Robert Howard, Contributor
HOWARD
BEFORE I begin, let me just assure all who read this article that I do not in any way condone the alleged beating of employees by members of the Super Plus management and supervisory team. No matter what the employees had done, there was always legal recourse. Nor do I condone the actions of the mob that descended on the police station demanding that the guilty parties be handed over so that they could beat them.
But let us be real. Mob justice is a part of our daily life in Jamaica. You find the nearest little man on the corner trying to sell something to better himself and you grab even a bottle of soda and run. Do you
honestly think if that if he catches you, you will be taken to the nearest police station and handed over for 'grand theft soda'? Or do you think that you would first be chased, then mobbed and beaten and probably taken to the police afterwards, if you are still alive?
The headline of the February 28, 2006 Observer reads 'Mob demands murder suspect'. The story includes quotes from members of the mob saying:
"Gi wi him, mek wi kill him the same way him kill the poor innocent little children."
"Dem (police) shoulda kill him same time."
The headline in The Gleaner for the same day reads: 'Mob vents anger Residents flock police station over killing of five; threaten detainee.'
As sensational as these headlines are, no one was really shocked by them. Some of these incidents we hear about, and some we don't, but they happen in Jamaica every day.
VIGILANTE JUSTICE WRONG
Some years ago, a friend of mine was driving behind a bus in St. Elizabeth when a little boy ran out in front of his car and tried to jump up on the back of the bus in front of my friend's car. The little boy slipped from the bus and was run over by my friend and killed. My friend did not even get a chance to see if he could help the little boy. He was immediately set upon by an angry mob and had to escape and run to the police station to save his own life. The people from the area beat him and burnt his car even though it was an accident. People were beating him before they even knew what had happened.
Again let me stress the fact that I think vigilante justice is wrong, but I also think we as Jamaicans are confused about the issue. Why is it acceptable for some members of society to exact their own brand of justice, and not for others?
The people of Mandeville were furious with the five members of Super Plus management and supervisory team who were
arrested for issuing their own brand of justice on their employees.
"How dare they do something like this when the police station is just a few hundred metres away?"
"They had no right to do that, they should have taken them to the police station and let the police handle it."
Yes, the people of Mandeville were so incensed that they
gathered outside of the police station and the courthouse demanding that the five accused be handed over to the crowd so that they could exact their own type of punishment, not realising or caring that the very same behaviour they were condemning which put the five accused in the position they were in, was the same type of behaviour they were demonstrating.
Is it that we as a people do not really care about justice? Are we more concerned with an eye for an eye instead of true justice? Is it that we have no faith in our legal system? Or do we believe that vengeance is justice? Whatever the reasons, we behave just as viciously as those people who commit some of those unspeakable crimes.
One thing we need to remember while we cry out for vengeance is that when you live by an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, everyone ends up blind and toothless.
There are two types of people in Jamaica: Those that know better and those that do not know any better. Unfortunately, in this country, the latter outweighs the former.
What worries me, and does not bode well for the country is that I know two of the Super Plus accused and I know for a fact that they are a part of the group that knows better.
If this situation is to improve, all of us need to recognise the hypocrisy of our behaviour and actions. It cannot be right for any of us to take the law into our own hands to exact our own personal brand of justice, whether we are Super Plus or a grieving community.
Robert Howard is the senior account executive, at Corporate Affairs, Research and Advertising (CARA) Ltd. Email: villebobby@yahoo.com.
