Newly installed police commissioner, Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin yesterday warned the nation’s criminals to put down their guns and give up a life of crime or face the consequences.

At the same time, Lewin, who retired as Jamaica Defence Force chief of staff at the end of October, said that he intended to place more cops on the streets by closing down some police stations.

Lewin made his appeal to gunmen during his first press conference as police commissioner at the Police Officers’ Club in St Andrew.

“I am appealing to the shottas, the gunmen, the criminals. The life of badness is a short one. You will either be killed by your cronies, rival gangs or the police,” Lewin said, “Give up your guns. Come back to the mainstream.”

Lewin, who empathised with traumatised relatives of those murder victims when he recalled that his mother and her close friend were shot dead in June 1990 at Buckfield in St Ann, said the country was no longer prepared to turn a blind eye to lawlessness.

“I believe the Jamaican people are so battered and bruised that they are ready to declare that enough is enough,” said Lewin. “I invite their mothers and fathers, where they exist, talk to your sons.”

Lewin takes the reigns of the constabulary at a time when almost 1,600 Jamaicans have been murdered and more than 250 civilians fatally shot by police since the start of this year.

However, the ‘shottas’ (street name for gunmen) were not his only target.

He blamed a culture of greed, selfishness and corruption for the present state of disorder in the society.

“We need a new resolve. For four to five decades we have sewn the wind and we are now reaping the whirlwind,” Lewin said.

The police commissioner also said he would work to alter the current mindset of the men and women under his charge and redefine the role of the police in society.

“It is a para-military force. To keep down insurrections and riots, to keep the natives in check. It was never designed as a police force,” Lewin said.

There are over 100 police stations and posts scattered across the country and Lewin promised that shutting some of them would not be long in coming.

He said the police in the stations would be deployed in the troubled communities surrounding them.

“We are going to shut down some stations, by doing so we are going to put more police out there,” Lewin said.

He called on the privileged in society to make haste in bridging the divide between the rich and poor and promised to tackle corruption in the police force hands on.

The new commissioner was also critical of the worn-out attempts to hatch a new crime plan.

“We should be attacking the root causes and not the symptoms,” Lewin said.