In his contribution to the State of the Nation Debate in the Senate yesterday, Brown charged that the Andrew Holness-led Cabinet appears clueless in its search for solutions to reduce the rising murder rate.
“While they are fiddling, while they are dithering,” said Brown, the country was on track to surpass the murder rate of 2016. Last year, 1,350 Jamaicans died violently.
Opposition Senator Lambert Brown yesterday made some suggestions as to how the Government could tackle the serious crime wave impacting the country.
The following are his recommendations:
– Remotivate the police. The Cabinet should urgently agree to undertake the payment of the legal expenses of members of the security forces arising from confrontation with criminal elements.
– Take back our communities from the domination of the criminals by building partnerships between the State, private sector, churches, civil society and the communities.
– Rigorously implement the anti-gang law and set targets for the dismantling of the gangs. Establish a registry of all gangs and their members.
– Consideration should be given to dedicate courts facilities with appropriate resources, including additional judges, prosecutors and legal support for investigators, to allow for fast-tracking cases involving gang activities. Call it an anti-gang court if you wish.
– Establishment of a standing parliamentary committee dedicated to crime reduction. This will focus the country’s attention on solutions to our crime problem; hopefully show that the anti-crime efforts are bipartisan, and direct the attention of all our leaders to a major obstacle to economic growth and development.
– Focus our police service on the outcome of increasing conviction rates of guilty criminals through improved investigatory techniques including the use of science and technology.
– Re-establish, through the Partnership for Jamaica, the Justice and Crime Committee which existed before February last year. This was designed to play a similar role as Economic Programme Oversight Committee, Electricity Sector Enterprise Team and now the Economic Growth Council. It was a formula that worked.
