THE Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry has expressed concern about the number of armed street people on the city’s streets and has called on the police and the government to address the problem.

The issue was raised at the chamber’s last monthly meeting and according to president Mark Kerr-Jarrett, it is of serious concern, as there was an incident a few weeks ago in which a citizen was almost wounded by a street person who thrust a machete into the window of a moving vehicle.

Armed street people, the chamber president said, have been seen in historic Sam Sharpe Square as well as the busy Clock Tower area along Barnett Street.

“What has been reported to us is that there have been several instances of street people, some of them of questionable mental stability, walking around armed with machetes and swinging them wildly,” he said.

He argued that it was the responsibility of the police to apprehend persons armed with offensive weapons.

“We are asking that the police use the law of the land because there is a law that a weapon such as a machete should be encased when carried in public,” Kerr-Jarrett urged. “If a person unsheathes a machete in public and is also using it in an aggressive manner which has the propensity to do grievous bodily harm and severely damage a person or personal property, the police need to enforce the law and apprehend that individual. The public must be safeguarded. It has to be dealt with and dealt with effectively.”

But according to superintendent in charge of St James, Owen Ellington, the police have been dealing with the general problem of persons armed with offensive weapons and he urged those with additional information to tell the police.

“In two weeks alone, we made over 100 arrests in Montego Bay for offensive weapons,” Ellington said. “We can’t make a distinction between street people and people who are not street people, we arrest people who we consider to be offenders,” he told the Observer this week. “But if there is anyone who has any information about any particular individual who is posing a threat by carrying weapons in public places just call us, we’ll deal with it.”

In the meantime, the chamber has also repeated earlier calls for the state to provide the facilities needed to properly care for the mentally ill.

“We are also calling on the government to provide the necessary care, whether through CUMI and/or City Spirit, to properly care for the individuals that are destitute whether due to economics, mental condition or disease,” Kerr-Jarrett stressed. “The government needs to care for those who cannot care for themselves, that is one of their primary objectives, apart from maintaining national security. The street people have to be cared for and the public has to be safeguarded at the same time.”