Jamaica’s Prime Minister Andrew Holness has declared a state of emergency in the entire parish of St. James due to a recent uptick in gang violence.
Holness says the SOE declaration followed a recommendation by the security forces and “an assessment” of the crime situation in the parish.
The declaration comes after a deadly attack on a taxicab in Salt Spring, St James, left a 26-year-old man and two young boys, one 7-year-old and the other 9-year-old, dead on Monday.
Legislators had condemned the act during Parliament on Monday.
“Yesterday, Parliament rose in unison to condemn the barbaric murder of innocent lives. Young children who had their entire future ahead of them. And for all parents, it must be a consideration in your mind that it could have been your children,” Holness said during a press conference on Tuesday morning.
On October 26, students of Salt Spring Primary School were left traumatized after a young couple were shot and killed in the vicinity of the school.
The Prime Minister said he wants to give assurance to the people of Jamaica that “we will not wilt, we will not resile in the face of terror.”
Holness said the response of the government to the increase in crime has been proportionate, and restrained, and “we have been very strategic as well.”
The Prime Minister said that violence in Salt Spring had seemingly quelled after security intervention measures were introduced years ago.
When the recent uptick in violence became noticeable, the government had increased police presence in the community and imposed curfews. “But that did not seem to bring the internecine gang war under control,” Holness said.
A major part of the government’s response to crime will be “to use the law with blunt force,” Holness said.
Harsher penalties for criminals
As part of its crime response, the government of Jamaica has approved an increase in penalties for criminals through a new Bail Act and new Firearms Act, which provides penalties ranging from 15 years to life imprisonment for breaches.
The government has also sought to make amendments to the Offences Against the Person Act, to reinforce that the punishment for capital murder is the death penalty.
Holness said Jamaica’s current criminal laws are “very light” in comparison to the other “free and democratic countries that we aspire to be.”
“My own view on the penalty for murder has evolved. I was never a supporter of the death penalty but the more I study this matter … [the criminals] have no heart, they need to be removed from among us,” Holness said.
The Prime Minister referred to those who commit senseless murders as “terrorists,” adding that criminals do not respect the human rights and safety of ordinary citizens in Jamaica.
He said those that are against increased penalties for criminals are creating a “strong narrative that we should give protection to criminals.”
“I think this country needs to stop sending mixed signals to criminals. They are not going to return any grace you give them,” Holness said.
