Dear Editor,

The following is an open letter to Prime Minister Andrew Holness:

I want to say thanks to the prime minister and his Government for giving the people of Jamaica another public state of emergency.

A petition started by yours truly on Change.org over a month ago calling for three more states of public emergency in four parishes seems to have reached the relevant authorities.

Currently we have 19 police divisions; six of those accounted for 1,055 murders last year. These police divisions are: St James, Clarendon, St Catherine North, Westmoreland, St Andrew South, and St Catherine South — 335, 168, 159, 147, 138, and 108, respectively. What these six police divisions have in common is that they are the only ones with over 100 murders for last year.

Parish-wise St James, St Andrew, St Catherine, Kingston, Clarendon, and Westmoreland accounted for 1,315 murders last year. For decades these six parishes have been the problematic ones.

So far we have a public state of emergency in the top-three murderous parishes and police divisions in Jamaica. Currently, the people of St Catherine North are happy to have the security forces.

Again, I want to thank the prime minister and his Administration for making this possible. I hope we get at least one more to cripple the crime rate. I know Holness can, once and for all, make Jamaica safe again by fulfilling his vision of making Jamaicans sleep with their windows and doors open.

Teddylee Gray

Ocho Rios, St Ann

teddylee.gray@gmail.com