THERE is a book written by Daniel Goldhagen titled Hitler’s Willing Executioners. This book purports that the German populace in the Nazi era, 1934 to 1945, were of a similar mindset as the Nazi leadership and that they were willing accomplices to the genocide that was carried out, particularly in relation to the Holocaust.

There is an element of logic that supports this theory: Hitler ran his campaign with a promise to destroy the democratic process that he relied on to put him in office. His anti-Semitism was a foundation of his electoral message.

There was an underground resistance to the Nazi atrocities in Germany that history has conveniently forgotten, but citizen support of the Nazis during the elections of 1934 was about 40 per cent.

The electoral campaign run by Donald Trump in 2016 was quite honest to its eventual application. He made it clear that he was no supporter of immigration, immigrants, and, in particular, Mexicans. His expressed view of minorities, although not as bitter or resentful as his view of immigrants, was still clearly an indication that he didn’t think much of them. With all of this, he was still elected.

We have to, therefore, assume that his message was an indication that many people agreed with him, were of a similar mindset, but maybe didn’t have the temerity to express their views the way he did. Therefore, they will elect him again.

So why is this important, or even relevant to Jamaica and its crime problem? It is important because we are looking at the beginning of a mass deportation exercise. We are facing the probability of criminal elements in great numbers being sent back to Jamaica if Donald Trump is elected president of the United States.

Jamaica has been waging an unprecedented attack against gangs in recent years; it has been way more effective since the creation of anti-gang legislation. The new gun laws have also contributed to the purge. This has been happening at the same time as a change of practice and policy at the Mexican border that allows immigrants into the US without visas or green cards.

The combination of the purge and the weakening of the border has resulted in a mass exodus of many of our worst criminals. This has had a double effect on Jamaica. Firstly, it has moved some serious criminals out of reach of Jamaican law enforcement, although many are still here. The exported, though, currently remain in the US, and they order, finance, and orchestrate the majority of the gun violence in Jamaica. Many, however, who are not shot-callers but rather killers are currently involved in nefarious activities in the US and not directly killing citizens in Jamaica.

A Trump Government will effect a mass deportation of these criminals to Jamaica. This will mirror the deportee crisis of the 90s, which was one of the contributors to Jamaica’s murder tally climbing to more than 1,000 per year. This occurred because the majority of the deportees never returned to the US. They continued contributing to crime and violence here until they drove the murder rate to figures never seen before.

Although many criminals have already run, many more are running now. This is due to one of the greatest thrusts against gangs since our political parties created them in the 70s. The thrust emanates from an empowered and motivated police force that can feel the support of its high command now, and over the last few years.

Additionally, we have the aforementioned changes in legislation and a public rejection of the Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM) and human rights organisations such as Jamaicans For Justice. These, along with a general feeling from the Jamaican populace that they are sick of the gangs, and the imprisonment or death of most of the gang leadership, have resulted in an environment in which gangs are being terrorised. These realities are going to propel many more criminals to run.

But if Donald Trump wins, and we do nothing to prepare for their return, our murder rate will not only go back to where it was but will go past its previous levels and break the record of 1,690 murders in one year.

How do we prepare? The same way every country prepares for war.

It begins with legislation. We have to find a way to treat people deported from the United States differently than we would treat regular citizens of Jamaica in relation to periods of incarceration post-deportation.

This may sound harsh, but killers will be coming — and they are not coming to get jobs in the fast-food industry. They are coming to continue their old ways now enhanced by the knowledge they have gained in committing crimes in a First World environment. The victims are going to be us. So, I don’t know about you but I don’t have the time or the energy to be worried about the rights of the men coming to kill my children.

Other countries, when at war, enact laws that allow for conscription, indefinite detention, and even seizure of property for government use. The fact that we choose not to call our 50-year war with the gangs a “war” does not make it otherwise. It has been a war — and it will be an even greater war if Trump wins and sends them home.

But a win by the Democrats does not mean that Jamaica is safe either. The US will soon start deporting the killers they have let in, but with Trump it will be far quicker, far more aggressive, and on a much larger scale. So, we have to plan for that now because he has as good a chance of winning as his adversary.

The same people who voted for him before, on the same message that he was carrying on his campaign, are the same people who will vote for him again.

However, this time they will be joined by the racists who are mistrusting of persons of Asian descent, and persons who have issues with religions that originated in Asia, India in particular. So we have to assume that the deportation crisis will be significant — Trump-sized significant — and we have to plan for it.

Our greatest mistake has been lack of preparation. We never planned for the effect INDECOM would have had on our murder and crime rate in general between 2011 and 2017. In fact, when it became obvious what was happening, we did little about it. The blunder was not preparing and not reacting.

We did not prepare for the demotivated police force that we experienced because of the memorandum of understanding that significantly restricted pay increases for many years.

We did not prepare for the psychological effect on our police force from the attacks from the human rights community after the young men who murdered our citizens at the Above Rocks Police Station were killed in a shootout with the police in Braeton, St Catherine.

We have a history of not preparing.

Let us prepare for the mass exodus of killers from the US heading to our shores in handcuffs. Let us find a way to protect our innocent from them and keep them in handcuffs.

Feedback: drjasonamckay@gmail.com