FLANKERS, St James – Heavily armed men wearing bullet proof vests Thursday night went on a shooting spree in this volatile community, killing three men and injuring another, pushing the parish’s murder toll to 175, 38 more that the total number of murders last year.

The dead men were identified as:

. Lloyd Campbell, also known as Waves, 40;

. Garth Coke, 42; and

. Romain Whyte, otherwise called Nyron, 20, all of Flankers.

The injured man, said to be 64 years, has been admitted to hospital.

The escalating crime wave in the parish has been a major concern for the police, who have implemented various measures to help bring the problem under control.

Only late last month, Security Minister Peter Phillips announced that the highly successful Operation Kingfish – the task force that was established to target drug runners, gangs and crime bosses – would be setting up a post in the parish capital, Montego Bay, as one of the latest measures put in place to tackle crime in the parish.

At the same time, he warned the police that the Professional Standards Branch had been mandated to identify and uproot corrupt cops in St James who aid and abet criminal elements in that parish.

But yesterday, opposition spokesman on tourism Edmund Bartlett, who is the member of parliament for East Central St James, said the measures put in place to deal with crime in the parish were ineffective.

“Part of the concern that I have is the disdain with which the criminal elements seem to take the initiatives of the security forces. It must be a concern to us that the minister (of security) comes down, the leadership of the force comes down. everybody comes down and numerous plans are drafted to deal with it and the response within hours is more crime and more homicides.

“.The state then has to take a position and the state has to determine if it is going to continue to become literally the laughing stock of everybody,” Bartlett said.

He warned that the spiraling crime wave could have a negative effect on tourism and other foreign investments in the parish.

Bartlett was speaking at a press conference in Montego Bay to discuss the 2006/7 winter tourist season which commenced yesterday.