Be more proactive in directing youth away from crime – St James councillors
Police report says six murders were reported in the parish during April
Published:Friday | May 10, 2024 | 12:11 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
Councillors in the St James Municipal Corporation (StJMC) are calling for more active intervention strategies targeting young people in the parish, to prevent them from falling into criminality.
One strategy currently being utilised is the Jamaica Constabulary Force’s (JCF’s) Safe Schools Programme.
Councillor Kerry Thomas, the StJMC’s councillor for the Mount Salem division, and Councillor Dwight Crawford, of the StJMC’s Spring Gardens division, commented on the matter during Thursday’s monthly meeting of the StJMC, moments after the presentation of the JCF’s report by Senior Superintendent of Police Eron Samuels, the commanding officer for the St James Police Division.
Thomas argued that the intervention is sorely needed, as gangs are targeting young people from an early age.
“I think it is important that we have the Safe Schools Programme, because the truth is that I think we need to start, in this parish, a greater appeal to parents regarding their kids’ activities. The truth is, young men at age 17 and 18 don’t just get up and turn into gunmen; it starts from they are in schools,” said Thomas.
“Gangs start from they are in schools, and the attitude starts from they are in schools, targeting them at a very young age. Too many kids are getting into violence, and, at age 15 and 16, they join the gangs and then, when they turn 18, they turn into seasoned ‘bad men’,” Thomas added.
Crawford stressed that parents need to be held to greater account for how their children are raised.
“The problem is not the schools; the problem is poor parenting. We are expecting the police to do parenting; we need to have our parents do what they are to do, which is to grow their children right so that, when they go to school and they are on the road, they will act accordingly. Teachers and police can’t be blamed for these things,” Crawford argued.
Samuels had earlier revealed the lowest murder figures for St James in almost a decade.
LOWEST FIGURE SINCE 2016
“For the month of April, we saw the division recording the lowest murder figure of a month since 2016, with six murders. A little too much, just the same, but the efforts of the division must be noted … what we are trying to do now is to ramp up the partnerships that we have with the community, in order to ensure that we try our best to maintain our reduction going forward,” said Samuels, who did not have figures on hand to do a comparison between April this year and other specific recorded months since 2016.
“This month, we have ramped up our community-based activities, and you will see the team doing a lot of work within the communities and also within the schools. As you know, we had a very unfortunate incident last month, and we are trying to ensure we don’t have a recurrence of that,” Samuels added.
“We are working very closely with the schools through our Safe Schools task force to ensure we try our best to reduce the violence within the schools in St James.”
Samuels was referencing the April 17 killing of 15-year-old Irwin High School student Raniel Plummer, who died after being stabbed by a 14-year-old schoolmate with a knife during an altercation at the school premises. The 14-year-old has since been charged with murder and is currently before the court.
In the meantime, Montego Bay Mayor Richard Vernon praised the police’s crime-fighting efforts and voiced the hope that the downward trajectory in violent crime will continue.
“I am pleased to hear of the reduction in homicides, particularly in the month of April. It is one of the lowest that we have seen since 2016, and I believe we must underscore such achievements, because, when it is untenable, we come out and make a lot of noise and criticise the work of the police, we criticise the Government, and we find everybody to criticise,” said Vernon. “When we are experiencing gains, we must take some time out to recognise it as well.”
The JCF has recorded 48 murders in the St James division up to May 4 this year, eight less than in the corresponding period in 2023.