State of Emergency

[original spanky]

wow check this out

[rtitle]

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.

[Rob]

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.

[Markis]

We only vacation in Jamaica. I had stopped visiting for a few years because I thought the hagglers on the beach and elsewhere were just getting too aggressive and it made me uncomfortable. Last year when we returned (during a SOE) it felt safer. The show of force, and the police walking the beach seemed to me to make a difference. We will be back in a few months and I feel better now about visiting than I have in the past.
This is just my opinion as a tourist. I don't really see much of the in's and out's of daily living. We usually stay 3 days on the cliffs, and three days on 7 mile.

[rtitle]

Thanks Rob for your wise and informative response.

I'll post a more general update on how things are going with my move to Jamaica, in a new thread, when I have a moment. Briefly, I was here July/August, and went home end-of-August feeling very frustrated over a number of issues, which I won't go into here but maybe in that later thread I will. After 2 months back in the US getting back into a good frame of mind, I returned in November to give living here another shot. Things are going much better this time. Maybe I am learning how to live in Jamaica.

I was a little freaked out last night but am OK now. The young woman I was with, the relative of the victim, was a lot more freaked out than I was. And she is a Jamacan who lives here. From my house, I drove her home to be with her family, who were all gathered in a state of shock. I normally would not be out driving at night on these bad roads and in a bad state of mind, but she really needed to get home. And there's no Uber here . On the way back I hit a pothole and had a blowout, which could've been bad, but the people whose yard I wound up in were really nice and helpful and I got home safe and OK. It restored my faith in the goodness of humanity. Most people here are really nice.

Peace and love,

Richard

[Marko]

the SOE was great when it started with the huge Army presence in Westmoreland/Negril.....
however things are kinda back to the way they were prior to the SOE...…
the Army is spread way too thin these days with too much of Jamaica being under a SOE...…
things in Sav are worst now than prior to the SOE....not good
just mi personal observations.....and word thru the coconut telegraph......lol

Cool Runnings, Marko