The head of the Jamaica Diaspora Crime Intervention & Prevention Task Force, Dr. Rupert Francis, stated he anticipated similar results from the seven other scheduled protests around the diaspora after yesterday’s what he called a successful protest outside the Jamaican consulate general’s office in Miami, Florida, United States (US).
Francis reports that perhaps seventy people with placards arrived at the location of the protest, which was organized as a demonstration. Speakers at the event included blogger Carlos “Jamaican Carlos” Grey and Wilfred Rattigan, a former special agent, and attorney for the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
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He added that around 3,000 more people watched the broadcast online.
Francis stated, “We thought it was excellent in terms of what we are trying to achieve.” He added, “People took the train, one person came from Chicago, other people came from up St Lucie, Orlando, North Carolina and one other person tried to find the place for two hours, and they still came.”
The purpose of the protests, according to Francis, a retired captain in the Jamaica Defense Force, is to draw attention to the government’s mishandling of Jamaica by underlining its inability to rein in corruption and the nation’s high crime rate. Francis added that he will be asking contributors to check the expenses they are paying.
The preparations for nationwide protests were announced to Ambassador Audrey Marks, the highest-ranking Jamaican diplomat in the US, last December at events hosted by the Jamaican government in the US.
Additional demonstrations are scheduled to take place in New York, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Washington, DC.
Identifying himself as just an “advocate for equal rights and justice”, Francis again dismissed critics, including the Global Jamaica Diaspora Council (GJDC) and its youth arm, who have accused him of trying to embarrass the Holness-led administration, and others who have labeled his protests as politically motivated.”
He added, “The whole idea that we are trying to destroy Jamaica has to be debunked because that has not been the case. In fact, there is some people that came. I’m talking about elderly Jamaicans that came out … and they only came because they love Jamaica and they represented different organizations and parties. So it was not a political thing as they made it out to be, it was simply an expression of solidarity with the other Jamaicans that believe in better for Jamaica, for all Jamaicans.”
According to Francis, the task force attempted to address Jamaica’s high crime rate eight years ago by implementing social programs there. But he claimed that their abatement was the consequence of the Government’s reluctant consent.
“We proposed that we would use what is called a Safer City Initiative which is to get involved in the cities like they did in Los Angeles and so on and work with the people. We have done that, we have done experiments in Jamaica but it appears as if this Government does not want to listen to it. That’s half of the problem,” he remarked.
In an earlier response, state minister Alando Terrelonge of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade noted that Diaspora members had an “unprecedented” degree of involvement with the government over the past five years, even though he claimed that GJDC members were surprised by and disagreed with the letter to Marks.
However, Francis contended that there is a great deal of support for the protesters in Jamaica, even despite the opposition they have encountered.
“I get calls from Jamaica from people in various organizations who are supporting me wholeheartedly,” he stated. “There are Jamaicans everywhere who are giving their support and thanking me for standing up… We have to make them understand that it is Jamaica first, second, and third.”
The Population Division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (2020) estimates that 1.1 million Jamaicans are residing abroad, with women making up 57.5 percent of this population.
