Hanover, according to Wikipedia, is a parish located on the\nnorthwestern tip of the island of Jamaica. It is a part of the County of\nCornwall, bordered by St James in the east and Westmoreland in the south. With\nthe exception of Kingston, it is the smallest parish on the island. Hanover is\nthe birth parish of Sir Alexander Bustamante, Labour leader, first head of\ngovernment of Jamaica under Universal Adult Suffrage, and one of seven Jamaican\nNational Heroes. Percival James Patterson is also the other native of the\nparish who has risen to become Prime Minister. The capital of Hanover is Lucea,\nbut Hopewell to the east and Green Island to the west both have fast-growing\npopulations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since the start of the year, the parish of Hanover has been\nunder siege by criminal elements that have used the gun to kill and maim each\nother, sending the once quiet parish\u2019s murder figures through the roof. Murders\nare taking place right across the parish and no community is exempt. However it\nis the Sandy Bay Division that has been seeing an upsurge in these heinous\ncrimes. In a parish once known for its peacefulness, crime and violence have\ninstilled fear in the general citizenry. How did the parish come to this?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Criminals are no longer fearful of cops, they carry their\nguns around with impunity and shoot and kill without fear. This has been the\nsituation for the last few years, but the start of this year is the worst I\nhave ever seen it. Superintendent of Police, Sharon Beeput, commanding officer\nfor Hanover, must, by her actions, prove that she is up for the job and if she\nis not, she should ask the Police High Command to find a suitable replacement\nto carry out the job of chief police officer for the parish. When criminals can\ncome into Hopewell square and shoot two individuals on separate days, at peak\nhours, it speaks volumes to the deployment of police personnel in the parish.\nIt is plain to be seen that the criminal elements have no respect for the police\nbecause if they did, they would not carry their guns so openly into these\npublic spaces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then, to add insult to injury, it is quite obvious that the\nnumber of police personnel that should be deployed at the respective police\nstations have not been deployed. The station at Sandy Bay is vastly\nunderutilized as it relates to personnel, with many of the patrols that are\nbeing carried out in the division being undertaken by police patrol units from\nLucea. In a rural parish such as Hanover, policing needs a personal touch and\nwhilst residents value the service of police patrol teams in jumping out of\njeeps, they also value good, old time policing where they can go to the station\nand interact with police officers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In all of the killings and shootings, I am yet to hear\nSuperintendent Beeput\u2019s voice making public statements to the residents of\nHanover reassuring them that they will be safe. This is made further evident by\nthe measures she has been implementing \nto curb the killings. Many who read this column know the respect that I\nhave for Miss Beeput, so much so that she was given this writer\u2019s Female Leader\nof the Year award; but as a resident and investor in the parish, I speak truth\nto power and the truth is she needs to step up her game. If she cannot, then\nthe police high command will need to find someone else to do the job. It is as\nsimple as that. We cannot have persons being murdered left, right and centre\nand the crime-fighting head is quiet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Superintendent Beeput must know that there is a place for community\npolicing and a place for hardcore crime fighting. Is she up for the latter? The\npolice high command should also know that they should give the Hanover Police\nthe tools they need to fight crime. It\u2019s sad that police vehicles are still\nrunning out of gas and police vehicles are still grounded because there are no\nparts to fix them. There is also shortage of uniform, and an acute shortage of\nstationery, which in some cases see officers searching frantically to locate a\nsheet or sliver of paper to write a\nstatement and collect reports. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is heartrending\nwhen communities such as Bamboo, Old Pen, Cold Spring, Pondside and Rock Spring\nhave now become flashpoint areas where criminal elements are fighting internal\nbattles; you know that we are facing serious problems because these are among\nthe most peaceful communities in\nHanover. Hanover can do better and Superintendent Beeput must lead from the\nfront or come out of the driver\u2019s seat. Fighting crime is not a laughing\nmatter. Hanover needs better; we can fight this rime monster. What we need is\nleadership. Enough said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Email your comments to crgoates@yahoo.com<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Since the start of the year, the parish of Hanover has been under siege by criminal elements that have used the gun to kill and maim each other, sending the once quiet parish\u2019s murder figures through the roof. Murders are taking place right across the parish and no community is exempt. However it is the Sandy Bay Division that has been seeing an upsurge in these heinous crimes. In a parish once known for its peacefulness, crime and violence have instilled fear in the general citizenry. How did the parish come to this?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2311,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[233,1263],"class_list":["post-2310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-murders","tag-superintendent"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2310","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=2310"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2310\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2312,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2310\/revisions\/2312"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}