Colonel defends state of emergency

OCHO RIOS, Jamaica – The army and the police are insisting that an extension of the state of emergency would have strengthened the efforts of the security forces in their push to flush out criminals islandwide.Defending his organisation’s call for an extension of the state of emergency, Colonel General Staff at the Jamaica Defence Force, Rocky Meade, last Friday likened the country’s crime problem to a serious illness and said the just-lifted State of Emergency was the antidote.“I assure you that if you don’t allow us to complete the dosage, it’s going to be worse next time, so we need your support and the emergency powers would have allowed us to efficiently deal with this problem,” Colonel Meade said during a Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica president’s forum.Police Commissioner Owen Ellington also said: “The work which we started on the 23rd of May is not over. It could not have been completed in the short space of time.“We were anticipating an extension of those limited powers so we could have completed the job,” he said.Meade noted that the high rates of murder and other crimes in the country were symptoms of an underlying illness which could be treated by an extension of the state of emergency.Between May 23 and last Friday, the security forces said they had seized 113 illegal weapons, including 57 high-powered shotguns and rifles, and more than 15 000 rounds of ammunition. (Jamaica Observer)