Social interventions cannot reduce crime alone, says national security minister
Published:Friday | December 28, 2018 | 12:00 AMNickoy Wilson/Gleaner Writer
National Security Minister Dr Horace Chang has rebuked renewed calls for more social-intervention programmes across the island, saying that the Government has already spent billions on initiatives that have not been able to effectively tackle the high crime rate, especially in St James. He said that this was only achieved through the imposition of the state of public emergency (SOE).
"A lot of the social work that we are talking about has been done, and done extensively, and done by professionals, and we had improved effectiveness. The police can now drive through the community, and you get momentary reductions in terms of some criminal activity," said Chang, who is also the member of Parliament for St James North Western.
"You go into communities that are now showing significant progress - people have better roads, they have fixed their homes, they have their titles, they rent rooms - and then war starts, and then everybody leaves the community. But the activities demonstrate that whatever you do when you are going to restore order and create opportunities for people, you need security as a foundation."
HYPOCRITICAL COMMENTS
Referencing the 2013 closure of the St James-based Glendevon Centre for Excellence, which offered skills-training opportunities for youth, Chang criticised interest groups for what he described as "hypocritical" comments.
"When the centre in Glendevon closed, murders were over 200, yet nobody even open their mouth - no human rights group, no public defender, there were none. It took me 10 years to rebuild it when murders started rising in Montego Bay. They don't pay attention. I consider their comments hypocritical and uninformed at best, and most times, agenda-based," Chang said.
He also responded to an article published in The Gleaner yesterday titled 'St James hits 100 murders despite SOE and ZOSO'.
He said that although the figure is unfortunate, it still represents a 70 per cent drop in the parish's murder rate when compared to 2017. He believes that the extension of the SOE beyond when it is expected to end on January 31, 2019, is the "common sense thing" to do.
An SOE was first declared in St James on January 18, 2018.