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Holness Explains Position On Crime Situation

Leader of the Opposition Andrew Holness
Leader of the Opposition Andrew Holness

KINGSTON, Jamaica – Leader of the Opposition Andrew Holness says that the Government appears to be inca­pable of man­ag­ing crime.

In a release yes­ter­day on the posi­tion tak­en by the Opposition in the dis­cus­sions which fol­lowed Tuesday’s state­ment in the House of Representatives, by Minister of National Security Peter Bunting Holness said:

“The PNP [is] try­ing to cov­er up mur­ders and crime in Jamaica. The old PNP trick of attack­ing the mes­sen­ger in the hope that the mes­sage will die will not work. We are on to them this time. The facts are incon­tro­vert­ible. Whenever the PNP is in pow­er mur­der ris­es. Lawlessness and dis­or­der increases.

“No one is argu­ing that crime is not a nation­al prob­lem with many caus­es and we all have a role. National secu­ri­ty like health, edu­ca­tion, and all oth­er min­istries are the nation­al con­cerns and we all have respon­si­bil­i­ty. However, when we elect a gov­ern­ment we don’t expect them to turn to the pub­lic to say we can’t do any­thing about crime, it’s an all out respon­si­bil­i­ty. If that’s the case why have a government?

“Why pay Peter Bunting to tell us that the increase in mur­ders is a mere bump in the road and since then mur­ders have almost dou­ble. We all can pray for divine inter­ven­tion on our own we don’t need a paid Minister of Government to tell us that.

“The PNP has a nerve to talk about a bi-par­ti­san approach to crime fight­ing. We have facil­i­tat­ed every Bill that has been brought to Parliament to be fast tracked for pas­sage. However, when the great­est oppor­tu­ni­ty pre­sent­ed itself to erode the crim­i­nal net­works in Jamaica by extend­ing the state of emer­gency in 2010, the PNP reject­ed the very bi-par­ti­san­ship of which they speak. The PNP have no moral author­i­ty to speak about crime giv­en their his­to­ry and lack of per­for­mance in this regard.

“I will not stop talk­ing on the mur­der issue… If mur­ders were reduced by almost 500 under the JLP gov­ern­ment, the pub­lic is jus­ti­fied in expect­ing a con­tin­ued decrease under the PNP. Instead this is not. Murders are now 24 per cent ahead of what they were last year. This Government sim­ply does­n’t care and is inca­pable of man­ag­ing crime.”
Holness explains posi­tion on crime situation