OPPOSITION spokesman on national security and justice, Delroy Chuck, says he hopes that the Criminal Justice (Suppression of Criminal Organisations) or “Anti-Gang Act, will be reviewed by a Joint Select Committee of Parliament before it is debated and passed.

“I have not had a chance to peruse the Bill to see how it has changed from the last draft, but there is no doubt that it will be put to a parliamentary committee,” Chuck told the House of Representatives, as he spoke in the Sectoral Debate Tuesday, shortly after the Bill was tabled by Security Minister Peter Bunting.

“It is obvious that it is not really geared to fighting gangs, but criminal organisations, even though the memorandum of objects and reasons is the same,” Chuck said.

He said that one of the things that has to be recognised in dealing with the Act, is that most of the gangs to be targeted are really “temporary, evanescent” groups, which are formed then disappear. ]In other words] they are not as organised as the Mafia”, he said.

The Opposition spokesman said, however, that he was happy to see the Bill, after some 18 months, pointing out that he had dealt with an earlier draft prior to leaving office as minister of national security and justice in the previous Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) Administration, in 2011.

Chuck, noting that there was need for effective legislation to assist the police, the prosecution and the judicial system in dealing with crime, said that under the JLP, six crime Bills that were piloted and passed in the House in 2010 were significant and effective in bringing about decline in murders and the crime rate, “even though others contend that it was the Tivoli incursion that caused the decline”.

Said Chuck: “These six crime Bills were allowed to lapse and, if they had been renewed, the increase and escalation in robberies and shootings over the past two years may have been kept under control.”

He noted that two important pieces of legislation — the Anti-Gang and DNA Bills — were left to reach this House, almost 18 months after the current administration came to office.

“The DNA legislation has been promised, but one wonders if we will see it any time soon,” said the Opposition spokesman.

“Crimefighting demands an urgency and priority to provide the tools, resources and laws to aid the police, prosecution and the judicial process. Lets get on with the necessary legislation,” he stated.