‘Come Mek We Reason’ Rap Session for Denham Town

The Ministry of National Security, in association with the Cabinet Office, will host the fifth in a series of police-youth rap sessions dubbed ‘Come Mek Wi Reason’ tomorrow (July 27) at the Denham Town Community Centre.
Coordinator of the Youth Inclusion Prototype (YIP) in the Cabinet Office, Steadman Noble, told JIS News that the rap session, which would get underway at 6:30 p.m., was part of efforts to engage community members in dialogue on issues that affected them. “We must create opportunities for dialogue, where [community members] can say to us or we can discuss with them, how some of the local issues can be resolved,” he pointed out.
He explained that the sessions involved officials in the public sector and the police hierarchy meeting with the community, especially young men, to discuss the services of the police, and how the relationship between the police and the community could be improved.
Mr. Noble noted that based on the intervention programme, persons were becoming more aware of how the police have been trained to carry out their duties. “They now recognize that some of the things the police request of them are a regular part of their operations and not the police trying to abuse them. At the same time, the communities are demanding greater levels of courtesy, respect and fairness from the police in how they carry out their operations,” he told JIS News.
Mr. Noble is of the view that at the end of these consultations, an action plan to improve relations between the two would be developed and implemented. A total of 18 communities across the island will benefit from the rap sessions, among them Waterhouse, Hannah Town and Trench Town in the corporate area, while the rural areas include Rock Hall, Flankers, Sandy Bay and Stonehenge.
These areas have been selected from 46 communities that are involved in projects operated by Jamaica Social Policy Evaluation project (JASPEV) in the Cabinet Office.
The police-youth consultation is one of the activities under the JASPEV YIP programme and follows the signing of a Charter of Collaboration on February 1, 2006 between several agencies, to improve police-youth relations.
Consultations have already been held in the communities of Drewsland, Grants Pen, Fletcher’s Land and Tower Hill.