Skeng’s road manager says he supports cops getting punished for viral Tik Tok video using his song, “Gvnman Shift.”
Jamaican cops singing and performing to chilling lyrics promoting murder and gang war on a Tik Tok video are to be punished after the video came to the attention of the Jamaica Constabulary Force high command.
The Commissioner of Police Major General Antony Anderson on Thursday said that the officers will have to undergo remedial training to remain in the police force. The disgraced officers have not been named, and the Commissioner has not said how many officers did the Tik Tok challenge aside from the two who in the video that went viral.
“When you listen to the lyrics of the songs being played in the background of the video, it wasn’t consistent with what we would expect or anyone would expect from our police officers. We also saw that in the videos the police officers had weapons on them, and that’s certainly not the image we would expect of our officers,” Anderson said.
Among those showing support for the decision to sanction the police officers are the road manager for Skeng, who goes by the name Di Truth says that they should face consequences for breaking the law.
“A just the natural love weh di two female dem have fi di song dem a display. But, if the law set a certain rule for you to carry out as an officer, yuh affi do that, worst dem inna dem uniform. I think for them to be in their uniform and breaking the rules, it is fair for them to face disciplinary action,” he said
The lyrics of the song the officers sang comes from the first verse, which talks about murdering people with a lot of guns, with one verse talking about the artist being eager to kill a man. The verse also namedrops the Ratty Gang, which the artist says is his.
“Intellectual murda people edition / Kakam fyah full a gun like Remington / (Kakam fire, filled with guns like Remington) / Fully charge up eager fi kill a man / (Fully charged up, eager to kill a man) / Ratty gang fimi gang psy run up if yuh bad / (Ratty Gang, my gang, psy run up if you’re bad),”
The other verses tell a chilling tale about the operations of the gang, which sounds very similar to the previous reports by police in investigations. The gang which operates in St. James parish were said to be the ones behind the 2017 murders off mother Ann-Marie Johnson, 44, and her 24-year-old daughter Shantoy McKenzie who allegedly angered gangsters when they complained about their goats and chickens being stolen by the gang members and used to provide food at a party. Police reports said that members of the same gang reportedly shot up several police vehicles on three separate occasions, and they also openly patrolled streets in which they operate (some of which are named in the song) with rifles and rob and extorted people passing along the roads.
Jamaica: *18 murders in 48 hours*
The police: pic.twitter.com/cpCRnxXJYA— Cooper ?? (@joncooperworks) September 13, 2021
It is obvious that the song would be unacceptable for police officers to mimic or even sing. However, Skeng’s manager says the cops being on duty with the government issued weapons was the issue, and the officers should face all penalties.
“If dem did off duty, mi nuh think dem woulda have the Government tool (the guns) like that so dem fully wrong. They are not just representing the law in uniform, but also the country, so dem must face the necessary action the law set fi dem face.”
“Gvnman Shift” has more than two million views on YouTube and has been on rotation in the country. Despite the content of the song, the road manager defended the song and his artist. He said that while the song is hardcore, it’s just painting a picture of what’s happening in the society on a daily basis.
In recent times, many dancehall artists have had run-ins with the law with a number who have faced jail time, including Tommy Lee Sparta, who is presently behind bars for gun charges.
Several artists have also been vilified for their violent lyrics, which they have defended as just art.
