State of Emergency declared as crime rocks Jamaica

(CMR) Sections of Jamaica, including three western parishes and sections of Kingston and St Andrew, have been placed under a State of Public Emergency, as the country continues to deal with a large number of murders.

The SOE which became effective on Sunday, November 14, 2021, is expected to help reduce crime in the country, but persons are questioning its effectiveness following the murder of two people in Westmoreland, one of the parishes under a State of Public Emergency on Tuesday.

Ironically, one man was killed while attending an anti-violence seminar in the parish on Tuesday. A gunman reportedly walked into the training seminar and shot and killed a participant in front of other attendees.

“I sat down and watched this young man die. I watched every bullet the boy pumped into the young man and I could do nothing about it,” one eyewitness told Jamaica Gleaner.

According to the Jamaica Information Service, Holness said given the increase in murders, the security heads of the Jamaica Defence Force and the Jamaica Constabulary Force, recommended the SOEs be implemented. They will cover the western parishes of St. James, Westmoreland and Hanover and police divisions in the Corporate Area; St. Andrew South, Kingston Western, Kingston Central and Kingston Eastern.

With the country’s current murder rates per hundred thousand in excess of the regional average which is 15%, Prime Minister Holness said:

“These increases we consider to be of an extensive scale such that they threaten public safety both in the communities in which we have declared SOEs and nationally, but more than that we have declared them (States of Public Emergency) because of the nature and frequency of the violence.”

The Prime Minister also said, “Every Jamaican would have recognized that the nature and frequency of the violence have evolved to a level of barbarity and a level of savagery;  it is almost a competition for cruelty; the worst of the worst. It appears to be designed and properly calculated to drive fear into the citizenry of the country and panic in communities.”

The Prime Minister said his Government will continue to take action against crime and violence in Jamaica.

 Minister of National Security Dr. Horace Chang said, “We are confident, that by staying this course (effecting SOEs), we will break the back on this scourge of crime and violence in Jamaica. It is the commitment of the Government of Jamaica, to the people of Jamaica and the residents in the affected communities.”

Holness said the security forces, and by extension, the Government, has worked to acquire the necessary resources to tackle crime; however, it is now the social issue of the culture of violence which must be addressed.

Up to Friday, 1 240 killings were committed in the country so far this year.