Assamba shares story on mild threatening experience

Sharing a mild threatening experience she had on Friday night, Aloun Ndombet Assamba, former high commissioner and parliamentarian, called on every Jamaican to get serious about playing their part to eliminate criminal incidents.

Speaking at the Lay Magistrates' Association of Jamaica Kingston chapter's annual general meeting on Saturday, Assamba said the heightened violent incidents that Jamaicans encounter on a daily basis is nothing short of scary.

"I was at my Lions Club meeting. I also had a friend visiting but I couldn't get to the airport, so another person picked her up for me and took her to where I was. We left to drop off her luggage and as I got to the gate, there was a man with a cup in his hand, asking me if 'I could let off something'," she recalled.

"I said to him that I didn't have any cash, but I remembered that in the middle of my car, I always have some small change, so I proceeded to look for something for him. He didn't know that I was still trying to see if I could assist him. He just remembered that I said I didn't have any money. I eventually found some change and as I was about to wind down the window, he started to berate me and say, 'When the gunman come fi you, you ago tell him dat?'"

She added: "So I said, 'how dare you speak to me like that. You have not given me any money and do not threaten me', and I drove off. Those are the kinds of things we face."

Urgent measures needed

Assamba said that with 10 months left in the year, it is imperative that urgent measures be put in place to curb the issue before it gets worse.

"The state of the country and the senseless killings that are affecting every sector in Jamaica has weighed me down immensely," she said.

"I urge volunteers to start interacting with the various communities, counselling and advising our youth, resolving domestic conflicts and the escalating community tension before it morphs into gang violence and reprisal killings. This will ultimately reduce crime," she said.