music paraphernalia. And, I could go on; it’s an ecology.

These types of community get-togethers must be given every possible support by the private sector and the State, I believe. Why? I believe these communal-type activities are far superior in value to the sedentary drudgery of being almost permanently trapped in front of a screen, which is increasingly the norm in especially our urban centres.

I read a recent study which found that, globally, people average 6 hours and 40 minutes of screen time per day, and that daily screen time has increased by over 30 minutes per day since 2013. Our Minister of Health and Wellness Dr Christopher Tufton, for several years, has been imploring Jamaicans to eat healthy and to get up, get out, and get active. Many have listened, but far too many have not.

The good folks in Cherry Tree Lane were simply doing what our ancestors did. My understanding of African cultures is that we are largely an outdoors people. Being locked up inside is alien to our cultural DNA, as I understand it. The killers who invaded the peace at Cherry Tree Lane took advantage of this.

These monsters want to blanket not only Cherry Tree Lane but, indeed, the entire country in crippling fear. They must never achieve this ghastly objective.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness, speaking at a press briefing at Jamaica House last Monday, after a meeting of the National Security Council, said among other things: “We have played with gangs for far too long. We will not treat this as another criminal act; we will treat this as an act of terror. Therefore, we have given directions to the security forces to launch an all-out assault on the gangs that are involved.” (Jamaica Observer, August 13, 2024)

Prime Minister Andrew Holness (left) and National Security Minister Dr Horace Chang in discussion before the start of a news conference at Jamaica House at which the Government announced millions of dollars in rewards for information leading to the arrest and charge of suspects in Sunday’s mass murder in Cherry Tree Lane, Clarendon. (Photo: Joseph Wellington)

Holness also said: “There is no way that eight persons can be killed in one incident in Jamaica and the State stands as if nothing happened. Every gang member will feel the full force of the State today. This must never happen in Jamaica again. Everyone involved in this incident will be brought to justice — in whatever form the justice is visited upon them… They must either meet a judge or their maker, whichever they choose.”

Amen!

Almost two years ago I said, among other things, here: “Like Robert Montague, minister of national security, I am a supporter of hanging. I do not believe that social powder puffs or forms of emotional embrace will soothe or silence the ravenous monsters among us whose only vocation is rape, robbery, murder, and other heinous acts.

“Those who are wedded to criminal mayhem must be hunted, captured, and put before the courts. Those who attack State personnel, so as to endanger their lives and/or the lives of other law-abiding citizens, must not be treated with kid gloves.” (Jamaica Observer, September 17, 2022)

I don’t recoil an inch.

More than two years ago I said here that: “Criminals have been killing law-abiding Jamaicans with near impunity because they know that most of us do not have the means to defend ourselves. Houses in places like Cherry Garden and Jack’s Hill are seldom broken into. I think a major reason is that criminals know that many residents in these communities have the means to effectively repel them.

“I believe that when the State cannot protect its citizens it must enable the law-abiding, proportional means to protect themselves.” (Jamaica Observer, February 5, 2022)

I stand by this position.

Incidentally, at the time of writing only one civil society advocate/group had expressed what I believe was a half-hearted condolence to the devastated community. It is not difficult to figure why. The raison d’etre of these groups, I maintain, is the defence of criminals. Do they have any genuine “milk of human kindness” (Shakespeare in Macbeth 1:5) for victims? I think not!

Long ago I said here that the constant weeping and wailing of the hundreds of Jamaicans who have lost their fathers, mothers, breadwinners, etc, often in the midst of their most productive years, must not continue to fall on deaf ears. The majority of the eight victims at Cherry Tree Lane were gainfully employed. These were positive contributors to family and community. Doubtless the families will be in pain for many years to come. Hundreds of other Jamaicans, too, especially children, are suffering emotionally, socially, and financially today because some brute snuffed out the life of their loved one. This has been a long-standing affliction upon us.

I anticipate that some for reasons obvious to all but the undiscerning will bellow, “See, Higgins is a disciple of violence.” They will recite the usual platitudes, “More guns will mean a more violent Jamaica,” “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind,” (Gandhi) “Jamaicans are too violent to be given the right to bear arms,” “Violence begets violence,” and on it goes. I maintain that the most important human right is the right to life. I believe law-abiding citizens should have easier access to the proportional wherewithal to defend ourselves against the likes of the fiends who killed eight citizens at Cherry Tree Lane last Sunday.

I am no Bible scholar, but my common sense understanding of the Good Book is that it is pro-self-defence. The Bible does not advocate killing people willy-nilly; it says need, timing, and situation are the deciding criteria for the use of self-defence measures. I believe the attack on the good citizens of Cherry Tree Lane meets all the criteria.

As I understand it, the Bible does not advocate that we should behave like sheep in the midst of attack by ravenous wolves. For example, Nehemiah 4:9 says: “Nevertheless we made our prayer unto God, and set a watch against them day and night, because of them.” In Luke 22:37-39, Jesus explains it is good to be appropriately armed. In Genesis 14:13-16, when Lot and his people were captured, Abram had no problem rescuing them with force, and I could go on.

At the mentioned press conference last Monday, Prime Minister Holness also said: “Operationally, they [security forces] must go after every single gang… Today every gang leader should ‘tek weh dem self’. The security forces have now been given a directive, after our National Security Council meeting: “Go after every single gang — and erode them.” (Jamaica Observer, August 13, 2024) I agree.

ALL HANDS NEEDED!

In order to curb the long-standing crime affliction upon our country, all of us have to come together against the criminals.

“I stand ready to co-operate with the Government to achieve bipartisan action to come to grips with this utterly untenable situation.” This is a very positive utterance by Leader of the Opposition Mark Golding.

I have not had many opportunities to congratulate Golding in this space, simply because he has not done many things to warrant kudos. I hope his offer of help is the start of similar positives.

I am very mindful, though, that “One swallow does not a summer make.” So I will be remain cautious.

I think it is unfortunate, however, that Golding did not give the memo to the Member of Parliament for Clarendon South Western Lothan Cousins. Like one of his colleagues some years ago, Cousins seemed to have suffered a moment of “youthful exuberance” last Monday. I think Cousins made a terrible unforced error.

Consider this: “State minister of national security, Juliet Cuthbert-Flynn, “strongly denounce as unbecoming and disappointing a false suggestion by Member of Parliament for Clarendon South Western Lothan Cousins that state agencies and the security forces have not provided immediate support to the people of Cherry Tree Lane in the constituency,” (
The Gleaner, August 12, 2024)

When will some of our politicians learn to resist the powerful urge to play politics in times of national tragedy? You don’t win any political brownie points.

I cannot emphasise enough that this is a time when the entire country needs to join forces to help root out those among us whose vocation is rape, pillage, arson, murder, and other crimes which are rapidly eating away at the very social, economic, and emotional foundations of Jamaica.

This is what is needed to help nullify the fiends.

Garfield Higgins is an educator, journalist, and a senior advisor to the minister of education and youth. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or higgins160@yahoo.com.

Garfield Higgins

It was in this general space that tragedy unfolded on Sunday night as gunmen carried out a mass murder in Cherry Tree Lane in Clarendon, killing eight people including a seven-year-old boy. (Llewellyn Wynter)