Low public confidence in JCF's ability to fight crime could dampen JLP's election bid

 

Social commentator Reverend Peter Espeut believes the low public confidence in the police's ability to effectively fight crime could affect the general election campaign of the ruling Jamaica Labour Party in its bid to seek a third term. 

 

Reverend Espeut, who was a guest Monday on the Morning Agenda on Power 106, noted that the JLP has been campaigning on the reduction of crime to assure Jamaicans that they can keep them safe. 

 

But Reverend Espeut said the decline in murders is not the only factor contributing to whether people feel safe. He said police fatal shootings have more than doubled, which could make some Jamaicans feel unsafe.

 

"If you don't feel unsafe because a gunman might kill you, you might certainly feel unsafe because a policeman might kill you. And this is not new, you know; this has been going on since before independence.... I'm over 70 years old now, and I have vivid recollections in the 1960s of, well, there's the Coral Gardens incident, but even putting that aside, cases of police brutality of whipping people with what they call the rock steady, which was a piece of insulated wire, insulated with rubber. The police have had a bad reputation, certainly for the last 60-70 years," he pointed out.

 

Reverend Espeut was responding to the finding of the latest RJLGLEANER-commissioned Don Anderson poll, which showed that almost 50 per cent of Jamaicans have little to no confidence in the Jamaica Constabulary Force to effectively tackle crime.