The Senate yesterday gave its full approval for a three-month extension of the current state of public emergency in St James to May 2.

Approval came hours before the 14-day limitation of the measure, which was promulgated through a proclamation issued by the governor general on January 18, ended at midnight last night.

There was support for the measures on both sides of the Senate, although members addressed a number of issues which they linked to the root of the current level of crime and violence in the country.

In the end, the 15 senators who attended the sitting answered “aye”, one by one, as was the case in the House of Representatives last week, giving the measure the two-thirds majority it needed for approval.

Six senators were absent and, according to Senate President Thomas Tavares-Finson, they had all given reasons for their inability to attend.

It was also revealed that former president of the Senate, Opposition Senator Floyd Morris, had left another important engagement to ensure that he voted for the resolution, and he made it known to his colleagues before the debate started.

Leader of Government Business Senator Kamina Johnson Smith, who piloted the resolution, the Emergency Powers (Continuation) Resolution under the Emergency Powers Act, said she welcomed the cooperation coming from both sides of the aisle.

She noted that 335 lives were lost to violence in St James during last year and the necessity for the security forces to be used under the state of public emergency to curtail the level of criminality in the parish.

“It is critical that the destructive, heartless criminals and those driven by sheer greed understand that Jamaica is united against them,” Senator Johnson Smith stated.

She said that she was calling on all Jamaicans to recognise that there could be no social divide and/or no economic divide in the war against crime.

She urged the business sector in St James to appreciate that, while the conditions of the anti-crime measure may affect their business activities, “the big picture, the Jamaican picture, demands that on the other side of the disruption is a better Jamaica for all of us”.

Senator Johnson Smith also urged Jamaicans to continue to provide the security forces with information to find the weapons and ammunition and detain the criminals by calling Crime Stop at 311 or the 24-hour hotline operated by the Jamaica Defence Force at 837-8888.

She said that it will take time to take back St James, and take back Jamaica, but it can be achieved through the cooperation of decent citizens willing to play their role in their own quarters.

Opposition Senator KD Knight, who served as minister of national security in a previous People’s National Party Government, said that one of the failings of the country’s fight against crime and violence in the past had been the failure of both sides of the House to agree on the measures.

“Many times we can’t get both sides to agree on any legislation and it sends a message of division. I always complained bitterly about it in my time,” he said.

Opposition Senator Lambert Brown, though supporting the resolution, blamed the national security minister and the Government for failing to address the issues which have led to the increase in murders since taking office in February last year.

Senator Morris said that the violence should be attributed to the social and economic conditions which have not been addressed since slavery.

He called on his colleagues in the Senate to sit down and “do some deep analysis” of the situation, as it would take much more than the actions of the security forces in a state of public emergency to resolve the issues.

Government Senator Pearnel Charles Jr, who is the junior minister in the Ministry of National Security, gave an update on the operations of the security forces inside and around the area of the state of public emergency.

He argued that the measure was only one tool in the box of tools being considered to fight crime and violence. However, Charles said that the Government would “not allow the few to define who we are as Jamaicans”.

Government Senators Matthew Samuda and Kerensia Morrison also pledged support for the operations and urged all Jamaicans to support the effort.