Stephen R.P. Edwards: Jamaica’s crime emergency has existed all my life

"We have all heard about the chaos and mayhem that characterised life in Jamaica during the 1970s. Our grandparents would have seen then Prime Minister Michael Manley use the 'unprecedented' levels of crime at the time to justify the establishment of the Gun Court in 1974. They would also have witnessed Manley presiding over a state of emergency, starting in June of that year and ending in June 1977, which remains on record as the longest state of emergency in Jamaica's history."