KINGSTON, Jamaica (CMC) – The main opposition Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP) has called on the Portia Simpson Miller led administration to send the army into the eastern section of the capital following an upsurge in violent crime in recent days.
JLP spokesman on National Security, Derrick Smith, a former national security minister, said the army should be sent to the corporate area to help the police in efforts to restore law and order after a weekend of terror in which a 17-month old boy was killed and an attempt was made on the life of another baby.
The first incident occurred shortly after 10 p.m. (local time) on Friday at a Valentine’s Day party in the community of Dunkirk, when heavily armed gunmen invaded the party. The men opened gunfire and also killed a man in addition to the baby.
The police said a few minutes later, the gunmen went to another street where they kicked open a door to a house where a woman lived with her two-month-old baby. The gunmen allegedly shot the father and the mother. The baby, who apparently was also their target, escaped uninjured.
In expressing condolences to the relatives of those killed, Smith characterised the gangs operating in East Kingston as “terrorists who gain their power through murder, mayhem and extortion”.
He said “only the strongest action by the State can solve this problem” and that the actions of the gunmen have moved beyond the normal realm of crime and violence.
He said there were tendencies towards terrorist control of these communities, which hampers police investigations.
“Until the security forces neutralise these gangsters, regain control of the communities and institute a community relations mechanism, which give residents both an assurance of security and reassures their faith in the investigative process, it is very unlikely that they will be confident enough to take up the (National Security) Minister’s challenge to provide information.
“This is what I am urging the Cabinet to look at when they meet today,” Smith said, adding that he wants National Security Minister Peter Bunting to “take serious action to take back control of these areas from gunmen and to protect the rights of the citizens.”
Bunting and Police Commissioner Owen Ellington visited the scenes of the shootings yesterday and the minister is scheduled to join a march in the community of Rockfort in East Kingston, dubbed “Divine Intervention; Rockfort uniting for change”.
