JAMAICA | Senator Lambert Brown proposes special Parliamentary Committee on Crime Reduction

KINGSTON,  Jamaica, October 29, 2022 - Opposition Senator Lambert Brown says the Government needs to take effective action to prevent and reduce the high murder rate now facing the country, as our beloved nation is in a state of Fear and Trepidation, and in light of this, has proposed a special Parliamentary Committee on Crime Reduction.

Speaking in the State of the Nation Debate in the Senate on Friday, Brown said: "Let that committee be charged with monitoring crime, receiving and developing views from the public including crime fighting experts here and abroad on measures needed to assist our hard working and often stressed out security forces in reducing crime.

"Let this committee be properly resourced to focus like a laser beam in crime reduction. Let it be truly bi-partisan in its make up. Make it be an example to Jamaica that both sides of the Parliament takes crime reduction seriously. Let it be such an example to show that together we can act to improve the life of our people. Crime and the high murder rate is behind the state of FEAR and TREPIDATION that now constitute the STATE OF OUR NATION."

He told the Senate that “In very recent weeks, two members of the JCF have been murdered in the Corporate Area. Their families and friends are traumatized. Just a few weeks ago, in the community of Spring Village near Old Harbour, 4 members of the community were brutally gunned down whilst peacefully gathered to enjoy a game of football. 

Three women were among the victims. As a nation, we mourn with their families.Time come to do more than mourning. We need to force these evil gunmen on the retreat,” Senator Brown declared.

“Through social media, the nation was taken to the horrendous murder of a businessman in Green Island, Hanover. This brazen and cold-blooded murder took place in broad daylight, when two gunmen walked into the supermarket killed the proprietor. They calmly packed their bags with stolen goods and nonchalantly walked out into the public space as if nothing happened. This is frightening!” the  Opposition Senator lamented.

“These murders are but a small subset of the 1265 murders committed in Jamaica, between January 1, and last Saturday October 22. This is an 8.1% increase over the same period last year. That is 95; more people murdered this year to date over last year. This is a major reason for the State of FEAR gripping our Nation.”This FEAR is palpable – you can literally feel it among our citizens. Nowhere in Jamaica is safe. Normally quiet parishes have seen dramatic increases in Murders,” Brown noted.

He pointed out that former National Security Minister Senator Peter Bunting's reference to the need for divine intervention during his tenure — was met with public ridicule at the time — is now evidenced by the state of "fear and trepidation" in which Jamaicans now exist.

Senator Brown made reference to Ed Bartlett’s recent call for the nation to seek DIVINE INTERVENTION in the fight against crime. He asked us to pray for Dr. Chang, the Minister of National Security, as he “grapples with the country’s high murder rate and an increase in antisocial behaviours.”

“I urge us to heed the call of Minister Bartlett. Let us not subject his call to ridicule as some in our society and even in this chamber did when Senator Bunting made that call some years ago. 

Senator Bunting, history is absolving you,” Brown said.

He said that if Security Minister Dr Horace Chang's 2019 figures of almost 200 illegal firearms entering the country monthly, then more than 700 illegal guns would have come into the island in the past three years.

Brown pointed to the police's statistics of an average of 65 guns seized monthly, surmising that against the 2019 figure for the importation of illegal weapons, this means that only three out of every 10 illegal guns are being seized. "Seven out of every illegal gun remains in the hands of the criminals. So every month there is a deficit in favour of the criminal. It's no wonder the gun accounts for 85 per cent of the murders committed in Jamaica each year".

"We need to force these evil gunmen on the retreat," Brown told the Senate. "There was a time when people felt all you needed to do was stop going out at night, and you'd have a sense of safety," he said, pointing to an 8.1 per cent increase in murders for this year, up to Saturday when 1,265 murders were recorded. The country recorded 1,463 murders in 2021 and 1,323 in 2020.

At the same time, Brown argued that no one political party can solve the crime problem. "It's a tough issue…we need a national consensus on crime fighting," and that a partisan political gathering is not the place to announce a national crime plan.

He was referring to recent indications by the Government that it intends to announce the way forward on crime at the Jamaica Labour Party's 79th annual conference on November 20. "What that does is to say this is a JLP plan. What Jamaican needs now is national unity against the criminals, so find another place. Come to Parliament, go to Vale Royal, go to Jamaica House — but make it a national rather than a partisan approach," he stressed.

The OPPOSITION Senator said the Government needed to put the new Firearms Bill into action now, as not only have gun murders continued unabated since its passage, but the delay will result in offenders escaping the tough penalties under that piece of legislation.

"We rushed to pass it, but what of it? File 13? Where is it now? Where is the appointed date…so many have been killed since, how many have been held with illegal firearms, but they're not going to get 15 years. What of the regulations associated with this Act? When are they going to come to Parliament?"

"Time come to see serious action. This Bill was tabled over eight months ago in Parliament, it went through the parliamentary process and was passed over a month ago. We are now in October 2022 — where is the action against the criminals. Passing the Bill is not enough," Brown insisted."This government is failing to reduce the high murder rate it promised to do in 2015. Then we were told that if we voted the JLP we “would be able to sleep with our windows and doors open and wake up and still be alive.”

Senator Brown observed that "We were also told then there is a lot that can be done to reduce murder in Jamaica. Those were the words of then Opposition Leader Andrew Holness. By now all Jamaica knows that is a Big Lie. It was a promise aimed at fooling the gullible. The truth is that, every year since 2016, the number of murders in Jamaica, has been higher every year, than any of the years under the PNP, when Senator Bunting was Minister of National Security. 

"For the record, those 4 years when Portia Simpson Miller was Prime Minister and Peter Bunting was Minister of National Security, were the lowest murder rates for the last 15 years.I am sure my friends on the other side will not applaud when I say the other 11 years of those last 15 years, that their Party was the government of the day. No one Party working alone can solve the crime situation. We need a national consensus on crime fighting," Brown pointed out.

In this regard, he lauded the achievements of ACORN, "a group of leaders of the private sectors, trade unions, civil society and academia, which for 25 years have been quietly meeting behind the scene and getting things done in Jamaica.

This is a group of people from diverse background – politic, religious, social, gender but who are able to come together and agree on common issues on which to improve the state of Jamaica Land we love. Some of its members of sat in this chamber. Some continue to sit here. I dare say on both sides of the aisle.

"As we celebrated 25 years of ACORN on Tuesday, the group was lauded for the Development of the National Partnership Council, the promotion of Social Dialogue here and abroad. Note was taken of its contribution towards the establishment and promotion of the Crime Management Oversight Committee," Senator Brown noted.

"ACORN has quietly met with every Prime Minister since 1998 – PJ, Portia, Bruce and Holness. They were all in disbelief that such a grouping could exist and function in Jamaica given its diversity and influence through several organizations. I congratulate and place on record of this Parliament the 25 years of cooperation and collaboration by ACORN," Brown Concluded.