As the country continued to bask in the lull in murders, the events of the last five days shattered the relative peace and calm with the killing of five people and the wounding of 10 in two blood-curdling incidents.

It may be too early, but one can be forgiven for wondering if the criminals who have been on the run all year have decided to strike back against a populace which has been cooperating with the police to dramatically bring down the rate of murder and other major crimes.

On Tuesday night, police reports said, a nine-year-old and a disabled teen were among six people shot and wounded when a white car with four men aboard drove onto Charles Street in Central Kingston and the culprits opened fire on residents.

Two days earlier, the community of Commodore in Linstead, St Catherine, was the scene of a massacre when gunmen, said to be posing as cops, attacked a family yard, killed five people and wounded four others, including a four-year-old child.

Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness — who visited the grief-stricken area, along with Minister of National Security and Peace Dr Horace Chang, and Police Commissioner Dr Kevin Blake, Government and Opposition officials — described the incident as “criminal terrorism”.

While police statistics are showing that murders have remained at 522, compared with 883 as of October 4, 2025 — still representing a decent 41 per cent drop over same period last year — these incidents remind us that there can be no let-up in the war against crime.

The politicians have to continue refusing to provide haven for criminal thugs and the citizenry have to keep passing information to the police who must remain as steadfast as they have been in taking the fight to these monstrous gunmen.

In the same breath, we would like to suggest to the Independent Commission of Investigations (Indecom) that, while it does the important work of being watchdogs over the police, it needs to be more astute in its reporting.

We in this space are big supporters of Indecom in its quest to keep police excesses in check, but we are concerned when the commission exposes weaknesses in how it reports on the activities of the Jamaica Constabulary Force.

For example, on Tuesday when it tabled its latest report on planned police operations (PPO), recommending that a senior officer from the rank of inspector or above should be present on all such operations, we were looking to be told how serious a problem this was.

The police oversight body insisted that cops in the rank of constables to sergeants should not be undertaking ‘snap raids’ without the requisite planning or involvement of the inspector or a more senior officer. However, reaching back to August 2024, the commission cited a single incident when it was alleged that two constables attended a premises without a warrant, saying they were on a ‘snap raid’ based on a tip, and allegedly shot and killed a murder suspect.

Indecom said the subject was reporting on bail to the police every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, clearly ruling out the possibility that the suspect could be doing his nefarious activities on the other days.

The police have to act swiftly upon receiving information before suspects can escape to potentially wreak vengeance on informants. We are not sure why the rank of the policemen matters.

Indecom cannot afford to be seen as padding its reports in order to justify its existence.