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Gang Warfare Rages In Jamaica:

This is a con­tin­u­ing in a series of blogs I will write on the saga of the esca­lat­ing crime sit­u­a­tion in Jamaica. Yesterday I point­ed to the utter incom­pe­tence of the coun­try’s nation­al secu­ri­ty min­is­ter Peter Bunting. Bunting came to the post total­ly unpre­pared. Speaking at the Police Elleston Road Facility, dur­ing a weapons destruc­tion event, around the sec­ond week of February the min­is­ter said he was informed at anoth­er event that if crime was low­ered it would help the economy !!!!

Really Peter ? You have to be told this ? how utter­ly dumb and igno­rant are you?

Today the Opposition Jamaica Labor Party blast­ed Bunting for recent state­ments he made accus­ing the JLP of not imple­ment­ing a crime pol­i­cy draft­ed in 2007. Delroy Chuck Opposition spokesper­son on nation­al secu­ri­ty blast­ed Bunting’s state­ments as arrant non­sense and point­ed out that the poli­cies were not only imple­ment­ed they were improved upon.

Bunting and Chuck

(Observer Photo)

Jamaican Cops in action

THE Opposition Jamaica Labour Party has dubbed Security Minister Peter Bunting’s accu­sa­tion that the par­ty failed to imple­ment a crime pol­i­cy draft­ed in 2007 as rub­bish. Bunting made the claim dur­ing a press brief­ing at Jamaica House yes­ter­day and drew the ire of the JLP.

“Minister of National Security Peter Bunting stat­ed that the pre­vi­ous gov­ern­ment failed to imple­ment a pol­i­cy draft­ed in 2007. The Opposition said that this is arrant non­sense and a poor excuse by Bunting for the present fail­ures,” the JLP said in a release​.Read more: http://​jamaicaob​serv​er​.com

Chuck went on to say:

“In respect of leg­is­la­tion the draft of the Anti-Gang Legislation was sent to Bunting and oth­er stake­hold­ers in 2011 for exam­i­na­tion and com­ment. No com­ment was ever received from Bunting or the PNP and they are only now claim­ing to be exam­in­ing this impor­tant piece of leg­is­la­tion,” Chuck said.

A total of 165 mur­ders have been tal­lied by the police since January 1 and yes­ter­day Bunting out­lined a raft of short and long-term mea­sures the state would be imple­ment­ing to col­lar crime but the JLP said Bunting’s response to the spike in mur­ders and shoot­ing is unacceptable.

“It is patent­ly clear that the port­fo­lio of National Security is beyond the capa­bil­i­ties of Bunting and that Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller must imme­di­ate­ly re-exam­ine the assign­ment of this port­fo­lio, as an increase of even one mur­der or shoot­ing over 2011 is unac­cept­able to the Jamaican peo­ple,” the JLP release said.

Anyone who fol­lows these blogs knows I am no fan of Delroy Chuck but “wow” I could­n’t have put it bet­ter myself. The only prob­lem with Chuck’s state­ment is that there is an implic­it sug­ges­tion in it that Portia Simpson Miller is intel­lec­tu­al­ly capa­ble of under­stand­ing that Bunting is a dud. And even if she could under­stand it, she would not have the will or under­stand­ing of the need for change.

WHAT BUNTING AND THE GOVERNMENT IS TRYING TO DO IS TO SUGGEST THAT THE SPIRALLING CRIME RATE IS THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE JLP AND NOT THEIRS.

Bunting and the PNP could not address the doc­u­ment the for­mer gov­ern­ment sent them ‚they were too intent on pro­tect­ing the crim­i­nals in their gar­ri­son communities.Remember they vot­ed unan­i­mous­ly not to give police more time to root out ter­ror­ists after the fall of the Tivoli empire. The fact is they have six times more gar­ri­son com­mu­ni­ties than the oth­er par­ty and they had an elec­tion to win. In the mean­time Bunting and his par­ty has leaked infor­ma­tion to the press that they have no con­fi­dence in the abil­i­ties of Commissioner Ellington to do his job. Word on the streets is that they plant­ed this infor­ma­tion to once again blame the police and deflect blame and respon­si­bil­i­ty for their failures.

Commissioner Ellington Chief of defense staff Major General Anthony Anderson and Bunting(observer photo)

It will be a stretch for this lat­est strat­e­gy of the PNP to be effec­tive, Ellington has sim­ply been one of the most effec­tive com­mis­sion­ers in mod­ern his­to­ry not only in reduc­ing crime but in erad­i­cat­ing cor­rupt cops from the depart­ment. A 40% reduc­tion in crime is very sig­nif­i­cant , then again does the aver­age Jamaican under­stand this? In the mean time Bunting looks into the face of the com­mis­sion­er and tells him his job is safe .

Bunting, who was speak­ing dur­ing a Jamaica House press con­fer­ence, insist­ed Ellington enjoys the con­fi­dence of the PortiaSimpson Miller-led administration.“He has been suc­cess­ful and we expect him to con­tin­ue that suc­cess and he will have the sup­port of myself as min­is­ter and the administration.”

Since last week, word has been going around that the admin­is­tra­tion was not pleased with Ellington and the lead­er­ship that he pro­vides to the JCF. Persons close to the Government have claimed plans are afoot to replace Ellington, who was appoint­ed to lead the JCF under the pre­vi­ous Jamaica Labour Party gov­ern­ment. jamaica​glean​er​.com

In the image above Jamaican cops are seen in action under the cap­tion “Gang con­flicts rag­ing” in the (Jamaica Observer) Those con­flicts will con­tin­ue to rage in the absence of a seri­ous once and for all piece of leg­is­la­tion that puts crim­i­nals in prison and throw away the keys and a police force that is allowed to do its job law­ful­ly with­out favor or affec­tion , mal­ice or ill will.

Peace.