‘No one is comfortable’

WESTERN BUREAU:

Western business leaders and Senate President Tom Tavares-Finson have given mixed reactions to former Prime Minister P. J. Patterson’s statement on what he calls an unprecedented level of crime currently affecting Jamaica.

This comes as data from the Ministry of National Security revealed that the number of people murdered amounted to 1,141 in 2024, a reduction of 252, or approximately 19 per cent, compared to the 1,393 the previous year.

These figures place the island among the countries with the highest homicide rate in Latin America and the Caribbean.

“Nobody in Jamaica can feel safe in the present situation,” Patterson declared while addressing Comrades at a symposium series hosted by the People’s National Party’s (PNP) Region Six Outreach Committee, held under the theme ‘Learning from History, to Navigate Tomorrow’ at the Sea Gardens Hotel in St James recently.

“In Jamaica, we are confronted with crime at levels and of ferocity which are unprecedented,” the former prime minister stated.

However, despite his criticism of the country’s crime challenges, Patterson noted that the gains attained last year were somewhat encouraging.

“We are encouraged, somewhat, that there is a drop this year [2024] when compared with the previous year, but they are intolerable and unacceptable,” said Patterson, who served as the country’s fourth prime minister for 14 years between 1992 and 2006.

Tavares-Finson, an attorney-at-law and a member of the Central Executive and Standing Committee of the Jamaica Labour Party, reminded Patterson that it was his PNP-led administration that presided over the highest rate increase in murders the coutry had ever seen.

“Patterson should be reminded that while he was prime minister, the unemployment rate was a record high of 16.5 per cent, and murders spiralled from 414 to 1,574 per calendar year,” Tavares-Finson hit back.

Moses Chybar, president of the Westmoreland Chamber of Commerce, in the parish where 100 murders were reported last year, agreed, in part, with Patterson’s assessment of the spate of crime being unprecedented.

However, he disagreed with the overall outlook.

“Having listened to a part of former Prime Minister PJ Patterson’s (speech), I must agree with him that we are not yet at a place where we can say we are comfortable as it relates to the level of crime and violence in our country,” Chybar said in response to a question from The Gleaner yesterday.

“I do not agree, though, that what we have now is unprecedented because we have seen a reduction, which means things are inching in the right direction,” the Westmoreland businessman added.

Continuing, Chybar acknowledged that Patterson was on point when he said nobody could feel safe in the current situation.

“As a society, none of us at this point is comfortable, as far as I know, with the levels of crime and violence, but we still have to commend the security forces even though it [murder rate] may not yet be at the level we want it to be,” he stated.

“Again, I concur with the former prime minister that it is still far too high, and there is still a level of fear among our people,” Chybar noted.

He encouraged the security forces and the Government to continue to be relentless in their efforts to bring crime and violence to an acceptable level.

Elaine Allen-Bradley, president of the Negril Chamber of Commerce and Industry, also admitted that the level of crime is unacceptable.

However, she was quick to point out that the Government has achieved significant reductions worthy of celebration, knowing where it came from under Patterson’s administration.

editorial@gleanerjm.com