FREEDOM OF SPEECH?
From time to time some new song is aired and there are calls for it to be censored. Immediately the preachers of the freedom of speech argument get agitated. There have been instances when the Broadcasting Commission has intervened and actually banned some songs. A recent one was Chuck Fender's, 'Gash dem and light dem.' Advocating harsh penalties against child molesters, rapists etc. The commission claimed that a better lyric would have been, try them and incarcerate them. Fender refused to adjust his lyrics and the song was banned.
In light of the difficulties the JCF is facing to get persons who witness the many brazen, even daylight murders and other acts of violence it seems to me that someone in authority needs to take a zero tolerance approach against artists who continue to label those who talk to the police as informers, and advocate that informer fe dead. The persons wants to see justice and the back of crime and violence broken and is willing to speak out becomes labelled, thus these law abiding citizens become the enemy of the evil perpetrators and those sympathetic to their cause, rather than these murderous persons being seen as the ones to be put away. What are these artists really saying? Are they saying that they are on the side of the law breakers? Are they saying that the persons who walks up in broad daylight and kills and mother and her young baby is the good persons and thus should be left alone to kill more so no one should talk to the police.
If we are serious as a nation about curbing crime and violence I believe some back bone is gonna have to be demonstrated in some simple yet effective ways. Will clamping down on such utternace stop the murderers? Myabe not, but at least we will be sending a message that we are serious about community policing and better police-citezen relations. So we are advertizing crime stop numbers and kingfish numbers, while we allow messages of informer fe dead to permeate our airwaves and public spaces. Freedome of speech? There has to be a limit.
In light of the difficulties the JCF is facing to get persons who witness the many brazen, even daylight murders and other acts of violence it seems to me that someone in authority needs to take a zero tolerance approach against artists who continue to label those who talk to the police as informers, and advocate that informer fe dead. The persons wants to see justice and the back of crime and violence broken and is willing to speak out becomes labelled, thus these law abiding citizens become the enemy of the evil perpetrators and those sympathetic to their cause, rather than these murderous persons being seen as the ones to be put away. What are these artists really saying? Are they saying that they are on the side of the law breakers? Are they saying that the persons who walks up in broad daylight and kills and mother and her young baby is the good persons and thus should be left alone to kill more so no one should talk to the police.
If we are serious as a nation about curbing crime and violence I believe some back bone is gonna have to be demonstrated in some simple yet effective ways. Will clamping down on such utternace stop the murderers? Myabe not, but at least we will be sending a message that we are serious about community policing and better police-citezen relations. So we are advertizing crime stop numbers and kingfish numbers, while we allow messages of informer fe dead to permeate our airwaves and public spaces. Freedome of speech? There has to be a limit.
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