Jamaican’s Hijacking of Andrew Buchanan; Stephen Frey
Allow me space in your esteemed site to vent some thoughts on Jamaica’s culpability in destroying the lives of its youth, among them, Andrew Buchanan, and Stephen Frey.
Since the hijacking episode hit the screens of our lives, i. e. those of us who, even though domiciled abroad, are as assiduous about disseminating events ‘going down’ down there.
I have read almost every article/opinion written about it.
Apparently, there are two basic types of thoughts being expressed on Mr. Frey’s escapade. They run the gamut of a) because of his background/social standing within the Montego Bay diaspora, the security apparatus approached the situation with ‘kid gloved’ hands, as the expression goes; and, b) the security forces, mainly the Jamaica Constabulary Force, were not motivated by the familial standing of Mr. Frey in addressing the situation, as it was being played out at the Sangster International Airport, Montego Bay, St James.
While I want to give the benefit of the doubt to those thinkers who are complimentary to the security forces, there is another side of me which begs a question: ‘Why did the security system, of which the Jamaica Constabulary Force is the prima facie agency responsible for imposing law and order within the society, not apply similar considerations in apprehending Mr. Buchanan, and eventually murdering him?
Some might /will say: “Oh, but the circumstances were different; you can’t use one situation to make a judgment on the other.” “Why not?” I ask. Let’s look at the actions of both of these young men; let’s see which of their behaviors was more diabolical than the other. Which one of them deserved to die at the hands of the security forces, more so than the other?
Stephen Frey recognizably came from an echelon of means. His family background decorated his comportment; suggestive of having had the benefits of collegiate schoolings, lived in comfortable circumstances, and which he did, as a resident in the upscale neighborhood of Albion, Montego Bay; possible feature recognition, his family having been active members of the business community there; probably projected an air of some one of means, not as a naturally born, bedraggled person.
What did Andrew Buchanan have to show to the society/system, of which the JCF is its representative? Did his demeanor advertise him as a socially correct citizen? Or did it show him, as he really was, impoverished, and inconsequential? Certainly, the security forces/system, which apprehended and murdered him, did not respect his children’s mother/wife sufficiently to consider their futures before they gunned him down.
Indulging in some qualitative analysis, let us ‘check out’ whose behavior was more compromising, so much so, that one, Andrew Buchanan paid with his life, while Stephen Frey is living to see another day, even though his future and home life are severely compromised.
My knowledge of the late Mr. Buchanan’s life prior to his death is limited to the circumstances surrounding his being visited at his home, in the presence of his wife and children, by members of the constabulary, being taken away forcefully, and never to be seen alive again. He was purportedly suspected of being involved in some criminal activity. Whatever it was that he was involved in, why was he not civilly incarcerated, brought to trial, have access to legal representation, and be judged guilty/innocent? What are the JCF and/or the system trying to hide? Is that why he was sanctionally wiped out?
Stephen Frey on the other hand, due to his comported, indulged upper middle class bearings is able to slip by security personnel at the airport, board the CanJet aircraft, while its passengers are embarking to return home to Canada. He announces to the flight crew that he is hijacking the plane; he brandishes a gun, threatening to use it if necessary, unless he is flown to the United States. Then he proceeds to rob the passengers of their money. If ever their was a scenario that begged for an emotional and panicky bravadoism of blazing guns, and bullets, as the body/bodies of the hijacker/passengers lay carelessly around, this was certainly it.
Yet the utmost care was taken to sensibly defuse the situation, enough so, as to enhance the reputation of Jamaica’s security apparatus as a rational culture when placed under critical/stressful situations. Earl Frey, the hijacker’s father was brought to the airport, and along with the security forces, including members of the JF, coaxed the young man to stop his outburst and reasonably surrender to the authorities without loss of life/lives.
“All’s well that ends well,” as it could be said. Or is it?
Could not the same diplomacy have been used by the JCF to bring Andrew Buchanan in for questioning and possible imprisonment, as preludes to a trial, instead of killing him?
Who are the personnel making up Jamaica’s security forces? Are they from some other planet that simply happened like UFO’s to drop from flying saucers unto the island, taking up the task of policing the citizens? Or are they members of our communities; families, friends, neighbors, relatives? Where did they get the inspiration/orientation/power from to a) show deference to those within the communities who are demarcated by hair and skin tones, and by socio-economic status; and b) to despise, and look at others, including themselves, as less than, the way they deprecated Andrew Buchanan, and his right to life?
I put it to you this way, the only difference between the demographics of the local security forces, such as the Jamaica Constabulary Force, and that of the late Andrew Buchanan, was that he was not able to join their fraternity, for whatever mischance. The members of these apparatus, for the most part, however, are/were able to rise from out of their humble/miserable/poverty-stricken self-abnegated existences to enter into the security fraternities of the nation, thereby gaining, not only careers/respectability, but freedom to reek anger and vengeance against the likes of an Andrew Buchanan, a mirror image of their self-hating selves. In the process, they have abused the futures and lives of his family, depriving his children especially of a father, and showing how cowardly they are in not attacking that echelon of society, which they hold in awe and dread, and from which cometh the likes of a Stephen Frey.
How grateful am I that young Stephen Frey is alive; yet how much does my heart grieve for the life of Andrew. Both of them are/were brothers, countrymen, cousins, friends, grandsons, neighbors, nephews, sons, uncles. Both of them in their lives made mine worthwhile. With Andrew’s demise, I am but a fraction of myself, always mourning for him. With Stephen, I will wish he had had a chance to vent his anguishes and pains to a more caring and cognizant society, sensitive to the needs and turmoils running rampant within him, intervening and saving him from himself, before he imploded/
What an awful waste of two beautiful and promising young lives? Such a horrible grief and suffering meted out to the families of both Andrew and Stephen. How ugly a blemish, and tragic surrender of the Jamaican people for expending the lives of their youths, both females and males, as cruelly epitomized by Andrew and Stephen.
They are however, drops in the buckets of so many more Jamaican youths, regardless of their cultural and socio-economic status, who will be sacrificed on the alters of inferiority complexes, self-deprecation, and wanting to be like the others.
Would Jamaicans have idolized/loved Usain Bolt as they do, if he had not excelled as the world’s fastest man? Not every Jamaican female/male can be a Sherri Ann Fraser, Michael Frater, Asafa Powell. Yet all Jamaicans are worthy of the dignity, love, and respect simply for being humans, born of a father and mother. No Jamaican female/male should be earmarked by the system just because he/she is not born into status, and be persecuted by the society; likewise, no Jamaican youth should be ignored/shunted aside, left to negotiate on her/his own a system which, instead of being sensitive to the passions raging in their lives, is critical and judgmental of her/him as ‘being mad/criminal/got de devil in dem!’ These are simply ignorant/insensitive castigations that instead of addressing the problems hurting your children, relegate them to disasters and tragedies. They do not solve anything.
Both of these stellar young men, although coming from vastly different circumstances, shared one thing in common, - even if their hair textures/skin tones/ and socio-economic exposures diverged; - they were equally bored and trapped within the futility of their ambivalent society. Seeking for better alternatives within which to organize themselves from the abandonment of those from whom they sought empathy and love, they instead, became pathetic victims to the mayhem of an atomized, constricted, grasping, greedy, insensitive, serpentine system.
To transpose a line from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet: “(I) (WE) have lost a brace of kinsm(a)(e)n…All are punished!”
