In Jamaica, we count dead bodies
I am not being heartless; I am very sad
Well, it’s true. There’s a positive orgy of counting this New Year. Some numbers are up, some down. There are three categories of dead bodies (apart from those dying of natural causes). Let’s start:
Category 1: Perhaps the most important one for our Government and people: Murdered dead bodies. Well, the good news is that the numbers are down by a considerable 18 percent. Congratulations to the Jamaican police. Nevertheless, I am uncomfortable about patting ourselves on the back for a reduction to 1,139 (yes, still over a thousand) from 1,397 in 2023. That’s 258 “lives saved,” people say. Well, that seems to me an odd way of putting it. And who were these 1,139 men, women and (sadly) children? So far (in the first six days of the year) we have had, among others, a pregnant woman; a homeless man; one of four men hanging out on the street killed in a drive-by shooting (the other three injured). But as general elections approach, our ruling party can notch this number up as another achievement.
Category 2: Of no importance to many Jamaicans (they got their just desserts): Dead bodies of people killed by the police - 189 in 2024. Their names are listed here. 21 were killed in the festive month of December alone. These numbers are down from 235 in 2023 - if anyone is concerned. Does that mean “46 lives saved,” I wonder? Or is it “46 criminals who got away with it”? So far this year, the police have killed four people in six days. Getting off to a cracking start. The police refer to them as “criminals” rather than “suspects” - they are already judged, found guilty and treated accordingly. In most cases a gun was recovered from the dead body; in some cases no gun was found. Nine were people of “unsound mind,” including one of the four killed so far this year. So far as I am aware, the police did not wear any body cameras. Note: these numbers include a few killings by the Jamaica Defence Force; the police and soldiers frequently work together.
Category 3: Deaths on our highly dangerous roads: Now we have good news on this one: 365 people were killed in 314 fatal crashes in 2024. This is 60 fewer than the 425 who perished in 2023. There were, no doubt, hundreds more injured. Nevertheless, our roads are populated by drivers who are almost predatory in nature, treating our main roads (and even congested city roads) like race tracks. Apart from speeding, these drivers break almost every rule in the book in the first five minutes of getting behind the wheel, often aided by a Red Stripe and/or a spliff.
But we feel good about the dead bodies, one way or the other. After all, they are just numbers, not human beings (unless we, in our comfortable homes, happen to know them). If you add the three categories up, it is 1,693 people killed, needlessly.
Many of us have never seen the body of someone who has died violently. In some areas, too many Jamaicans have seen one. The first time I saw one was on the corner of a busy road in Kingston, in broad daylight. A young man had been shot dead a few minutes earlier; the police weren’t there yet. There was just a little blood trickling from his head; he lay on his face. I remember looking at his upturned feet; he was wearing a pair of fashionable sneakers with thick soles.
He was so still. I don’t know or care whether he was a gang member, an innocent bystander, or perhaps a witness to a crime. All I know is he was another life gone.
Thank you Petchary. The numbers mean something. Even the "criminals" killed have people who love them or who are hurt by a life lost.