A Gleaner Special - Light On Violence

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Arthur Hall
Senior News Editor
OPPOSITION SPOKESMAN
on National Security Peter
Bunting has accused the
Andrew Holness administration
of a lack of focus on crime, evi-
denced, he said, by the country’s
murder rate heading in a scary
direction in just under a month
into the new year.
“Since the start of this year, by
the official police statistics, mur-
ders are up over 50 per cent and
shootings are up over 80 per cent,”
said Bunting, as he compared the first
22 days of 2017 with the correspon-
ding period last year.
An unofficial tally compiled by The
Gleaner shows close to 100 persons
being murdered islandwide since
January 1, while the official number
from the police at January 21 was 87 or
51.9 per cent above last year.
According to Bunting, this could mean
that the 1,350 total murders recorded
last year was the
start
of a dangerous trend that the
Government needs to urgently address.
“We have not started the year well and
I think the concern that many of us have
is that 2016 was not an aberration but
signalling a trend to a higher rate of mur-
ders,” said Bunting.
SOUND BITES MINISTER
He argued that the man selected by
Holness to drive the security portfolio,
Robert Montague, might not be the right
person for the job.
The former security minister charged
that Montague spends too much time
making media sound bites rather than
focusing on his portfolio.
“In an environment of scarce resources,
a big part of the requirement of a policy
leader is to stay focused and to always be
spending time and using influence in
areas where it will have the highest
impact,” argued Bunting.
“Frankly, in my opinion, he seems mis-
placed. I don’t think his skill set is best
suited for that position. I think he has a
lot of talent as a politician, but there are
horses for courses, and I don’t think his
skill set is best suited for the Ministry of
National Security.”
WHILE NOTING that western Jamaica –
particularly St James, Westmoreland and
Hanover – accounted for a large portion of
the murders last year into this year,
Opposition Spokesperson on National
Security Peter Bunting has acknowledged
that this was fuelled by the deadly lottery
scam and the number of informal communi-
ties in that section of the island.
He, however, argued that the failure of the
present administration in the fight against
crime reflects a bigger issue.
“I think we have lost some amount of focus
from the policy level in the change of adminis-
tration,” said Bunting, charging that the Jamaica
Labour Party Government has not maintained
social interventions such as the Unite for
Change programme that was implemented by
the People’s National Party administration.
LIMITED RESOURCES
Bunting said the present Government has
also fallen short on providing resources for the
police, such as vehicles, despite an announce-
ment from Minister of National Security
Robert Montague that this is a priority.
He stated, “The fact that we have had $400
million for the police force to acquire vehi-
cles from about April/May last year, and until
January we have only heard of approximately
20 used vehicles that have been acquired, to
my mind that is inexcusable.”
“If we bought new vehicles, we could have
had 80 to 100 already delivered with a nine-
month lead time. So there is really no excuse,
to my mind, other than administrative
bungling and a lack of focus,” added Bunting,
as he noted that the money had been budgeted
and approved to purchase the vehicles.
The parliamentarian also noted that while
the Government has announced that it will
pump unprecedented amounts of money into
the fight against crime, he is yet to see the
manifestation of that.
RING THE ALARM!
PUBLISHED: JANUARY 24, 2017
Close to 100 persons killed since start of 2017
Montague is wrong choice for security ministry – Bunting
Where is the money?
Bunting says Gov’t yet to pump additional resources into fighting crime