It’s about time! - Clarendon residents welcome news of SOE
Published:Friday | September 6, 2019 | 12:23 AMCecelia Campbell-Livingston/Gleaner Writer
Residents of Clarendon have been breathing sighs of relief since the news broke that a state of public emergency (SOE) has been declared in the bloody central Jamaica parish.
For Michael Fenton of Sandy Bay, a community which has been in the headlines on numerous occasions for criminal activities and double murders, the SOE is long overdue.
“Things were getting out of hand in the place. It was terrible. You didn’t know where the next killing would take place,” he said.
Although he has embraced the newly introduced security initiative with a feeling of deep relief, he is already looking down the road, wondering what will happen when the security forces leave.
Dei Rasi Freckleton, chairman of Peace in May Pen, said that with the parish recording 100 homicides since January, the Government was too slow in blanketing the parish under an SOE.
“One of the duties of the Government is to really act in the protection and the security of citizens, and many individuals have been calling for the SOE. We are not saying we are not happy that it come, but it should have been here a lot earlier,” he told The Gleaner. He is hoping that the Government will introduce other measures to permanently end the criminal rampage so that another reign of terror does not begin when the SOE ends.
Observing that Clarendon is poised for big developments, Freckleton said that every effort must be made to avoid “this man-made disaster hampering the parish’s progress”.
He added: “Going forward, we need other social interventions so that those dabbling in criminal activities would be dissuaded from them.”
President of the Clarendon Police Youth Club Council Hopeton Bailey said that the SOE would not be effective unless the security forces build a relationship with the residents.
RELATIONSHIP BUILDING
Speaking from his experience of interacting with members of the different communities in which the police youth club operates, Freckleton said many residents are still wary of the security forces.
“They have to know how to address people, and ... they have to be community-friendly in spite of the challenges they might face. If they want it to work effectively, they should link up with all the organisations in the communities and participate in some of their outreach,” Bailey suggested.
Arthur Coleman, president of the Rocky Point Community Development Committee, another hot-spot in the parish, said that although the SOE was long in coming, he is grateful that the residents’ pleas have finally been heard.
“We want to send a message in Clarendon that we don’t want it to be like the Wild, Wild West. We need to get back our good peaceful parish, especially down my side – Southside. It should have been here long, long time ago,” said Coleman.