Broward County commissioner supports Ja’s SOEs

Broward County Commissioner Dale Holness has come out in support of the imposition of states of emergency (SOE) as a measure to combat the crime and violence that has Jamaica in a chokehold.

Holness expressed concern about the high murder rate that has been a feature of the Jamaican society for the last two decades or more and said the news has affected Jamaicans who live in the diaspora negatively.

He said many Jamaicans living in South Florida are desirous of returning home and investing in the land of their birth, but the negative reports surrounding the murders and robberies of returning residents have caused many to shelve those plans.

Some 12 returning residents were murdered in Jamaica last year.

“People will not invest in places where they don’t feel safe,” Holness told The Sunday Gleaner.

There are states of emergency now under way in St James, Hanover, Westmoreland, St Catherine, and Clarendon, as well as in St Andrew South Police Division.

MULTIPRONGED APPROACH

Statistics provided by National Security Minister Dr Horace Chang and the commanding officer for the St Andrew South Division, Senior Superintendent Steve McGregor, suggest that the sections of the island where SOEs are imposed have experienced a downturn in murders and violent crime.

They were speaking during a press conference called by Prime Minister Andrew Holness, at Jamaica House in St Andrew early last month, to announce the imposition of the SOEs in St Catherine and Clarendon. The police also report that more guns and ammunition have been seized in those areas.

Holness is aware that not everyone is in agreement with the SOEs.

“What is the alternative? Jamaica’s growth and development is being hampered by crime and something has to be done,” he said.

According to the Trelawny-born county commissioner, the SOEs are not the end-all and be-all of saving Jamaica from falling into the abyss of anarchy, but must be seen as part of a multipronged approach to a return to normality.

“It is a societal issue that needs to be dealt with by all Jamaica. At some point the entire society has to come together and deal with it. At the end of the day, it is the entire society that is affected. The problem is huge. The solution lies within each and every citizen,” he said.