On Sunday, May 11, 2014, after reading an article in your newspaper highlighting the arrest of 22 persons in lotto scam raids, I reflected on the fact that some communities in St James and other western parishes are literally owned by scammers.
The list includes Rhyne Park, Flanker, John’s Hall, Anchovy, Bethel Town, Cambridge, Belvedere, Cornwall Mountain, Newmills, Barneyside, to name a few, and going further up in the very deep rural areas where roads, reliable running water and extreme poverty is a challenge all the way though to St Elizabeth and Manchester.
My point is, it is an epidemic that cannot be arrested away. Against this background, scamming has become a very attractive economic activity.
So now, hundreds, if not thousands of people are involved actively/passively to make a living. All the jails cannot hold them.
I can recall a youngster that was killed and, as the mother mourned, the reporter asked what type of job this "good, hard-working youth" did.
She replied, in tears, "a scamming him do". This practice has become an institutionalised job activity to many and is no longer seen as a crime. That is the danger.
The old and very young accept it as they would a carpenter or a plumber.
Where do we go from here?
Yes, there have been a few arrests, but it is getting worse.
We have to grow the economy to absorb all these bright youths graduates or else we are sitting on a crime bomb primed to explode.
Arresting is not a long-term solution, we have a crisis. We need to think our way out of this socio-economic-induced scamming epidemic.
Michael Spence
Kingston 6
micspen2@hotmail.com
The list includes Rhyne Park, Flanker, John’s Hall, Anchovy, Bethel Town, Cambridge, Belvedere, Cornwall Mountain, Newmills, Barneyside, to name a few, and going further up in the very deep rural areas where roads, reliable running water and extreme poverty is a challenge all the way though to St Elizabeth and Manchester.
My point is, it is an epidemic that cannot be arrested away. Against this background, scamming has become a very attractive economic activity.
So now, hundreds, if not thousands of people are involved actively/passively to make a living. All the jails cannot hold them.
I can recall a youngster that was killed and, as the mother mourned, the reporter asked what type of job this "good, hard-working youth" did.
She replied, in tears, "a scamming him do". This practice has become an institutionalised job activity to many and is no longer seen as a crime. That is the danger.
The old and very young accept it as they would a carpenter or a plumber.
Where do we go from here?
Yes, there have been a few arrests, but it is getting worse.
We have to grow the economy to absorb all these bright youths graduates or else we are sitting on a crime bomb primed to explode.
Arresting is not a long-term solution, we have a crisis. We need to think our way out of this socio-economic-induced scamming epidemic.
Michael Spence
Kingston 6
micspen2@hotmail.com