+- Jamericans (https://jamericans.net/yellowboard)
+-- Forum: Jamaicaholics (https://jamericans.net/yellowboard/forumdisplay.php?fid=1)
+--- Forum: Message Board (https://jamericans.net/yellowboard/forumdisplay.php?fid=3)
+--- Thread: Real upswing in violence lately (/showthread.php?tid=102461)
RE: Real upswing in violence lately - Tim - 04-06-2019
(04-06-2019, 07:41 AM)Westenders Wrote: I can’t see the relevance of any of these crimes in terms of you all going to Negril.
The first two are very specific organised crime situations nothing to do with spikes , the summer , lack of money or the locale... no connection or risk to tourism in any of these incidents .
OT you captured the most factual statement.. nothing has happened to anyone on this board in all their travels
Local on local crime is a defunct term imo, the crime is in Jamaica affecting The communities who live there
Trawling up country wide news is pointless , bears no relevance to visiting Negril.
We travel all over Hanover and Westmoreland and have no problems
As Ive said before the old can’t just judge the young for being problematic in a general sense.
And if it did it is the older generation that paved the pathway for the young in any country including Jamaica.
Westenders - Nothing has happened.... tell that to my wife that will forever have a scar on her arm from the thief that sliced her purse strap 20ft from the gate of a fairly well known hotel, right along Norman Manley.
RE: Real upswing in violence lately - Westenders - 04-06-2019
Sorry to hear that Tim, that is an awful thing to have happened
My point was more about serious crime as contained in the articles posted
I realise that there have been some crimes against tourists over time but fortunately they remain statistically rare
Again using this board as a sample
I still think there’s no need to feel massive anxiety
The day I feel I need to hole up behind gates or curtail my movements really would be the day I stopped going
There are places in the world I won’t visit as I don’t feel safe for various reasons
RE: Real upswing in violence lately - Sharleen - 04-06-2019
Well - the day has unfortunately arrived for me to have to evaluate my plans … I have been going to Jamaica since 1972 & for most of the 1970's drove all over the island. We would go to sleep at 6 or 7 p.m. & get up at midnight and leave, we could reach our destination with no traffic on the road fairly quickly. So the year before last I went to re-evaluate a place where I used to spend much time in Strawberry Fields. Sea fairly rough over that way, always has been. Carver of calabash bowls murdered that day so I scrapped any thoughts of staying there too long.. I would have to say that for the first time ever, I have been comforted to be "behind the gates" of a well secured property (namely Tree House and Catcha Falling Star). For the first time ever this year I felt extremely uncomfortable, after missing the last van - after Luciano show, walking down to lane to try and find a taxi at 1:30 a.m. I wouldn't get in the taxi alone, he was nice though & said he would get more female housekeeping staff & did return for me. So apparently for me, I will forever more be a "behind the gates" … Secured Gates .. kind of tourist / visitor.
RE: Real upswing in violence lately - Aquavit - 04-06-2019
"OT....you "think" those were murders of people that were good, in your eyes, u don't get murdered for nothing"
Exactly - I can make my own substantial list of people that I thought were the least likely to get murdered but there's always "something" in someone's background that made that risk a reality...
When one has experienced crime up close and personal, as in the case of Tim's wife it is perfectly understandable why they would not want to return to the situation. My dearly departed friend was held up at gun-point up at the Great House on her 3rd or 4th trip/year to Jamaica. She returned faithfully every year after that (total of 9 years) until her untimely death. When her scans came back as a "get your affairs in order" type of thing the first place she wanted to go...Jamaica (it was at that point unfortunately untangeable).
Like OT, after decades I (knock wood) have not had anything happen to me. And like OT, my "roll" has changed over the years based on how thing go there now. Like Sharleen in my younger years I was of course what might be considered more "reckless" in how I "did" Negril...I was younger and Negril was a much different place, a place yet pretty well undiscovered by the masses and as a result, there was much less crime against tourists...and gun violence was nearly non-existent. In the time of the cell phone and the internet the scourge of these scamming operations have lead to so much murder and mayhem...and this is now the Jamaica we love and deal with because we want to.
While not "locked behind" resort gates I take the precautions necessary to protect myself and my family. A fifteen minute walk at night to or from my favorite bar was par for the course back in the day and is not even considered now - even the walk from my friend's house just a couple of doors down from my gate could be considered "dicey" at a certain time of night.
Who I am as a person now means I don't go out much at night, I'm not running to the beach for shows or parties and the like - part of that comes from I just don't feel like it, part of it comes from the cost ($40US to see say Beres Hammond who I've seen many times for 1/4 the price) and part of that comes from just the organization needed to get myself there and back. In a way I miss that Negril - in other ways, I've experienced that Negril many times over in simpler times.
So, I'll return this winter as I always do - its my one opportunity to see my loved ones there each year and to get my chill on after 9 months of a fairly hectic pace...its not about the weather, I live in California...but it continues to be my happy place.
RE: Real upswing in violence lately - oldtimer - 04-06-2019
I saw a young person shot to death in a school yard . That was the last day my kids went to school in Jamaica . Yes people get shot for SFA !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
RE: Real upswing in violence lately - Firemon - 04-06-2019
RE: Real upswing in violence lately - shipmaster - 04-06-2019
If you don't feel to go then don't go
It is what it is...
Cap
RE: Real upswing in violence lately - Westenders - 04-06-2019
True that captain
RE: Real upswing in violence lately - oldtimer - 04-06-2019
I'm kind of like Trump. A wall doesn't always turn out to be a bad thing . I still love the weather...just in a different light .
RE: Real upswing in violence lately - Westenders - 04-07-2019
But apart from Tim I can’t see anything in what people are writing that demonstrates a critical shift or event that made you feel differently when you are actually there in Ja
Again I think it is getting older, perception and the rise of the internet and social media that underpins a lot of this fear, especially for long timers active on the forums. But this fear has become so tangible for some it’s spoken as fact, and then to add further mix up those people still visit, but don’t come back on here and share all the positives of there time in Jamaica... which are your truthful experience...!?
Why is that ..... ?
My understanding is Jamaica was a very violent place back in the 70s.... yeah tourism wasn’t developed as today so it’s logical that crimes against tourists was low
But with the mass increase in visitor numbers, the percentage of crime against tourists is not any greater.
I fail to see how some of what is written is logical..
And yes as we get older the youth them worry us, but that’s often our problem not theirs. I don’t intend to be one of those miserable old people who feel unsafe around the young uns...just because they are present and we become out of touch with their reality..dosent make them any more dangerous
I still move around Negril beach and west end on my own when I’m ready, I don’t feel any unsafer. I don’t at night, but I never did, and wouldn’t on foot in my own country.
OT don’t compare yourself to Trump, walls only contain people... and it seems there are enough mental walls on here anyway.