Jamaica’s Prime Minister Andrew Holness has defended his decision to reimpose States of Emergency (SOE) in several areas of the island, amid constitutional concerns.
On Sunday, Prime Minister Holness announced SOEs in seven police divisions islandwide. The areas are in St. Andrew South, Kingston West, Kingston Central, and Kingston East in the Corporate Area, and St. James, Hanover, and Westmoreland.
Speaking during a virtual press conference, Holness indicated that all the divisions have recorded increases in violent crimes, ranging from 16 to 57 percent.
“All have murder rates per 100,000 in excess of the regional average which is 15 percent. In fact, the murder rate… in these divisions ranges from a low of approximately 47 per 100,000 to [a high of] 190 per 100,000,” he informed.
“We have decided to recommend the declaration of SOEs having regard to the increase in murders, compared year on year, both in the communities in which we have declared them and nationally. These increases we consider to be of an extensive scale such that they threaten public safety, both in the communities in which the SOEs have been declared and nationally,” he added.
Holness said the SOEs have also been declared because of the nature and frequency of violence surrounding the murders and other crimes, “which has evolved to a level of barbarity, [and] a level of savagery, [such that] it is almost [like] a competition for cruelty.”
Police Commissioner, Major General Antony Anderson, said the imposition of the states of public emergency is designed to reduce violence in the communities as quickly as possible and reduce fear.
When an SOE is declared, the police and military have search, seizure, and arrest authority without a warrant. Under the SOE, a person can also be detained for up to 90 days without being charged.
But in 2020, a Supreme Court ruling as unconstitutional the months-long detention of five men without charge led to the national backlash of the government’s declaration of SOEs. The five men had all been detained without charge for over 100 days. The government later appealed the ruling, but an outcome is yet to be announced.
Following Sunday’s announcement, the People’s National Party said it was deeply concerned that the government consistently resorts to SOEs, when “there are existing measures that allow the army to be mobilized to support the police in the high-violence areas.”
“It is potentially very dangerous to allow detention without charge to become part of standard policing. It would be too easy for this measure to be abused to the point where it started to undermine civil liberties and democracy in Jamaica,” the PNP said in a statement.
Prime Minister Holness defended his decision to impose the SOEs, saying his job is to protect the rights of all Jamaicans.
“There is one element of the conversation which is always hidden in the public debate: “what of the rights of the victims?” Who speaks for the people who have been killed? What of their constitutional rights? Who defends those rights of the 1,300 or more Jamaicans that have been murdered in this country this year? Is that academic?” Holness charged.
Since 2018, the government has imposed SOEs and Zones of Special Operations (ZOSO) to quell crime in parishes like St James, Westmoreland and Hanover. An SOE can only continue for 14 days without an extension supported by a two-thirds majority of both Houses of Parliament.
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