Jamaican state threatened by crime and violence, says PM

By Racquel Porter   

 

Prime Minister Andrew Holness has acknowledged that the Jamaican state could collapse due to crime and violence if legislation is not implemented to cauterise the issue.

 

Mr. Holness said his administration has changed its policy approach to legislation and has made significant allocations to national security and has reaped results.

 

He added that Jamaicans do not see crime and violence as a major threat to the country's existence. 

 

"We don't see things through the lens of a threat to the existence of the state. We believe that the Jamaican state will always exist. It is a thinking that has pervaded many of the other independent arms of government. Every day I see how the Jamaican state could collapse from this business of crime and violence, because we are not taking a national security prism to the problem," he admitted. 

 

Instead, he argued, many Jamaicans view crime as a "street level problem" or restricted to only certain areas. 

 

"We are here being pitiful at a street level youngster who has a gun, because all we see is a street level youngster with a gun. Not recognising that he is the tip of the iceberg, the tip of the spear of the threat to our safety and security. He is the one that will pierce our veil of security."

 

Mr. Holness said citizens also fail to recognise that gangs across the island are coordinated in their efforts. 

 

"Whilst they may not be acting politically - they don't want to run the state, so they are not terrorists in the classic sense - but what they want to do is to weaken the state so that the economic benefit of their enterprise can grow," he noted. 

 

To address this he said it is imperative that the government change the legislation to create this understanding that gangs, violence and crime are a threat to the existence of the Jamaican state. 

 

He stressed that citizen-on-citizen crime and violence challenges public safety but suggested that when this is coordinated and organised, it poses a threat to the state.

 

Prime Minister Holness was addressing a national security council seminar with representatives from the US Justice Department and all players in Jamaica's National Security apparatus in St. Andrew on Wednesday morning.