Opposition takes Gov't to task on crime problem WITH POLICE reports showing 693 murders so far this year, Opposition spokesman on National Security Derrick Smith has taken Government to task for its apparent inability to control the crime problem. In a press release yesterday, the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) spokesman called on Prime Minister P. J. Patterson, who is chairman of the Crime Council, and National Security Minister K. D. Knight, to urgently tell the nation what measures are to be put in place to address the upsurge in violent crime. Noting there have been 103 more murders this year compared to the same period last year, with 33 of the murders committed over the past week, Mr. Smith said a new annual record will be set if the present rate of three killings per day continues until year-end. He charged that Prime Minister Patterson and Minister Knight are to be held responsible for the out-of-control crime situation, and said wrongdoers "seem to recognise the impotence of those in charge and, realising that the chance of them being apprehended is next to nil, continue to wreak havoc on law-abiding citizens at will". "The bewildering silence of the persons in charge suggests that the country is running on autopilot," he said. Mr. Smith also pointed to 707 reported cases of shooting so far for the year, which he said represented the highest level in three years, as well as 627 reported cases of rape, the highest since 1999. But in response, People's National Party (PNP) General Secretary, Senator Maxine Henry-Wilson, pointed to the summit between senior PNP and JLP officials earlier this month, at which it was agreed that a national committee should be set up to develop consensus on ways to fight crime. "Out of that joint meeting both sides agreed to work together in the national committee to develop a solution to crime," she emphasised. "So it is curious that the (JLP) statement has come at this time." She said the statement was therefore "pre-emptive" of the work of the national committee.
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