KINGSTON, Jamaica, CMC – Prime Minister Andrew Holness has called for a united effort to reduce violence in society, particularly interpersonal conflicts, which could result in murders.
“When we analyze the murder statistics, you know what we find? Gang murders have gone down, but interpersonal crime resulting in murder is going up. It tells a story of personal conflict resulting in the violent loss of lives, so we have to, as a Government, as a people, JLP, and PNP, we are going to have to join together to deal with this issue of violence. One place we can join together is the church,” he said.
Holness was addressing Wednesday’s fourth annual National Day of Prayer, ‘Heal the Family, Heal the Nation,’ in the central parish of St. Catherine.
Also participating in the event was Leader of the Opposition Mark Golding.
“When I said we’re going to have to treat this issue of peace deliberately, Mark, in a non-political way, it is something that we have to join together to treat with peace because our society is in conflict… we have personal conflicts; we have conflicts at the workplace and conflicts in the community,” the Prime Minister said.
“Murders are down 7.5 percent. Serious crimes are the lowest they have been in 22 years. Though our economy is doing well, though we are building the infrastructure, though the statistics show murders are going down, violent and serious crimes are going down, how people feel, what they are being exposed to, what comes across on their social media, it is having an impact on their mental health and well-being, and that is dangerous,” he said.
The Prime Minister noted that he has received preliminary data from the National Violence Prevention Commission, and the Government will soon take steps to implement the necessary interventions.
“We’re going to start working on those to see how we can incorporate, not to the exclusion of anybody; everybody will be involved,” he said.
The National Violence Prevention Commission was mandated to conduct a continuing comprehensive review of all existing public and private violence-prevention programs and the Government’s strategies.
It aims to identify gaps in prevention and intervention services and recommend appropriate programs.
The Prime Minister thanked the organizers of the event, noting that “it is important as a nation that each of us get it right with the Lord.”
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