National Security Minister Peter Bunting went on the warpath yes­ter­day, but his ven­om was not unleashed on crim­i­nal ele­ments wreak­ing hav­oc in society.Fresh from his over­seas vis­it and back on the job, Bunting served notice that he would be speak­ing com­pre­hen­sive­ly on plans to wres­tle with crime dur­ing tomor­row’s sit­ting of the House of Representatives. Conceding that the Government would be respond­ing to the 19 per cent increase in mur­ders, Bunting echoed last week’s pro­nounce­ments of Police Commissioner Dr Carl Williams.But for last night, Bunting’s ver­bal fusil­lade was aimed at the par­lia­men­tary oppo­si­tion; its leader Andrew Holness; and its spokesman on nation­al secu­ri­ty, Derrick Smith, whom he described as reject­ed, dis­card­ed, and recy­cled. “I have tried to keep nation­al secu­ri­ty out­side the par­ti­san polit­i­cal fray, how­ev­er, that approach can only work when you have an enlight­ened Opposition,” said Bunting as he addressed the Eastern St Andrew con­fer­ence at the University of the West Indies in St Andrew. “One hand can’t clap. It is now clear that they are mak­ing the issue of crime a cen­tral plank of their polit­i­cal platform.”

As he unleashed vol­ley after vol­ley, Bunting charged: “Some in the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) lead­er­ship have been behav­ing like a set of John Crows, like vul­tures, glee­ful­ly react­ing to every loss of life as an oppor­tu­ni­ty to gain polit­i­cal mileage.” Bunting told sup­port­ers that the JLP had left him no choice but to respond to its under­hand­ed tac­tics. “Well, I have a mes­sage for them,” he said. “I’m back, and I’m going to respond com­pre­hen­sive­ly and dev­as­tat­ing­ly.” In launch­ing anoth­er round of ver­bal mis­siles, Bunting declared: “This man, him nev­er trou­ble no one, but if you trou­ble this man, it will bring a bam-bam,” added Bunting to the obvi­ous glee of cheer­ing PNP loy­al­ists. Describing the strat­e­gy of the Opposition as that of a polit­i­cal dunce, the nation­al secu­ri­ty min­is­ter’s most scathing tirade was aimed at Smith. He charged that the JLP had brought Jamaica to the brink of infamy by turn­ing the sys­tem upside down dur­ing the extra­di­tion saga of 2010. Bunting charged that Smith was “jump­ing up every day”, excit­ed and seek­ing to cre­ate panic.

COWARDS

“Like the cow­ards that they are, they wait until my back is turned, until I’m out of the coun­try, to launch their most recent attacks,” he said. “That man is Derrick Smith, the peren­ni­al oppo­si­tion spokesman on nation­al secu­ri­ty, I believe the longest-serv­ing oppo­si­tion spokesman on nation­al secu­ri­ty in the his­to­ry of Jamaica,” declared Bunting. “The way he speaks, you would think that if only he became min­is­ter of nation­al secu­ri­ty Jamaica’s crime prob­lem would be solved.” Noting that Smith was nation­al secu­ri­ty min­is­ter for an eight-month peri­od when there was an aver­age of near­ly sev­en mur­ders per day, Bunting said: “This is the same man now jump­ing up and down over three mur­ders per day, less than half of what occurred when he was in office.” Bunting charged that in Smith’s final month in office alone, there were more than 200 mur­ders. He charged that Smith did not table a sin­gle piece of leg­is­la­tion or ini­ti­ate a sin­gle new pol­i­cy dur­ing his tenure.“Derrick Smith’s brief stint as secu­ri­ty min­is­ter can only be described as an unmit­i­gat­ed dis­as­ter,” said Bunting. Read Original sto­ry here :‘John Crow Politics’ — Bunting Lashes JLP, Accuses Opposition Of Seeking Mileage From Crime