Western Ja still struggling with murders
Published:Monday | June 3, 2024 | 12:05 AMAdrian Frater/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
Despite a slight reduction in the year-on-year decline in the number of murders committed in the county of Cornwall since 2024, the western region remains bloody with more than 150 killings so far this year, the latest police statistics show.
St James, which has been the nation’s most murderous police division for several years, remains atop the grim national tally with 58 murders up to May 27. However, this number is 17 fewer than the 75 recorded over the comparative period last year.
“It is good that the numbers are trending down, but when one considers the resources that have been pumped into the parish over recent times, the number of high-profile gangsters who have been arrested, and the number of illegal firearms seized by the police, we cannot take too much comfort in the current situation,” a former cop, who asked not to be identified, told The Gleaner yesterday. “A 35 to 40 per cent reduction would have been more comforting.”
The Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) recently unveiled its Beat Officer Patrol Division (BOPD), which is designed to insulate downtown Montego Bay, especially the business district, from marauding criminals. Ironically, on the day the initiative was launched, four persons were shot, one fatally.
Westmoreland, which has been steadily tracking St James in murders in recent years, especially on account of the bloody feud between the Grange Hill-based Kings Valley Gang and the Ants Posse Gang, there has been a slight uptick in murders. The parish recorded 43 murders up to last, two more than the comparative period last year.
RESTRICTIONS ON LAW-ABIDING CITIZENS
In his 2023 Christmas message, Westmoreland Custos Hartley Perrin was adamant that law-abiding citizens should not be trapped into sharing the same space with criminals. In quoting from Bob Marley’s song Crazy Baldhead, he declared that “we got to chase these crazy baldheads out of town”.
Trelawny and Hanover, the two safest parishes in the western region based on their history over several years, are trending in two different directions. Hanover, which recorded 31 murders in the first five months last year, is down to 21 over the comparative period this year, while Trelawny, which had nine murders in their first five months of 2023, is currently at 12 – a jump by three.
St Elizabeth, which is increasingly being seen as a safe haven for gangsters fleeing justice in places like Clarendon, St James and Westmoreland, is seemingly rolling into worrisome territory. After registering eight murders between January and May last year, the parish has doubled that figure and now stands at 17 murders.
With all five parishes considered key pillars in Jamaica’s tourism, National Security Minister Dr Horace Chang recently made it quite clear, during a major upsurge in violence in Grange Hill, Westmoreland, that gun-toting gangsters will not be allowed to operate with impunity and damage the region’s economic prospects.
“I want to tell them, every single one who might be having such thoughts, we will find them, wherever they go ... ,” said Chang, who is on record telling the police to use deadly force if confronted by criminals.
Some 474 people were recorded as being murdered islandwide since year up to May 27 – an 11 per cent decline compared to the 534 killed over the same period in 2023.