{"id":1114,"date":"2018-01-31T18:53:30","date_gmt":"2018-01-31T18:53:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/westernmirror.com\/?p=1114"},"modified":"2018-01-31T18:57:22","modified_gmt":"2018-01-31T18:57:22","slug":"state-of-emergency-to-target-crime-facilitators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/?p=1114","title":{"rendered":"State of Emergency to target crime facilitators"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clinton Pickering
\n<\/strong>Freelance Writer<\/p>\n

<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The State of Public Emergency (SOPE) in St James will be moving into another phase of targeting those who facilitate criminality in the parish. \u201cIf we\u2019re going to really bring this crime problem to heel, then we must deal with the hierarchy of criminality,\u201d said Prime Minister Andrew Holness.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Delivering the keynote address at last Saturday\u2019s, January 27, 2018 annual awards banquet of the Lay Magistrates\u2019 Association – St James Chapter, at the Hilton Hotel, he would not say how long the action would last, but assured that \u201cwe have plans to use all the powers we have for as long as it is necessary to bring this problem to heel.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He said the first phase was concentrating on dealing with street level crimes that people face on a daily basis. But, he noted, the street level criminal was just the symptom of a deeper problem.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Prime Minister Holness declared, \u201cThere is literally an echo system of criminality that is growing in St James; it\u2019s driven by lottery scamming and other such economic crimes. It is facilitated by formal systems: our formal banking system, our formal telecommunications system, our formal transportation system, our medical system.\u201d Consequently, he said the second phase of the SOPE would see \u201ca trending to deal with the people who facilitate the street level crime.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Referring to an AK-47 which was found on Saturday, wrapped in plastic and buried, Mr Holness stressed that it was not made in Jamaica and \u201cit is highly likely that it came in through our ports, which means that either an officer of the government was neglectful in detecting or turned a blind eye or actively facilitated its way through our ports.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He referred to an illegal gasoline operation going on for years in close proximity to law enforcement at the Freeport Police Station \u201cthat everybody know about but did nothing about it,\u201d noting, \u201cand there are many other activities like that that we are ambivalent about, that we accept.\u201d The prime minister said his message therefore, \u201cis that we cannot only seek to focus on the street level criminal, that isn\u2019t going to solve the problem; if we\u2019re going to deal with criminality, we must deal with it at all levels.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

FEELING SAFER<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

He was satisfied that the SOPE was achieving success so far and that Jamaicans operating under the system imposed two weeks ago on the parish of St James, have been expressing thanks to him for putting it into reality as they now feel safer.<\/span><\/p>\n

With that assurance, Prime Minister Holness from has urged St James Lay Magistrates and their guests \u201cto pass this message along to the members of the Diaspora; your family members who are calling in a panic, to say that the Jamaican government, for the first time, has taken a deliberate, instrumental, well-thought-out action to arrest this crime problem that we have been experiencing for decades. To really place the safety of the public above all else.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Prior to attending the banquet, the prime minister toured some communities where, he said, \u201cthe people said, thank you, I feel safer.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He also said reports on how the police and soldiers were treating the people were that they were very pleasant, very cordial and very respectful. \u201cMany Jamaicans are taken aback, they\u2019re not expecting that level of courtesy, that level of respect, that dignified response coming from our security forces,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clinton Pickering Freelance Writer The State of Public Emergency (SOPE) in St James will be moving into another phase of targeting those who facilitate criminality in the parish. \u201cIf we\u2019re going to really bring this crime problem to heel, then we must deal with the hierarchy of criminality,\u201d said Prime Minister Andrew Holness. Delivering the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1115,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[18,19,31,30],"class_list":["post-1114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-crime","tag-montego-bay","tag-st-james","tag-western-jamaica"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1114"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1119,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1114\/revisions\/1119"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}