Mr Jason Russell’s words were music to our ears.

Mr Russell, the St James Chamber of Commerce president, had some noteworthy comments on the state of Montego Bay in recent weeks in the context of the sharp reduction in crime in the western Jamaica parish.

“I see people feeling like them own Montego Bay again, like they are Montegonians and they can walk up and down the city without gunmen firing shots; I’m feeling it,” Mr Russell told this newspaper on Monday.

“I’m seeing more people coming out, I am seeing a better Montego Bay. The parties looking better, decent people feel like them can go out and eat food at a restaurant… It’s a big deal,” added Mr Russell.

His comments came after the police reported that St James recorded just one murder in May and 22 in total so far this year. The year-to-date figure represents a 67 per cent reduction from the 68 murders recorded in the parish last year.

Those numbers are very gratifying and all law-abiding Jamaicans, we expect, are encouraged because for too long the country had been held hostage by a minority of miscreants — total scum of the earth who mean Jamaica no good.

We note that this impressive and relief-giving reduction in crime, particularly murders, is being experienced across the country and is one of the factors that influenced the US Government to upgrade its travel advisory. That, as we noted in this space on Sunday, has opened the door to what we expect will be an increased flow of visitors from the USA, our main source market for tourists.

That, we reiterate, is a massive deal for the more than 50,000 Jamaicans who are directly employed to the accommodations subsector of our tourism industry, as well as the other tens of thousands of our people who make a direct and indirect living from tourism.

These are our fellow Jamaicans who are employed at hotels, villas, apartments, attractions, air and sea ports, tour companies, restaurants; Jamaicans who offer transportation services, vendors, farmers, fishers, entertainers, and many more.

The benefit to tourism aside, we are heartened by the fact that more Jamaicans are being spared the pain of losing family and friends to gunmen’s bullets. We therefore hope that this reduction in crime will not only be sustained but slashed even further and that the merchants of death and their sponsors — particularly those who fund the purchase of firearms and ammunition — are detained, prosecuted, and are subjected to the full force of the law.

We are also heartened by another benefit from this reduction in crime — the respite it has given to the police.

According to Deputy Superintendent of Police Lynroy Edwards, the operations officer for St James, his colleagues at the Criminal Investigation Branch are now turning their attention to cold cases as they are not weighed down by fresh cases and the scene of crime team “also gets to relax a bit”.

Additionally, he said, the members of the security forces are motivated, business confidence is up, and “people are feeling much safer coming out and enjoying themselves”.

It’s a win-win for the people of St James, and for Ja
maica in general.

We must not lose this momentum under any circumstances.