KINGSTON, Jamaica — Prime Minister Andrew Holness today acknowledged the “bravery and perseverance” of the security forces in recently tracking down and dealing with a number of notorious criminals within the law.

“We must commend them, and we must ensure that the criminals understand that the Government, meaning the Administration and the Opposition, are at one in dealing with these criminals and that we are at one with dealing with them within the law,” Holness told the National Consensus on Crime (Consensus 2020) hosted by the private sector’s Crime Monitoring & Oversight Committee (CMOC).

Holness was referring to operations by the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) and the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) over the past two weeks, which have resulted in the deaths of seven people involved in shootouts with the security forces in St James and Clarendon, including several who were wanted for murder.

Read: Clarendon’s most wanted among six killed  “I believe that you are seeing unfolding in front of you, the citizens of the country, your security forces beginning to display what you have always wanted them to display: respect for law, themselves being officers of the law, acting on intelligence, acting strategically and, even if you don’t get success right away you act with perseverance and patience, and eventually you will start to yield results,” the prime minister said. “And so I want to commend the security forces for consistently continuing to act strategically, continue to act on intelligence and to be persistent and preserve against the criminals who have held our communities in the clutches of fear for far too long,” he added. Balford Henry