Our prowling smart-men

Prowl. This means “in search of prey, plunder; to move about like a hunter; move about secretly or rapaciously.” No better description of our smart-men (including women) who roam about seeking prey or who sit quietly waiting until one falls into his scheme. Last week’s column “Our smart-man society” seems like opening a Pandora’s Box, or touching a Jack Spaniard’s nest. Many people had stories, experiences really, to tell.

It looks as if this country has a bad infection of smart-men – from fake land deeds, fake birth papers from “the Registry,” immigration “consultants” who take money with false promises, paying a smart-man for a driver’s license, taking $20,000 with the fake promise to get “a government house,” selling cars not his, etc.

There are several troubling aspects to this smart-man phenomenon. Why is the practice so widespread? One UWI fellow explained it evolved from the plantation culture where slaves and the indentured had to survive by their wits, using deception of police and plantation owner. A more immediate explanation is the significant increase in people desperate for assistance or support of one kind or another, or who want things without paying the market price, or who find government bureaucracy so thick and inefficient that using the smart-man seems the easier way.

But there is much more as I gathered during last week. A woman bought $300 tickets (scalping) only to find out at the gate that the tickets were counterfeit. A man brought a used Audi for $200,000, only to find out that all around the windows, trunk and windshield were filled with putty which began dropping out. The smart-man did not disclose that the car was in a serious accident. Then there is one where a promise was made to “get a case fixed” in the magistrate court. And of course we would have read about “cruise ship” smart-men.

All this forms part of the dark figure of crime–fraud, embezzlement, profit by deception, bribery, etc. The victims of the prowling smart-men usually prefer to remain silent, suffer without reporting to police or even relatives. They prefer to lose $15,000 or $20,000 as the price to save public embarrassment, shame. Victims avoid being doubly victimised – first from the expensive deception, secondly from public embarrassment. Today’s smart-man–from the investment banker who siphons investors’ money out then declares bankruptcy to fake insurance policies–has become an active part of the free-market economy, sometimes applied in jacket-and-tie fashion.

Many white-collar crimes get buried, without reaching the police or the courts. So the crime figures once again, though well publicised, remain distorted–under reported. Not only rape, incest and domestic violence. Many business firms, especially banks, prefer to keep the in-house fraud quiet for fear of losing public confidence in management. So too with school principals–especially in “prestige” schools–who prefer to keep student acts of violence and delinquency undisclosed, unreported, for fear that the school would become stigmatised. So the official rates from the ministry remain distorted.

The unreported phenomenon often stems from the fact that the victim gave the money knowing that the smart-man will be committing a wrong, a crime. The “victim” then becomes less of a victim and more of an accomplice. Of course, there are small-time smart men and big-time ones.

Whichever, the phases of the smart-man episode move something like this: (1) the potential victim has a need which varies in desperation and cost; (2) the smart-man enters – a career type or a one-shot venture, promising to satisfy that need; (3) by conversation and/or papers, the smart-man earns the trust and confidence of the victim; (4) smart-man gives further assurance, often with pointing to an “inside contact” or to someone whom he “helped;” (5) time passes, sometimes the smart-man’s promise is illegally fulfilled, even appearing as a “good Samaritan;” (6) or the victim waits and waits without the promise being fulfilled; (7) trust slowly erodes, the victim gets confused, worried, questions his or her judgement; (8) Smart-man disappears, victim’s money lost. Even when smart-man re-appears, what can the victim say or do? Sometimes revenge becomes violent.

In the aftermath of last Sunday’s column, someone grumbled that with the “loss of jobs and refugee influx,” citizens have to be warned about prowling smart-men.