By Prince Moore
The government has again indicated that it is strongly contemplating another declaration of states of emergency when the current SOEs expire at midnight Tuesday.
Prime Minister Andrew Holness on Monday restated the government's position during a tour of SOE checkpoints in Area 4.
The states of emergency were declared in seven parishes almost two weeks ago.
But the measure will come to an end after a motion for its extension failed to receive the support of the opposition in the Senate on Friday.
Mr. Holness on Monday said it would be constitutional to make another declaration under new circumstances and with advice from the security chiefs.
He said the government would make its decision after "watching the situation very carefully to see whether or not there are any adverse changes as a result of the SOE coming to an end".
According to Mr. Holness, members of the security forces and people in communities that have been under SOEs say the measures "work [and] they have saved lives".
He touted success in the Area 4 division, for instance, noting that it "only had two murders" in the two weeks of the states of emergency, despite it being an area which sometimes has "in excess of 30 murders".
'Plagiarism'
The Prime Minister said the proposal being made by Opposition Leader Mark Golding for detention of presumed 'high-risk' criminals was placed on the table in 2019 but was rejected by the opposition.
"Now, aside from the obvious plagiarism which is being perpetrated by the Leader of the Opposition, one has to wonder what is the motive. If they could come to this position now, why couldn’t they have accepted it when we presented it to them three years ago?" he questioned.
Mr. Holness argued that a number of crimes could have been prevented if the opposition had supported the move.
"But, you know, it’s never too late for a good shower of rain. And so, we are happy to hear the Leader of the Opposition making these proposals, which we had already put on the table - which they had previously rejected - which means that when we go to Parliament to have the Act passed, there should be no quarrel," he suggested.