NORTH Central Clarendon Member of Parliament Robert Nesta Morgan Wednesday welcomed the state of public emergency (SOE) imposed Wednesday, pointing out that Clarendon has been seeing several incidents of gang activity, which does not occur only in hotspots, but in constituencies such as his which usually experiences little crime.

“We have seen an uptick in isolated violence. We support the recommendation by the police and the army and we are very happy that they have this initiative in the tool of strategies that they have to help cauterise the issue. Clarendon was trending down last year but since January we have seen an almost 200 per cent increase in murders and that is something we have to deal with. I think the SOE, more than anything else, will save lives,” said Morgan, the minister responsible for information.

Lothan Cousins, the PNP Member of Parliament of South Western Clarendon, however, disagreed with the SOE declaration in his section of the parish, arguing that there are other tools like social social intervention which government can use instead of declaring SOEs. He criticised the Government of lacking the ability to promote other strategies. According to him, the SOE will only serve to disrupt social intervention that has been taking place in Clarendon and create inconvenience for the public.

“I am particularly concerned about what appears to be the militarisation of the security forces, in particular the Jamaica Constabulary Force. What I know for sure works is social intervention and community policing. I must commend the current police leadership of the parish. Over the past few weeks we have had a few incidents in and around the parish and I know they have been doing community engagement and it has been working. I think the declaration is pre-mature. It is a knee-jerk reaction to crime fighting. It appears there is a one-trick pony situation where the Government is just focused on that and that alone and the real issues concerning the parish like development of the communities, social intervention are being left behind.

“What we see in the parishes is that when they set up these checkpoints, the traffic that arises from it is unbearable. I have been in the parish on several occasions when these checkpoints were set up and what would normally take a five-minute drive takes an hour which causes us to lose productivity. I do not support the declaration and use of SOEs. If you look at what is going on in the parish, it appears to be a lot of domestic issues. Based on what we are seeing, the right type of early intervention by the State agencies can lead to a decrease without the need for soldiers and police being deployed to cart away and lock up people, especially young people who are from a particular socio-economic grouping. I just believe that the whole militarisation and us resorting to military use every time there is an uptick in crime is just unfortunate.”

In addition to Clarendon, SOEs were imposed Wednesday in Kingston Western and St Ann.

From January 1 to February 12, 2023, there were 15 murders in Clarendon compared to five in the corresponding period last year. In St Ann, 11 people were murdered compared to nine in the same period in 2022. Appallingly, the Kingston Western Police Division accounted for 20 of the 138 murders that have occurred across the island this year up to February 12, making it the most murderous place in Jamaica. Over the corresponding period in 2022, 15 people were killed in Kingston Western.

In a statement on Wednesday, Holness pointed out that the Government’s main priority is to use all lawful and constitutional measures to protect the lives of innocent citizens.

According to the prime minister, organised gangs are the main source and cause of violence, leading to fear and terror in some communities, and said the Government must act to protect the people.