Strong security when MoBay SOE ends – mayor

WESTERN BUREAU:

In a bid to allay fears days before the end of a state of emergency in St James, Montego Bay Mayor Homer Davis has assured residents that the parish will get additional security personnel to prevent a return to runaway murders, which triggered the crackdown.

Davis, who was speaking at Friday’s official opening of the Cambridge Garbage Holding Area, said that the Government is currently pursuing the construction of two barracks that will accommodate up to 900 members of the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) and the Jamaica Constabulary Force.

“Right now, the JDF is completing a barracks out in the Flanker area, and it is to accommodate 700 JDF soldiers to respond to any eventualities in the parishes of St James as well as Trelawny, Hanover, and Westmoreland,” said Davis. “They will have the capabilities to come (respond) by air, sea, and land.”

“Up in Montego Hills, lands have been cleared for the construction of a new police barracks to house some 200 police personnel. So the Government is seeing St James as a parish that will get the necessary attention as it relates to security,” added Davis.

Additionally, Davis said that he has not given up hope that the Opposition People’s National Party (PNP) will rethink its position about not supporting the extension of the SOE, which has been in place in St James since January 18, 2018. It will expire next Thursday.

Davis argued that the effectiveness of the SOE was unquestionable based on the fact that murders in St James tumbled from a record 335 in 2017 to 102 last year.

“We are not prepared to go back to where we were prior to 2018. That is why, after meeting with senior officers of the security forces, they have assured me that the name SOE won’t be there, but all the other things that constitute the SOE will be because the good citizens of this parish need protection now more than any other time,” said Davis. “We will still have the security checkpoints.”

DRASTIC MEASURES NEEDED

Meanwhile, outspoken clergyman Charles Brevitt of the Glendevon circuit of Seventh-day Adventist Churches said that plans should have been implemented to help St James’ residents readjust once the SOE ends.

“We needed drastic measures to curtail crime, so I believe the SOE was warranted when we started it, but we have failed to use that season to prepare a plan that would transition us back to normalcy,” said Brevitt. “What is the role that I, as a citizen, am expected to play after the SOE? This is a question that should have been settled.”

However, western Jamaica-based family therapist Dr Beverly Scott believes that the residents of St James can seamlessly make the transition from the SOE once the security forces maintain a regular presence afterwards.

“I don’t think the residents need to worry because the Government is wise enough to get the security forces to maintain a good enough presence that people can be comfortable, so I think they can move on from the SOE,” said Scott.

In talking up the success of the SOE, the MoBay mayor said that residents had enhanced feelings of safety and security.

“We have brought back the parish to a state where you, the citizens, are comfortable. Where you can go to church and feel safe at nights. You can sit in your shop playing a domino game without fear that someone will come and wipe out all of you,” said Davis.