MONTEGO BAY, St James — Pointing to what he says has been a year-and-a half period of calm within his Granville Division, Councillor Michael Troupe (People’s National Party) has appealed for an easing of restrictions, giving residents an opportunity to have a bit of fun and cash in their pockets.

“I want to thank you, sir, for keeping the space of Granville safe for the last 18 months,” he said to commanding officer for the St James Police division, Senior Superintendent Vernon Ellis after the cop’s presentation to Thursday’s monthly meeting of the St James Municipal Corporation.

“But the problem I’m having is, while councillor — yours truly — is trying to make Granville the safest place on earth, we are still being punished. Because we cannot have anything up there [like] what Flankers and all the rest of divisions are having. Granville Division is still being punished,” Troupe bemoaned.

In explaining what he meant by punishment, the councillor said the division is still being locked down during states of public emergency (SOE) and the staging of entertainment events is not allowed. The police have recently been using a more targeted approach that sees only certain problem-plagued areas locked down when a parish is under an SOE. The last time a 14-day SOE was declared for St James was in the first week of July.

“I am therefore saying, since we are doing what we need to do, we need to be rewarded for that. We need to make sure that the people see that if they do ‘this’, then you will get ‘that’,” Troupe told the Jamaica Observer after the meeting.

Events, he noted, are a source of income for a wide cross section of people and the measures in place are having an impact on their ability to earn a living.

“Reward the vendors who are trying to make some money to send their kids to school, everybody. We can’t be [treated] like other areas where crime is taking place. We are doing good,” Troupe insisted.

He noted that a lot of effort has been made to keep the peace within Granville and he has personally reached out to young men to get them to understand the importance of ensuring their community is violence-free.

“When we are in compliance with the law, when we do what we need to do — work with the police and everybody working together — we must be rewarded,” Troupe insisted.

He added that over the next few months he will continue his efforts to keep the division’s young men away from crime and violence.

“We are doing a series of summer school [sessions] on scamming, educating them on crime-related activities, educating them on cooperating with the police, book [education] is the best way to go,” the councillor said.

“We’re doing that to keep the division the way it should be because we don’t want to go back where we are coming from,” he added.

Troupe also took the time to laud citizens for banding together to push back against crime.

“You know where Granville is coming from and where it is right now, I want to commend the citizens for the hard work they have done,” said Troupe.

In his response, Ellis said decisions would be made on a case-by-case basis.