How Do We Break the Silence?

October 10, 2015 Guest Author

So we wake up with the unfortunate news that at least eight people were murdered in Jamaica within THREE days.

The gruesome murder of two sisters in Comfort District in Manchester last Tuesday, left the community uneasy.

On Thursday (October 10), six members of one family were gunned down in their home in March Town. Hanover. The victims included 18-year-old Alia Mahabee and her 63-year-old Linnette Bloomfield (pictured). Three generations. According to reports, the murderers opened fire on the family members and set the house ablaze, trapping all of them inside.

Do we REALLY believe these killers will be caught? Take the murders for instance, in Gayle, St Mary, over the last decade. Mr Tracey; Mr Edwards; Mrs Hudson; Mr Steele; Mr Garvey; a young man who got up very early to take the bus to Kingston to buy sweets; a shopkeeper who was gunned down in her own yard in Farm Pen – the list goes on and on.

A significant number of these murders remain unsolved. It is as if we have funerals, we weep, and life goes back to normal until another incident. RIP to those who died.

According to government statistics, about 4,000 citizens are incarcerated throughout the island, not enough murderers, though. So we can surmise that people are literally getting away with murder. Pulling a gun and shooting someone seems as endemic to Jamaica as are incest and child abuse.

The woman who washes the blood from the shirt her partner wore when he shot someone the night before is not talking. The mother who suspects her son and friends killed some of these people is not talking. The sister who prepares breakfast for her brothers and friends who are planning a murder is not talking. The entire community is running scared and hiding behind curtains. So the murderers seem to have the upper hand. Like a re-run of a Western movie when the “bad man” steps into the town and everybody scurries for cover in the taverns.

So how do we get these people to break the silence?