‘Murder emergency’ as gangs spread wings - SOEs blanket Kingston as Gov’t vows to protect highway project from extortionists
Published:Monday | June 15, 2020 | 12:21 AM
Romario Scott/Gleaner Writer
Jamaica’s security chiefs have sought to defend the success of states of emergency (SOEs) as crackdowns were imposed on Sunday to combat a wave of criminality in Kingston.
The entire capital is now blanketed under SOEs as the Government moved to include Kingston Western and Central, pushing to 10 the total number of police divisions under emergency powers.
But even as the drumbeat of the Holness Government grows louder that SOEs are effective, analysis of the global figures indicate that the measure’s effects have not reined in aggregate murders. In fact, as at June 6, murders for 2020 had inched up by 0.5 per cent, or three more than the 581 fatalities recorded over the corresponding period in 2019. Murders and shootings are, however, down in the majority of divisions under SOEs.
The analysis also carries an important caveat: that the country has been under nationwide night-time curfews for two months, and movement has also been restricted because of other COVID-19 restrictions.
National Security Minister Dr Horace Chang said on Sunday that inter-gang and intra-gang warfare has been fuelling crime and violence in the two troubled police regions. He said that criminals were also forging new partnerships. Kingston Western, which has had a zone of special operations operational for two and a half years, has recorded a 92 per cent spike in murders year-on-year. Kingston Central’s murder rate is up by 47 per cent.
“We have noticed increasing alliances between gangs across community, geographic borders, and even political boundaries, which signals a level of cooperation between the gangs as they struggle over spoils whether extortion, imported weapons, or other criminal activities,” Chang said yesterday during a Jamaica House briefing.
The police said that 48 gangs were operating within Kingston Western and 32 in the neighbouring Kingston Central.
“We are seeing a much more coordinated attempt by criminal enterprises across Kingston and St Andrew to coordinate their activities and create a much more unified response to how they make their illegal gains from these commercial areas,” Police Commissioner Major General Antony Anderson said as he presented data for St James and East Kingston as evidence that the SOEs were working.
Prime Minister Andrew Holness praised the security forces for doing an “excellent job” in flattening the murder curve and referenced phraseology from the island’s three-month fight with the coronavirus pandemic as a metaphor for the crisis.
“Jamaica’s crime problems are almost entrenched – well not almost – they are entrenched, and if you were to use an epidemiological phrasing, it is almost endemic, and we need to root it out, and the measures that we have put in place to deal with the health emergency, those similar measures need to be translated to deal with the crime emergency, particularly the murder emergency,” Holness said.
“Violence is a disease. It’s a virus, and there are no vaccines available for violence other than education, and that takes a little while,” the prime minister added.
With the massive Southern Coastal Improvement Highway Project now under way, the Holness administration appears worried that criminals are jostling to make it a target for extortion.
“We have seen in the last quarter an increase in criminal activity, particularly around extortion. The Government will act in a decisive fashion to deal with anyone who seeks to extort, disrupt, hold up, or stop any public works,” Holness warned.
In the meantime, Anderson said that private closed-circuit television surveillance has been aiding the police in their investigations as he called for more public support and buy-in.
“The wider use of CCTV by private citizens has allowed us to follow up on crimes that have been committed very rapidly, to identify the perpetrators, and also to really have the evidence to build the cases on them.
“I have to thank members of the public for the information they’ve been giving us so far,” Anderson said.
SOE BOUNDARIES
To the west, the boundary extends from the coastline by the Petrojam oil refinery in the northeastern direction on to East Avenue, then on to Maxfield Avenue to the intersection of Russell Road.
The northern boundary extends along Russell Road in an easterly direction from the intersection of Maxfield Avenue and Russell Road to its intersection with Lyndhurst Road and Retirement Road. The boundary then extends southeasterly along Lyndhurst Road to its intersection with Slipe Road and southerly along Slipe Road to the intersection of Torrington Road.
The boundary continues easterly along Torrington Road to Heroes Circle and continues along the northern perimeter along Heroes Circle to its intersection with Marescaux Road.
The boundary then extends slightly north along Marescaux Road, then easterly along Connoley Avenue, then on to Dames Drive to the intersection with South Camp Road.