Joseph’s attempts at spin failing

Mr Joseph began by asserting that he would resign tomorrow if he felt it would solve the crime problem. But resignations are not done because of feelings. They are done as a matter of principle, when a person in authority has done something unethical, or embarrassing to an organisation, or when they are failing to perform. Whatever his political leader says, Mr Joseph can hardly deny that, by all measures, he falls into the last category.

This brings us to the National Security Minister’s second spin in his Wednesday contribution. Mr Joseph claimed that the Government has been accused of scapegoating and doing nothing about crime. But, if the Government has indeed been accused of scapegoating, it is because several officials, from Prime Minister down, have attempted to place blame for the crime situation at all kinds of feet except their own. Minister Joseph, on Wednesday and before, blamed the illegal drug trade; Prime Minister Patrick Manning less than two years ago implied that many kidnap victims had done unspecified acts leading to their kidnapping; various PNM MPs blame the Opposition for not supporting the Police Reform Bills; senior PNM spokespersons have touted the line that globalisation makes crime an international problem; and, just two weeks ago, Mr Joseph was blaming parents who had migrated and left their children in the care of relatives.

Now all these may indeed be valid factors which account for the rise in crime — but the reason the Manning administration is accused of looking for scapegoats is because, in its litany of reasons, no PNM spokesperson has ever blamed past Government policies. Yet the education system, particularly the Junior Secondary schools, may well have been the main breeding ground for today’s murderous bandits. The Government’s housing policies may well have created an environment within which criminal violence flourished. The Government’s welfare policies may well have created the something-for-nothing attitude that is at the core of much criminal behaviour.

These are all stronger reasons than those offered by Government, especially when we bear in mind that many countries are exposed to these same factors cited by PNM apologists yet few of these countries have a murder rate of one every 24 hours. And those countries which do not have our runaway crime did not pursue the policies in education, housing, or social security that successive administrations did over the past 40 years.

Mr Joseph also asserted that the Government has been accused of doing nothing about crime. This is a little disingenuous, however. More precisely, critics have said that the Government’s plans and policies are doing nothing to reduce crime. And that is a statement Mr Joseph can hardly gainsay, save to promise, like Prime Minister Manning and Trade Minister Ken Valley and Junior Minister Fitzgerald Hinds, that the Government’s anti-crime initiatives will bear fruit at some unspecified time in the future.

But everyone understands that crime will not be solved overnight, whether Martin Joseph resigns or not. What has citizens fed up is that all the Government’s grand plans appear not to be making even the slightest dent. And Mr Joseph’s latest attempt at spin has done nothing to convince people otherwise.