TWO retired senior crime fighters are concerned that criminals may be inspired by Prime Minister Andrew Holness’s tearful expression of frustration over the reality of crime in Jamaica.

Revered ex-cops Clive “Karate Georgie” Lawrence and Reneto Adams even suggested that the criminals may have even been patted on the collective back when Holness admitted that Jamaica’s crime problem had bled onto his pillows, leaving him outplayed and preventing him from sleeping peacefully at nights.

Also, Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin, former commissioner of police and former chief of staff of the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF), said he is disinterested in Holness’s display of emotion.

St James-based Lawrence told the Jamaica Observer that considering the modus operandi of criminals, and their barbarity as of late, they will take Holness being in tears as a “You have beaten us” message.

“The criminals are now in their glory. The fact that the prime minister get emotional… they are telling themselves that him run out of options and it’s like him back against the wall. They get glory out of that. It’s sad. Sometimes, we as humans, when we get in our emotions, that happens. You don’t know what goes through the man’s head or the man’s mind. And here is the thing, it’s because he is in the church too,” Lawrence said.

“But it’s like he is saying there is nothing else that him can do. That shouldn’t come out of him mouth, still. He should have been more diplomatic. Me nah really make a comparison, but if a did PJ Patterson, him woulda deal with it differently. The Michael Manley dem woulda deal with it differently. Even though the prime minister is crafty… Holness is crafty, but dah one deh get to him. It lick him because the reaction overall is saying that everything him try not working out. That is what he is saying indirectly,” Lawrence added.

Holness was speaking last Wednesday at the National Day of Prayer at The Power of Faith Ministries in Portmore, St Catherine, which was held under the theme: ‘Family: The Bedrock of Society’, when he highlighted recent killings across the country.

He expressed that he was saddened by the murder of two brothers, 43-year-old Dervin Jones and 41-year-old Sheldon Jones, whose bodies were found in the parish a day prior.

Holness also pointed to the killing of 10-year-old Jezariah Tyrell in her house in central Kingston on December 30.

“I go to my bed with these things on my conscience every night. I know that I have tried. It’s a minefield, because every turn you make there is someone trying to stop it and I am left to wonder, are they in support of the criminals of the country?” Holness argued.

Lawrence told the Sunday Observer that Holness may not be able to live the emotional incident down and should expect jabs from the Opposition.

“He is prime minister, so nobody nah go overlook that. Maybe if a one regular minister seh that, it wouldn’t so bad. But he is the man at the helm. I don’t know how he is going to navigate around that. All the Opposition… a whole heap of ammunition that fi the Opposition. A suh politics stay.”

Adams agreed with Lawrence, saying that the prime minister has “let down himself and the country”.

“The prime minister has blundered terribly as far as I am concerned, because you are showing the public that you can’t manage. We know that some of these laws need both sides in Parliament to agree but, as far as I am concerned, they have their people to advise them how to effect these changes,” he told the Sunday Observer.

“The criminal elements out there have been motivated now, having heard the prime minister and seeing him in this emotional moment. What they are interpreting is that he cannot manage. And I am not talking because it is a JLP [Jamaica Labour Party] Government. If it were the PNP [People’s National Party] who came out and made that announcement, I would deplore the action just the same because what I read in that is that you’re telling us that you have no hope. If they don’t have any hope, how can we have hope?” Adams lamented.

However, Adams told the Sunday Observer that he saw this day coming a long time ago and tried to warn against it.

“I mourn for the people of Jamaica every day, especially those who do not have any form of security. Remember when I made the statement ‘Jamaica will pay dearly.’ I saw it coming and I warned them. What did they do? They said I was a loose cannon. They castigated me, left and right, and said that I was mischievous,” he contended.

Meanwhile, Lewin told the Sunday Observer he has little interest in the prime minister’s “performance”.

“Whatever he has to say or whatever his emotions are, are of little interest to me. My concern is that the response to crime can be put in two categories; immediate responses in order to cauterise what is happening, and long-term responses which will take time to bring us to the level that we require. It is fair to say the Government of Jamaica has been dealing with a number of issues that are long-terms issues that have to be dealt with, such as capitalisation,” he said.

“What I am interested in hearing is what constitutes those immediate responses. What are the immediate strategies and operational initiatives that are going to cull the rampant murder rate? That is what interests me, not the prime minister’s emotional response. I have no interest in that.”

Addressing speculation that the prime minister’s emotional plea was a political act, Lawrence reasoned: “Remember enuh, the man’s back is against the wall and everybody a look forward to him to put better strategies in place. So, the fact that he got emotional, we cannot follow stupid people and say a act him a act. Some Jamaicans, they are very pessimistic. They are so negative. They see a negative in everything.”

But Adams disagreed.

“The prime minister’s emotional outburst and expression is just a notion as it relates to what I would call the crocodile tears. This is one of the men who have been in our Parliament for the longest while. Even before he had won a seat, he had one of the toughest areas to deal with. He knows about criminal elements, just like I do.”

In the same breath, Lawrence, who was conferred with the Mayor of Montego Bay’s Special Award on National Heroes’ Day in 2019, said his intelligence suggests that the prime minister has a big move to unveil soon, as it relates to crime fighting.

“Based on what I am picking up on the ground, mi just feel seh the prime minister is going to bring some drastic laws. Some drastic laws are forthcoming.”

Last year, attorney-at-law Bert Samuels objected to Holness’s statement that he would personally want the death penalty to be applied to anyone found in possession of an illegal firearm. Holness was speaking at the JLP conference on November 29.

Samuels said it was a breach of the principle of the separation of powers that the prime minister voiced opinions outside of Parliament on sentencing, which is the responsibility of the court.

Attorney-at-law Isat Buchanan said the statement is a mockery of the constitution. He described it as unacceptable.

But Lawrence said the attorneys were guilty of hypocrisy.

“I don’t support them. A criminal must be treated like a criminal. The criminals must be dealt with seriously and I don’t have no apology. I want the prime minister fi come hard. If one lawyer gets killed in a barbaric way, the whole thing turn. It is hypocrisy. Just for argument sake; if two prominent lawyers get killed in a barbaric way, they will change their tune. Some Jamaicans, only when crime come a dem back door they agree that criminals fi get punished,” he said, noting that the current reality calls for tough measures.

“Me, as a top-tier crime fighter… if I am anywhere in the public space, I am always looking around, because I might not be the target, but there might be somebody who is beside me. When these gunmen come they are not singling out dem enemy. They are opening fire indiscriminately. They hardly attack their so-called enemies at their respective homes. They attack them in the public space. I support the Administration.”