Robinson criticises state of emergency in East Kingston
Published:Sunday | January 26, 2020 | 12:00 AM
Julian Robinson, Member of Parliament for St Andrew South Eastern, has said that the state of emergency declared in East Kingston is motivated by a need to detain people.
He was speaking at a meeting of the People's National Party's (PNP) National Executive Council in Montego Bay, St James today.
A state of emergency was announced this morning by Prime Minister Andrew Holness, amid concern over rising violence in the Kingston Eastern division. Police Commissioner, Major General Antony Anderson, said there were 33 wanted persons and 34 violence producers in the police division.
During 2019, East Kingston's murders rose 16 per cent and shootings 49 per cent, according to police statistics.
Robinson said he was not surprised that a state of emergency had been declared in his constituency, noting that it is the only tool the government seems able to use to combat serious levels of crime.
“In Mountain View, yes we certainly had issues, but I will tell you in the last two weeks since there was the deployment of the security forces, there hasn't been a shot fired,” he said.
“Now, what the state of emergency does it allows the security forces to detain people and I suspect that is the main motivating factor for this.”
He told members of the NEC that the opposition will have to ensure that the rights of people are respected by the state.
Robinson maintained that a series of states of emergency is not the solution to the country's problems with crime and violence. However, he said he would wait to observe the impact it will have on his constituency.
“I don't believe it is the only tool that can be used to control crime, there are other tools. Now we do know that the public equates states of emergency to boots on the ground, so for the majority of the public, they view it in a positive way, because it means police and soldiers will be in their communities,” he said.
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