Quote Originally Posted by rtitle View Post
I haven't seen this in the news yet, but there was another murder yesterday evening in Sav la Mar. Guy stepped out of his car at a convenience store, was gunned down, and his car stolen. The victim was a Jamaican who had gone to "foreign" to Toronto but was back for a 2-week visit home. He was on the 2nd day of his visit when he was gunned down.

The talk in this thread seems to be mostly about how the SOE affects your nightlife. But as someone who has moved here part-time my concern is more about actual safety. It could have been me! I happened to also be on the 2nd day of arriving back here to my Jamaican home and I was also out in my car doing errands in Sav that day. i know the family of the victim. So it hits close to home.

I hope they get the violence under control, but to be honest the whole SOE thing looks to me more like a show than an actual attempt to solve it. I mean, soldiers with machine guns stopping and searching cars, is that a good investment of limited funds? What does that do? How is that stopping murders like this? Do they think the criminal is stupid enough to drive his stolen car through one of those checkpoints? Seems like an investment in basic police and detective capabilities would be better spent money.
It is surely interesting watching your journey moving to Jamaica part time. Having moved here full time decades ago, it brings back nearly forgotten memories of my transition. I initially experienced freakouts when things happened to people I knew or I knew of, and it seemed to hit home harder since I was now newly living here. But as time progressed and I learned more about how and why things happen here, I realized my freakouts were unjustified. Jamaica is more than a tourist attraction, and has real life issues and problems just as any real place.

Being a part time resident, it may be more difficult for you since you will never have the experience to see things on a daily basis over a long period of time. You will be between two homes and developing a long term view of Jamaica is constantly influenced by the home you know better.

The talk in this thread is about nightlife because on a tourism forum that IS the most important issue that our visitors will experience with the SOE. Trying to develop a life in Jamaica puts you in a different mind set.

The SOE in Westmoreland has reduced the murder rate by 62%, which is not insignificant and more than just a show. The SOE is more than just the border stops, with joint police/military actions providing most of the benefits. As for money better spent, that is a topic that is creating an entire debate in Parliament and will be a major influence on the next election.

There has been no news coverage of the Sav-La-Mar incident you mentioned so far as the news in St. James this past weekend dominated the news. Don't be surprised if you see the incident mentioned in future articles when the timing is deemed more "newsworthy". Not every incident is equally "news".

One of the major news stories this year has been the number of incidents against "returnees", Jamaicans living in foreign who come back to live or visit. More often than not a person known to the victim, be it a family member or a friend, is involved. Long time slights and real or perceived injustices are often the root cause. The longer you live here, the more you will come to know that the back stories tend to reveal the truth.