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'Time for action'
Cabinet to review proposals from security forces to arrest crime wave
BY BALFORD HENRY Observer writer
balfordh@jamaicaobserver.com
Monday, June 02, 2008
CABINET is today expected to review a 'framework for action' from the security forces to deal with the current crime wave, when it meets at Jamaica House.
Prime Minister Bruce Golding said yesterday that the document was presented to him by the security forces on Friday, and it is now his Government's responsibility to provide the financial and legislative resources.
"There are a number of measures that are going to be introduced. I have been having a series of meetings with the security forces, the high command of both the military and the police," Golding told Jamaica Labour Party supporters attending a monthly meeting of the party's Area Council one (Kingston and St Andrew) at the Pembroke Hall community centre in North West St Andrew.
"On Friday, they presented me with a framework for action. Some of what they require will necessitate the provision of financial resources. I am going to hold down Audley Shaw (the finance minister) tomorrow morning to get it out of him," Golding told the meeting.
"Some of it is going to require some legislative action, because the legislative framework within which the police is operating is not going to be able to facilitate the kind of effective policing that is required to bring this crime wave under control. Therefore, the attorney general is going to be instructed by me to prepare the necessary legislative proposal to bring back to Cabinet as quickly as possible.
"When the police explain to me and convince me what is preventing them from being more effective, in the kind of situation that they have to deal with now, then we have a duty to them and we have a duty to the people of Jamaica to provide them with the tools that they need in order to do an effective job," he said.
However, the prime minister reiterated that the fight against crime was not just for the Government and the police. "All of us have to wage that war," he said.
He said that the public must take a stand, and not "stay in the community and cover up for the criminals".
"You are going to have to start working with the police," he told his supporters.
The prime minister promised tougher policing, but pointed out that it would be "critical, creative and strategic".
He said that despite its awareness of the problems affecting communities, which had been allowed to deteriorate over the past two decades and are producing most gunmen, his Government would not negotiate with gunmen.
"We are going to have to be tough, but while we are being tough we are going to have to be creative, and we are going to have to be forward-looking because the police cannot arrest them faster than the nurseries that we have allowed to develop is producing them," Golding said.
"Let us breathe new life into these communities and say to them, 'hold on, you don't have to go that way'," he said.
Cabinet to review proposals from security forces to arrest crime wave
BY BALFORD HENRY Observer writer
balfordh@jamaicaobserver.com
Monday, June 02, 2008
CABINET is today expected to review a 'framework for action' from the security forces to deal with the current crime wave, when it meets at Jamaica House.
Prime Minister Bruce Golding said yesterday that the document was presented to him by the security forces on Friday, and it is now his Government's responsibility to provide the financial and legislative resources.
"There are a number of measures that are going to be introduced. I have been having a series of meetings with the security forces, the high command of both the military and the police," Golding told Jamaica Labour Party supporters attending a monthly meeting of the party's Area Council one (Kingston and St Andrew) at the Pembroke Hall community centre in North West St Andrew.
"On Friday, they presented me with a framework for action. Some of what they require will necessitate the provision of financial resources. I am going to hold down Audley Shaw (the finance minister) tomorrow morning to get it out of him," Golding told the meeting.
"Some of it is going to require some legislative action, because the legislative framework within which the police is operating is not going to be able to facilitate the kind of effective policing that is required to bring this crime wave under control. Therefore, the attorney general is going to be instructed by me to prepare the necessary legislative proposal to bring back to Cabinet as quickly as possible.
"When the police explain to me and convince me what is preventing them from being more effective, in the kind of situation that they have to deal with now, then we have a duty to them and we have a duty to the people of Jamaica to provide them with the tools that they need in order to do an effective job," he said.
However, the prime minister reiterated that the fight against crime was not just for the Government and the police. "All of us have to wage that war," he said.
He said that the public must take a stand, and not "stay in the community and cover up for the criminals".
"You are going to have to start working with the police," he told his supporters.
The prime minister promised tougher policing, but pointed out that it would be "critical, creative and strategic".
He said that despite its awareness of the problems affecting communities, which had been allowed to deteriorate over the past two decades and are producing most gunmen, his Government would not negotiate with gunmen.
"We are going to have to be tough, but while we are being tough we are going to have to be creative, and we are going to have to be forward-looking because the police cannot arrest them faster than the nurseries that we have allowed to develop is producing them," Golding said.
"Let us breathe new life into these communities and say to them, 'hold on, you don't have to go that way'," he said.