{"id":2103,"date":"2019-01-30T21:40:39","date_gmt":"2019-01-30T21:40:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/westernmirror.com\/?p=2103"},"modified":"2019-01-30T21:40:43","modified_gmt":"2019-01-30T21:40:43","slug":"st-james-soe-ends-tomorrow-nail-biting-begins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/?p=2103","title":{"rendered":"St. James SOE ends tomorrow, nail-biting begins"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Michael Nattoo<\/strong> \u2013 Staff Reporter<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Despite the well-intentioned pleas for an extension, the\ndecision to end the current State of Public Emergency in St. James will take\neffect tomorrow, January 31, and already, citizens and business owners alike\nare panicking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">St. James, highly regarded as the tourism mecca of the\nregion, gained the unenviable reputation of being Jamaica\u2019s most murderous\nparish in 2017, after a staggering 335 murders were recorded. The following\nyear, 2018, St. James continued its murderous trek as just two weeks in, the\nparish recorded 12 murders, forcing the government to consider implementing a\nmeasure they thought was far too extreme \u2013 a State of Public Emergency. The\ngovernment had delayed its implementation due to various calls from\nstakeholders, particularly those in the tourism industry, who insisted that\nsuch a measure would negatively impact St. James\u2019 tourism product. As pressure from\nthe public mounted, however, a State of Emergency was declared in St. James on\nJanuary 18, 2018, by Prime Minister Andrew Holness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now, a few legal hiccups (alleged human rights violations,\nextensive detainment etc.), a reasonable decline in violent crimes, and a few\nextensions later, all in the span of a year, there are concerns that St. James\nwill revert to its murderous ways, which have Reverend Peter Burnett, Chairman\nof the St. James Ministers\u2019 Fraternal, reasonably perplexed. \u201cThe untimely and\nunfortunate ending of the current State of Emergency in St. James\u2026 is drawing\nnear,\u201d Burnett wrote to the Western Mirror. \u201cIt is still my prayer that the\nrepresentatives of the people will agree to extend the State of Emergency\nbeyond January 31\u2026 and I\u2019m hopeful because prayers are being offered up to God\nfor wisdom and courage for our political representatives and leaders of the\nsecurity forces.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>REASONABLE REPLACEMENT<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Burnett is not alone in his wishes for an extension, as one\nbusiness owner, who spoke to the <strong>Western Mirror<\/strong> on condition of\nanonymity, explained that he too hopes the political representatives hear the\ncry of the people. \u201cListen, though I haven\u2019t been making as much money because\nI have to be closing early because of the State of Emergency, I think that\u2019s a\nsmall price to pay for my life. In early 2018, right down the road from here \u2013\nalmost next door, they killed one of my friends, a fellow business owner, and I\nwas thinking of just closing up shop permanently and move away with my family,\nbut since the State of Emergency was declared, a sense of calm returned, and I\nhaven\u2019t felt this safe in years. So, I am really hoping they extend it, at\nleast until they can find a reasonable replacement,\u201d the business owner shared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A number of businesses have suffered as a result of the\nimposed and enforced early closing hours, but there were also many who\nbenefitted. According to one female bar operator, \u201cI feel safe because of the\npatrols and soldiers coming to check. Dem always wait till mi lock up before dem\nleave, and sometimes dem walk wid mi go a mi gate, and mi love dat. Mi feel\nsafe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Despite having over a hundred murders in 2018 while the\nState of Emergency was active, residents still reported feeling considerably\nsafer when compared to times prior to the SOE\u2019s implementation. It is because\nof that why Mayor of Montego Bay, Councillor Homer Davis, recently implored\nmembers of government to let good sense prevail, so as to allow an additional\nextension beyond tomorrow. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the event that the extension is not granted, however,\nthere are reassurances by Minister of Security, Dr. Horace Chang and Prime\nMinister Andrew Holness, that St. James will not go back to its former\ncrime-ridden days. Though they may lose some of their powers, their presence\nwill remain, the men assured of the security forces.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Michael Nattoo \u2013 Staff Reporter Despite the well-intentioned pleas for an extension, the decision to end the current State of Public Emergency in St. James will take effect tomorrow, January 31, and already, citizens and business owners alike are panicking. St. James, highly regarded as the tourism mecca of the region, gained the unenviable reputation [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":538,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[345,1100,233,1099,31,285,390,30],"class_list":["post-2103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-345","tag-1100","tag-murders","tag-reasonable-replacement","tag-st-james","tag-state-of-emergency","tag-state-of-public-emergency","tag-western-jamaica"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2103","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=2103"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2103\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2104,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2103\/revisions\/2104"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}