ST JAMES, Jamaica (JIS) — Attorney General, Marlene Malahoo Forte, says decent law-abiding Jamaicans need to take a strong stance against criminality.

Delivering the keynote address at the third Annual Community Incentives and Grants Programme Awards for the parish of St James at the Montego Bay Cultural Centre, Sam Sharpe Square, on December 3, Malahoo Forte said there should be a zero-tolerance approach when it comes to association with criminals.

“All of the good work we have been doing in trying to stem crime will go to naught if we don’t stand together in stopping this bloodletting,” she emphasised.

The Attorney General added that it cannot be business as usual in going forward, noting that wrongdoing should be condemned and that there should be no safe haven for perpetrators.

“You know some of your children are mixed up in wrongdoing. I can only imagine how difficult it is for you, if you do not condone it. There are also some who condone it because they are benefiting from it and, therefore, turn a blind eye to it,” she told the gathering.

Malahoo Forte said the Government is working tirelessly to improve the lives of Jamaicans, including the fight against crime “and to make the country a better place”.

“Coming to representational politics from a background in the courts, there are some things that I am learning that never made a lot of sense to me back then,” she noted.

Malahoo Forte said it is mind-boggling that people who have attached themselves to the political process would expect that their elected representatives will support them in their wrongdoing, solely on the basis that they are affiliated with a particular party.

“I have been discovering a lot of things that have caused me to cringe. All of these gunmen are somebody’s children, somebody’s boyfriend, somebody’s girlfriend, somebody’s son and somebody’s daughter and they live among us in the communities.  How is it that in the midst of so much good and so much decent work being done, there is so much wrongdoing in our communities,” she said.

The Attorney General said people have to decide now whether they are on the side of right or wrong, and that communities have to start ostracising the criminals in the name of country.

“If community members do not do their part, we are not going to achieve the goals we set,” she added.