THE Jamaica Labour Party has called for a summit to discuss the underlying problems in Canterbury and identify solutions that will provide area youth with an alternative to crime.

“We want to have people from the Ministry of National Security, all persons in civil society, churches and youth groups to have a candid and honest discussion about the problems in the community,” said member of parliament for West Central St James, Clive Mullings.

“We need to have a concrete plan of action for work, mentoring, and things like personal skills. Anybody can be rehabilitated, be it spiritual or otherwise, but they must be presented with an alternative.”

No firm date has yet been fixed for the summit, but Mullings stressed that it needs to be soon.

“There is too much urban blight and I think the summit can tackle that. What we have now are young people who don’t have role models, so they gravitate towards gangs,” he said. “The writing was on the wall a long time ago, imagine calling young people ‘shottas’; there’s a sort of romanticism now of the gunman thing.”

The age of the suspects held during yesterday’s nine-hour gunbattle between armed men and cops in Canterbury, he said, is cause for concern. So too is the availability of guns and ammunition, Mullings added.

In addition to the summit, the MP said there was an urgent need to ensure that lawmen have the information and resources needed to fight crime.

“We need some really hard intelligence and we have to face the fact that it won’t happen overnight,” Mullings said.