Citizens’ association president wants residents to help to fight crime

WESTERN BUREAU:

Rayon Grey, the president of the Cornwall Court Citizens’ Association (CCCA) in Montego Bay, St James, wants community groups across St James and the wider Jamaica to put their support behind the security forces in their fight against crime and violence.

Grey made his call while speaking with The Gleaner shortly after he was installed for a third consecutive term as president of the CCCA on Sunday afternoon. He was installed alongside the same executive members who served with him in the last administration.

The installation service, which took place at Cornwall Court Community Centre, was staged under the theme, ‘Together We Build a Better Community’.

“I think citizens’ associations, community development committees (CDCs), and other similar community groups are very integral in the cohesiveness of getting citizens together and working directly with our security forces,” said Grey. “Without groups like these, the basic fabric of community building would be non-existent, so definitely we need to have citizens’ associations and CDCs to make a community grow and to have inter-relations with our security forces.

“Groups like this should be implemented, especially in communities that have high crime content. What it does is create a social space where more persons will know each other, the communication can go across the board, and then people will be at ease to know that, ‘I can be my neighbour’s keeper, because I have a space in which I can share information’. These groups are needed for the basic fabric of our community to be built and, by extension, our country.”

Grey’s comments come on the heels of a recent observation by Senior Superintendent of Police Eron Samuels, the police commander for St James, who noted that a shooting incident, in which three persons were murdered along King Street, in Montego Bay, on July 9, could have been prevented if residents had provided the police with information about an incident the previous day.

Samuels told the July 11 sitting of the St James Municipal Corporation’s monthly meeting that, according to reports, the triple murder stemmed from another incident that had taken place on July 8.

The victims in that incident were identified as 62-year-old David West, 26-year-old Rashaun Williams, and 17-year-old student Jaydon Bennett, who were shot and killed during an incident in which members of a police team also came under gunfire from armed criminals.

Grey also rubbished the prevailing reluctance of citizens to pass on information about crime and criminal elements to the police, asserting that communicating with the security forces – including through citizens’ associations – allows for greater security.

“We definitely need to have these kinds of groups such as citizens’ associations in place, so residents who may otherwise be scared can filter information through them. The notion that passing on information to the security forces is a bad thing, it is really ridiculous in my estimation, because if you have criminal elements within your space and you can communicate that information to make you, your family, and your community safer, then that should be the approach,” said Grey. “By having groups like this, it allows persons to extend information without being fingered or pointed out, and it makes the relationship with the security forces better.”

In the meantime, Inspector Junior Beckford, the commanding officer in charge of the Mt Salem Police Station, who was the keynote speaker at the installation service, told residents that they must work together with the CCCA’s executive body to make the group’s work of bettering the Cornwall Court community a success.

“You have elected the people to lead you, but your job is not done by merely electing them. Their work, as well as your work, has now just begun, and for them to be successful, it is going to require all hands on deck,” said Beckford. “Everybody has to work together in order to achieve the goal, because their success is the success of the community. One of the things they are going to require is participation on your part in order for them to be successful.”

christopher.thomas@gleanerjm.com