Letter of the Day | Let state of emergency be part of crime plan
Published:Wednesday | March 28, 2018 | 12:00 AM
THE EDITOR, Sir;
Both the Government and the Opposition, on Tuesday of this week, agreed that public states of emergency are temporary measures of fighting crime. But my questions to both the prime minister and opposition leader are:
1. How long is temporary?
2. Can a public state of emergency in three to 12 months fix the crime rate permanently?
3. Are they so naive to think that the Clansman and One Order gangs are not sophisticated enough to survive without extortion, murders and other serious crimes for over a year?
4. Will citizens readily give the security forces that information, knowing that the forces will be gone in six months' time?
5. Did they know that in some countries in Latin America where there is a high crime rate, states of emergency with social intervention bring their crime rate to low levels permanently?
6. Have we ever used a public state of emergency wisely in the past?
7. Why can't a public states of emergency be part of an administration crime plan?
Learn from the past
The state of emergency in St James has seen a 70 per cent reduction in its crime rate. The state of emergency in St Catherine North has seen no murders in nine days.
I'm pleading with this current administration to learn from their mistakes in 2010 and don't leave anything to chance. Come July 3, 2018 an extension of a state of emergency will be needed in St Catherine North. Now is not the time to ease up on crime and violence.
The new security minister, Dr Horace Chang, has said that failure is not an option. I strongly believe that states of emergency in six of our parishes with the highest murders, for three years, will bring crime under 500 murders annually.
These shouldn't only deal with crime and violence, but as a social intervention tool. The Government should also set up technology in all state of emergency-declared areas technology like Jamaica Eye, spy balloon and drone stations. So when the security forces leave these areas they will not only rely on information from citizens, but they will have technology to give them information.
Haiti is perhaps the poorest nation in the Caribbean. Haiti is alleged to have a lot of guns, yet they are not killing off themselves. Trinidad and Tobago is considered one of the richest countries in the Caribbean, and they are killing off themselves. These examples clearly indicate that better, or even the worst economies should not be blamed for crime. Education and vocational skills are the silver bullets for crime, not high growth rates.
Teddylee Gray
Ocho Rios, St Ann