long fight for St James - Commish bats for maintaining SOE ‘until conditions change’
Published:Thursday | September 5, 2019 | 12:00 AMJason Cross/Gleaner Writer
Pointing to a sharp rise in murders when a previous state of emergency (SOE) was brought to an end in the parish last January, the island’s police commissioner has suggested that the current SOE in St James must continue as part of a long-term effort until significant change occurs in the deplorable crime situation facing communities in the west.
The current St James SOE was implemented in April, months after the Opposition voted last December against any further extension of an SOE that first came into force in January 2018. That SOE came to an end on January 31, 2019.
“As soon as it stopped the last time, [the killings] started to go up again,” said Major General Antony Anderson, the head of the Jamaica Constabulary Force, as he addressed a Lions Club of Kingston luncheon at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in St Andrew yesterday.
“St James has been violent for a while and is in need of long-term strategies. We have to use every tool in our tool box to keep people safe in St James,” the police commissioner added.
With many from the business community and residents in St James praising the security measure, and others complaining of inconveniences caused by the restrictions that come with the current SOE, the commissioner maintained: “We will do it [the SOE] until the conditions change” as “people are living in real fear”.
Anderson was adamant that the SOEs have been effective though there remain reports of violence in areas where they have been established.
“If you have a few killings in St James, it is a whole lot less than when we don’t have the measures in place,” he argued.
“The fact that we actually have some [murders] is indicative of the willingness and risk people are willing to take to kill other people, particularly in St James. They will go out of their way if they have a vendetta or for any other reason to kill other people.”
The commissioner described as a crisis situation the entire island faces in relation to murders. His comments came the same day The Gleaner highlighted that St James residents were openly expressing frustration with the SOE’s failure to stem wanton lawlessness, highlighted by reports that 90 persons were murdered from January 1 to the end of August in the parish. Four were killed between Friday of last week and this past Monday.