St Catherine Parish Council calls for gun amnesty
THE St Catherine Parish Council has called for a three-month gun amnesty for the parish, starting at the end of this month.
The council will this week put the request in writing to police commissioner, Francis Forbes, and national security minister, Dr Peter Phillips. If permission is granted, the amnesty will run until next January.
“It is council’s intention to launch a gun amnesty to ask people to hand in their illegal guns during a particular period, to designated places such as churches, without being arrested by the police,” said Spanish Town mayor, Dr Raymoth Notice.
The amnesty is aimed at curbing gun crimes in the parish.
Cops say Spanish Town, surrounded by a number of inner-city areas, has become one of the leading hot spots in the island, and has the largest number of gun murders and shootings, after Kingston.
Statistics supplied by the Constabulary Communications Network indicate that there were 144 recorded murders in St Catherine last year. Of that amount, 66 occurred in Spanish Town and 78 in the Portmore area. There were also 153 recorded shootings in the parish, with Spanish Town accounting for 83.
Since the beginning of the year, 171 murders have been reported in the parish, with 79 in Spanish Town; while of the 148 shootings, 87 were in Portmore. Since January, some 47 guns were recovered in the parish and two stolen from licensed firearm holders.
But deputy commissioner of police in charge of crime, Lucius Thomas, was less than optimistic about the call for a gun amnesty, saying he would not, at this time, ask the government to support the call.
“But any (other) initiative that can be done to remove the illegal guns from the streets and out of the hands of gunmen will be supported by the police,” DCP Thomas added.
However Notice has already worked out most of the details for the initiative, including soliciting financial support from the business community to raise $500,000 to reward those who turn in their illegal guns.
“We will have to pay them and you will be surprised how many guns will come in,” he said, adding that the logistics of the reward will be worked out between the council and the parish police, who have shown support for the move.
And while opposition spokesman on national security, Derrick Smith, said the gun amnesty would do no harm, he stressed that it was not the only solution to the crime problem.
“A gun amnesty is not the answer as only a handful of defective guns will be surrendered; but it would do no harm,” he said.
To get the illegal guns out of the hands of vicious gunmen, Smith contended, the police force needs credible intelligence and decisive action, coupled with alternatives for the mass of unemployed youth.
