Sinclair laments ‘upside-down’ governance
Councillor says Operation Restore Paradise would be moot if agencies had been enforcing laws
Published:Saturday | October 15, 2022 | 12:08 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
Montego Bay North East Division Councillor Charles Sinclair is asserting that if adequate laws were in place to ensure law and order and strict enforcement being practised over the years, the ongoing Operation Restore Paradise police initiative in Montego Bay, St James, would not have been needed.
Sinclair, who is also a senator, made the declaration on Thursday during the St James Municipal Corporation’s monthly meeting in Montego Bay.
“We should not have even had to have Operation Restore Paradise. If every agency and body was doing what it was supposed to do, we would not have had a special Operation Restore Paradise,” Sinclair said stoutly. “Our legislators have taken on a different task, walking up and down and giving out care packages, when they should be legislating, and social services must do what social services must do.”
Sinclair added: “As for governance in Jamaica, we have just turned it upside-down. If we were doing the things we were supposed to do, we would not have Operation Restore Paradise; it would be paradise.”
His remarks came shortly after Senior Superintendent of Police Vernon Ellis, the commanding officer in charge of the St James Police Division, presented the monthly police report and an update on Operation Restore Paradise.
COMPLIANCE
“We are almost two months into the operation now, where we are receiving a level of success from this public order operation. In terms of compliance, we are seeing great levels of compliance from the public, and 42 persons have been arrested specifically around this operation,” Ellis told the meeting.
“Also, 2,026 persons have been prosecuted for breaching the Road Traffic Act in various ways, 143 motor vehicles were seized, and 130 persons were prosecuted via summonses in the space. The multi-agency push is doing extremely well, and I want to commend the municipal team for standing resolute in restoring public order,” Ellis said, praising the efforts of agencies such as the National Solid Waste Management Authority, the National Environment and Planning Agency, the public health services and the Jamaica Fire Brigade.
Operation Restore Paradise was launched on August 15 to bring order to the Second City by curtailing illegal vending and indiscipline among motorists, among other public nuisances. It was originally intended to run over a 14-day period, but has since been extended.
A similarly named law enforcement initiative had previously been launched in Montego Bay in 2019, during a time when St James was under a state of emergency, as part of police efforts to address the parish’s spiralling crime rate.
In the meantime, Montego Bay Mayor Leeroy Williams praised the tireless efforts of the police in promoting order in the western city.
“Crime-fighting in Jamaica is an arduous task. It is really a difficult task for our enforcement officers, but let me say Restore Paradise, or what some people refer to as a public order reset, it is working,” said Williams.