Stakeholders happy for SOE declaration

Winsome Witter, president of the May Pen Chamber of Commerce and Industry, is among stakeholders rejoicing at news of a state of public emergency being declared in Clarendon yesterday.

Witter said that she had been anticipating the declaration after listening to the recently installed commander for Clarendon, Senior Superintendent Glenford Miller, paint a bloody picture of the parish at the chamber of commerce’s general meeting in July.

At that meeting, Miller revealed that a 16-year-old boy was among hoodlums on the parish’s most wanted list. Pointing out that adults were not the only perpetrators of serious crimes in the parish, Miller said that there were a number of other young persons on the wanted list.

Now that the SOE has been declared, the businesswoman is hoping that the efforts of the crime fighters will be met with success as they seek to restore law and order.

Councillor for the Hayes Division in the parish and former May Pen mayor Scean Barnswell also expressed joy at the news.

He said that the People’s National Party caucus in the Clarendon Municipal Corporation had been requesting an SOE since 2017, when the late May Pen Eastern caretaker, Carol Ebanks, was brutally murdered along with her son, Jevon Myles.

“We have been seeing several shootings, double murders, triple murders within the parish capital and south Clarendon. This, although late, is a good move, having the security forces on the ground in and around the troubled areas to curb and to control, but most importantly, to bring those who plague on the community to justice,” he said, adding that he hoped that the rights of citizens would be respected.

‘HAD TO HAPPEN’

Custos of Clarendon and chairman of the Clarendon Crime Prevention Committee William Shagoury said that the SOE “had to happen” as the spiralling crime rate in the parish had to be cauterised.

“People need to take heed. When you lose respect for the law and do what you want, then this had to happen,” he told The Gleaner.

Shagoury said that he genuinely believes the operation will make a difference in curtailing crime in the parish.

May Pen Mayor Winston Maragh was also pleased at the declaration.

“I am urging the citizens to cooperate with the security forces as they carry out their operations,” he said.

Joel Williams, councillor for the problematic Denbigh Division, said the SOE was timely based on what has been happening.

“I hope that it will be effective as it has been in some of the other areas in cutting down on the crime level, and while that is happening, that we will be able to use the opportunity to tighten up on some of the areas, both socially and otherwise, to give the effect that we are looking for,” he said.

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