KINGSTON, Jamaica – Opposition Senator Lambert Brown has lamented that Jamaica is in a state of constant “fear and trepidation” with the ever rising murder rate and the seeming inability of the Government to do anything about it.

Brown, who made the comments in the Senate on Friday during his contribution to the State of the Nation Debate, pointed to the spate of recent murders which included the shooting deaths of two policemen less than a week apart in the Corporate Area, as well as the fatal shooting of three people at a football match at Spring Village, St Catherine.

Noting that as a country we mourn with the victims’ families, Brown said “Time come to do more than mourning. We need to force these evil gunmen on the retreat”.

Still pointing to recent murders, Brown said: “Less than two weeks ago, the internal auditor of the Ministry of National Security (Garfield Jones) was brutally slain by gunmen in Portmore as he transported workmen from a work site. This happened in the early afternoon.

“Through social media, the nation was taken to the horrendous murder of a businessman in Green Island, Hanover. This brazen and cold-blooded murder took place in broad daylight, when two gunmen walked into the supermarket and killed the proprietor. They calmly packed their bags with stolen goods and nonchalantly walked out into the public space as if nothing happened. This is frightening!”

The businessman was identified as 36-year-old He Jing, and three people were subsequently arrested in connection with the daring robbery that ended with his murder and which was caught on camera.

“These murders are but a small subset of the 1,265 murders committed in Jamaica, between January 1, and last Saturday, October 22. This is an 8.1 per cent increase over the same time last year. That is 95 more people murdered this year to date over last year. This is a major reason for the state of fear gripping our nation,” Brown stated.

Declaring that the fear was “palpable”, Brown said “You can literally feel it among our citizens. Nowhere in Jamaica is safe. Normally quiet parishes have seen dramatic increases in murders”.

He listed the following:

-St Thomas, murders up 52 per cent.

-St Elizabeth, murders up 63 per cent.

-St Mary, murders up 76 per cent.

-Trelawny, murders up 107 per cent.

-Manchester, murders up 117 per cent.

Said Brown: “This is the sad and fearful reality facing the Jamaican people”.

He noted that a media personality recently tweeted in all caps “I AM AFRAID OF JAMAICA”. He said she was not alone as another young person summed up the fear and trepidation as follows:

“Tired of saying RIP. Tired of wondering who will be next. Tired of being scared it might be me.”

Brown pointed out that the Minister of Tourism, Edmund Bartlett recently beseeched the nation to seek divine intervention in the fight against crime, asking that prayers be made on behalf of the embattled National Security Minister Dr Horace Chang as he “grapples with the country’s high murder rate and an increase in antisocial behaviours.”

Added Brown: “I urge us to heed the call of Minister Bartlett. Let us not subject his call to ridicule as some in our society and even in this chamber did when Senator (Peter) Bunting (then Minister of National Security) made that call some years ago.”

He then turned to Bunting, who is the Leader of Opposition Business in the Senate, and declared that “Senator Bunting, history is absolving you”.

Continuing, Brown said that in addition to prayers – not just for Minister Chang but the families of the victims and the society as a whole, “we need effective action from the Government to prevent and reduce the high murder rate”.

He asserted that “This government is failing to reduce the high murder rate it promised to do in 2015 (when it was in Opposition). Then we were told that if we voted for the JLP we “would be able to sleep with our windows and doors open and wake up and still be alive.”

“We were also told then that there is a lot that can be done to reduce murders in Jamaica. Those were the words of then Opposition Leader Andrew Holness”.

“By now all Jamaica knows that is a big lie. It was a promise aimed at fooling the gullible. The truth is that, every year since 2016, the number of murders in Jamaica has been higher every year than any of the years under the PNP, when Senator Bunting was Minister of National Security,” Brown said.