PM misguided in concern about 'violence interrupters', says Levy

By Racquel Porter    

 

Social justice advocate Horace Levy says Prime Minister Andrew Holness is misguided in his concern about the legitimisation of gang leaders pretending to be violence interrupters under the Peace Management Initiative (PMI).

 

On Tuesday, Opposition Leader Mark Golding during his contribution to the Budget Debate, announced that the PMI will be revitalised under a future People's National Party government as part of efforts to improve citizen security.

 

But on Thursday, Mr. Holness, while noting that he is open to reintroducing the PMI, said he is concerned about the use of "violence interrupters", suggesting some persons being referred to as such were gang leaders pretending to be peacemakers. 

 

"If the opposition is strong on the point, we are willing to sit with them to work out how we can address that issue and restructure and re-establish the violence interrupters in a way that absolutely rejects criminals trying to parade as community leaders," the Prime Minister insisted. 

 

But, speaking with Radio Jamaica News following the Budget Debate, Mr. Levy said the PMI never operated in that manner.   

 

"The Prime Minister is mistaken in thinking that violence interrupters were criminals. They were not. Violence interrupters that we use in the Peace Management Initiative were never or former criminals. They were upstanding people in the community, well-known, well-respected. So it's just not the case that violence interrupters were ex-criminals or that the PMI used ex-criminals or former criminals to be interrupters of violence. That was never the case," he sought to explain. 

 

National Security Minister Dr. Horace Chang, during a sitting of Parliament in December 2019, said the PMI was not achieving any meaningful results.

 

The PMI was subsequently pulled out of more than 40 violence-prone communities across the island in which the entity had been helping to keep the peace up to March 2020.