MONTEGO BAY, St James – The Peace Management Initiative in St James has identified music – band music in particular – as a vehicle for ushering crime out of the inner cities.

The proposal was one of several discussed at a meeting convened yesterday at the offices of the St James PMI’s chairman, Bishop Charles Dufour.

The meeting was told that the Roman Catholic Charity, Food For the Poor, had in fact already made arrangements to secure 400 band instruments from China, with a view to establishing marching bands in several inner-city communities in western Jamaica.

The idea is getting its fillip from the success of the Heights Marching Band comprising youngsters from the inner-city communities of Rose Heights and Farm Heights. Both communities which used to be at perpetual war with each other have significantly cooled over the years, thanks to the band which has become a proud rallying point for the residents.

“The idea has worked [to reduce crime] in Venezuela… today in Venezuela 40,000 kids are involved in music,” Dufour told the meeting, which was attended by Superintendent Warren Clarke, the commanding officer for the Area 1 police in Montego Bay, Reverend Richard Keane, St James PMI administrator, Hyacinth Forde, Irwin High School’s principal, Aldin Bellinfantie, Dr Sonia Nixon, Inspector Egbert Parkins, Sergeant Rowan Wynter and businessman Mark Kerr-Jarrett.

A vocal Kerr-Jarret spoke of the need for an effective justice system and legislative reforms, saying this was a first crucial step towards tackling what has become a spiralling crime crisis in Montego Bay.

According to Kerr-Jarrett, who has responsibility for the Crime Management portfolio of the St James Parish Development Committee, that organisation was working on an action-driven crime plan that, if adopted, is expected to help solve the region’s crime problem.

Meanwhile, Bellinfantie cited the need for a return to family values and the concept of the nuclear family as one means of tackling the problem. He said that in his experience, 80 per cent of the “problem children” came from single-parent homes.