It is Senator Peter Bunting’s job as national security spokesman for the Opposition People’s National Party (PNP) to speak out against the seemingly endless murders in our society and the apparent impotence of the Government to stem the bloody tide.

But if he thinks that trotting out murder figures is enough, he is making a sad mistake. The country needs more than that from someone who has been a minister of security and who must know that it is not a numbers game when so many lives are being snuffed out on a daily basis.

The figures Mr Bunting produced at his Tuesday press conference may be correct, or not. But in the bigger picture, what they show is the utter failure of the Jamaican State — dating as far back as we can see — to find an effective and sustainable solution to keep murders under control.

Mr Bunting points out that during the last PNP Administration between 2012 and 2016, when he was in charge of the portfolio, murders averaged 1,129 per year, or the lowest average of any government in the last 20 years.

Comparatively, he says, the average under the current Jamaica Labour Party Government over eight years is 1,416 murders per year since 2016. He also calls into question the claim by Police Commissioner Antony Anderson that up to October 3, 2023, the murder rate had dropped by 12 per cent year over year.

Senator Bunting further said that the Jamaican people have “reacted with confusion and disbelief” to the commissioner’s announcement, because “the daily media stories reporting murders, double murders, triple and quadruple murders and shootings, don’t seem to accord with the statements made by the commissioner of police and by the high command”.

The question we have for Mr Bunting is thus: At what point will it be okay to say the murder rate is under control? How many murders will be tolerable? Whatever number he comes up with, does Mr Bunting believe that any one government can achieve it?

We have emphasised over and over in this space that no single government can solve the crime problem. Schoolchildren in the remotest parts of Jamaica know this. We are confident that Mr Bunting knows this too.

What neither Mr Bunting nor the Government wants to admit is that their various administrations have tried everything they can think of to find a solution. They have all thrown copious resources at the problem to no avail.

The one potential solution they have not been able to bring themselves to try is taking crime out of the partisan political arena and unite the country to fight the problem as one determined people.

No country solves its crime problem without the substantial help of the populace, in which the people become the eyes and ears of the security forces, ensuring that criminals have no safe haven.

Mr Bunting says he takes no joy in pointing out the Government’s failure to the public and suggests that “a society cannot talk about good governance, about accountability, yet hide Andrew Holness’ abject failure at fighting violent crime”.

Mr Holness has no doubt failed at crime, but merely talking about his failure does not make Mr Bunting any better at it. We suggest once again that they lock arms together in a powerful coalition against crime.

And Mr Bunting, please get rid of the blinkers.