No permits for Hanover parties – police

WESTERN BUREAU:

THE DECISION of the police to cease issuing permits for the staging of parties within the parish of Hanover has not gone down well with councillors in the Hanover Municipal Corporation (HMC), who have all voiced disapproval.

While Deputy Superintendent of Police Peter Salkey, who was the Jamaica Constabulary Force’s (JCF) representative at the HMC’s October monthly meeting last Thursday, tried his best to explain and defend the decision, the councillors all voiced their views against it. They argued that it would have negative economic effects across the parish.

“These decisions are arrived at through analyses, and in light of some of these analyses the decision was taken to have a shutdown of these functions,” Salkey stated.

The matter surfaced when it was pointed out in the meeting by Romeo Daley, the acting chief executive officer of the HMC, that the corporation has been approached by several persons who have applied for amusement licences, for refunds of the fees paid to the corporation, as when the applications go to the Hanover police headquarters for approval, they are being denied.

He reported in the meeting that there are eight such applications now at the corporation for functions to be held in October, which will then be going to the police for approval.

Ongoing conflicts

Salkey argued that police intelligence has shown that when parties are being held, persons who have ongoing conflicts between themselves can trace and track each other to commit crimes.

That explanation did not convince Lucea Mayor Sheridan Samuels or the councillors as a good reason to refuse approvals of the events. They claim that most of the killings taking place, not just in Hanover, but in Jamaica today, are done in broad daylight and not at night-time, when parties are being held.

“Persons going to supermarket can be seen and traced just the same, persons going to church also, why not shut down the church or the supermarket?” Samuels asked.

It was pointed out by the councillors that most of the criminal activities taking place in Hanover are concentrated in areas labelled as ‘hotspots’ by the police, yet the whole parish is being penalised by denying the social activity.

Mention was made of functions staged by bar owners called ‘drink outs’, which have helped many bar owners survive the economic impact of COVID-19. Drink outs are now also being hampered by the police’s refusal to grant licensed approval for such events.

It was pointed out that even the Jamaica Fire Brigade’s Hanover division in the parish capital, Lucea, was recently refused a police approval for a licence to stage an appreciation function for its members.

After a lengthy discussion, the decision was arrived at to schedule a meeting between the new commanding officer for the JCF in Hanover, Superintendent Ian Mowatt, and the councillors.

“It makes no sense. We are collecting monies within the HMC at the application stage, and have to be refunding those monies later because the police have refused permission for the events to be held,” one councillor told The Gleaner after the meeting, adding that there must be a more organised way.

bryan.miller@gleanerjm.com