Senator Peter Bunting, Opposition spokesperson of national security, has accused the Government of downplaying the state of crime and violence in Jamaica and scrapping effective crime-fighting methods implemented by the former People’s National Party (PNP) administration of which he was a part.

Bunting said that recent applause by the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) over murders being down by 11 per cent has only shocked and confused many Jamaicans given frequent reports of double, triple, and quadruple murders across the island.

The former security minister said that from January 1, 2023 to October 7, 2023, there were 1,070 murders recorded. Additionally, he said October has seen an average of five murders a day.

“This is, indeed, an 11 per cent reduction when compared to the same period last year. However, what the JCF did not highlight is that last year, the comparative year, had the second-highest number of murders since 2010 when there was an operation in Tivoli relating to the extradition of Christopher Coke.

“So the 2023 statistics can be down, relative to a record bad year in 2022, but still represent an objective horrific situation currently. At the current rate of murder, by year-end, about 1,400 Jamaicans would have been murdered,” Bunting emphasised.

Jamaica recorded 1,498 murders in 2022.

Programmes scrapped

The Opposition national security spokesman was speaking at a press conference today when he made the claims.

He argued that under the People’s National Party (PNP) leadership between 2012 and 2015, the average murder rate for each year was 1,129. However, when the Jamaica Labour Party took over, the numbers jumped to an average of 1,408 a year, between 2016 and 2019.

According to Bunting, these numbers indicate that the murder rate was lower under the former PNP government. He claimed that the Opposition had fewer resources to fight crime in 2012, but implemented better crime-prevention methods and took a holistic approach to crime-fighting that kept the numbers low. These initiatives, he said, were all scrapped by the Andrew Holness-led administration when they took office.

“When his administration came to office in 2016, they abandoned the Unite for Change programme, defunded the Peace Management Initiative, and phased out the Citizens Security and Justice programme. Every crime-fighting initiative was abandoned, and all of the ministry’s resources were redirected to building policy for the militarisation of policing and the serial and routine use of States of emergencies,” Bunting outlined.

He contended that the Government is now pushing for the implementation of a holistic approach to crime-fighting and praising initiatives similar to that of the Opposition, having realised the mistake they made.

“Jamaica has paid dearly in lives lost…because Prime Minister Holness has been a slow learner when it comes to adopting policies to sustainably reduce violent crimes,” said Bunting.