Opposition braces for Senate fight on SOEs

THE GOVERNMENT may encounter difficulties in the Senate from its opposition counterparts when it seeks an extension to the states of public emergency (SOEs) declared in seven police divisions on Sunday.

Already, several opposition senators have indicated their unwillingness to support the reintroduction of what Prime Minister Andrew Holness has pitched as a key crime-fighting weapon in his administration’s arsenal.

“Wasn’t the country just under a period of lockdown and crime went flaring through the roof? Floyd Emerson Morris has never supported states of emergency as a crime-fighting tool,” Opposition Senator Dr Floyd Morris told The Gleaner when contacted, referencing the periods of no-movement days imposed to combat COVID-19 spread.

Morris questioned the outcome of the previous SOEs which ended just over a year ago, arguing that it is unlikely there will be any significant reduction in crime.

The Opposition’s parliamentary caucus is expected to meet today to deliberate on the matter.

Announcing SOEs in Westmoreland, Hanover, St James, St Andrew South, Kingston Western, Kingston Central, and Kingston Eastern, Holness said at a Jamaica House press briefing on Sunday that the country’s crime crisis had reached barbaric proportions.

Up to Friday, Jamaica recorded 1,240 murders, with the seven divisions accounting for 664 killings, or 54 per cent of the national toll.

Holness said his Government has used the extra powers under SOEs to ease the problem.

The latest measures are expected to last for 14 days. An extension would require a two-thirds majority in the Upper House, where the Government has only 13 appointed senators. The Opposition has eight.

“We have used it in such a way that we are respectful of the human rights and dignity of the citizens, and at the same time, whenever we have used the SOEs, it has brought down murders and has returned a sense of safety and security both to the communities in which we have implemented them and nationally,” said Holness.

But Senator Donna Scott-Mottley, in her objection to the resumption of of SOEs, pointed to the Supreme Court’s ruling last September that the detention of five men for months without charge was unconstitutional. Scott-Mottley, deputy leader of opposition in the Senate, argued that the framers of the Constitution did not intend for SOEs to be used in a cavalier manner.

“If SOEs were really useful, we wouldn’t be back at this stage again. We have had no long-term gains,” said Scott-Mottley.

“We’re using it to say 10 fewer people died than the year before. That is not how you govern ... . The only benefit an SOE gives them is that they can just go into a community and take up as many men as they feel like and lock them away.”

Senator Damion Crawford, too, poured cold water on the latest SOE declaration, arguing that the evidence indicates that the measure does not work.

He said that the Government must act within the constraints of freedom.

“Government cannot just move away from freedom to claim that they have a duty to carry out. Freedoms must be protected,” he said in response to the prime minister’s comment that the country is facing an emergency.

Holness said that the emergency, in his view, meets the standards of the Constitution and that his Government has acted in accordance with the law.

“Mr Holness is clearly of the view that they have criminal communities. They don’t have criminal communities. They have communities with crime and communities with criminals.

“If your effort to stop murders, in particular, is going to take into account entire parishes, entire communities and to put all those citizens under similar management as if they were out on bail, it is a ridiculous approach,” Crawford said.

He argued that while SOEs may reduce crime within specific geographic boundaries, it often caused a balloon effect – channelling the actors of violence elsewhere.

INEFFECTIVE IN CRIME FIGHT

Crawford was supported by Gabriela Morris, who said SOEs, as crime-fighting tools, were ineffective. The senator said the Government must diversify its strategy.

Meanwhile, the wider parliamentary Opposition slammed the security measure, calling it a desperate plan to cover up the Government’s failure on crime.

The People’s National Party (PNP) raised concern that the Government had advised the governor general to declare the SOEs despite its ongoing appeal against the court’s ruling in the case of Everton Douglas et al vs the Ministry of National Security, the Commissioner of Police, and the Attorney General.

Calling detentions without charge dangerous and warning that civil liberties were at risk, the Opposition argued that SOEs were an extreme measure and should only be used when all the other provisions for the maintenance of law and order were inadequate.

“The Opposition strongly believes that there are already adequate provisions in ordinary legislation to deal with Jamaica’s problems with crime. There are existing measures that allow the army to be mobilised to support the police in the high-violence areas and to use tools such as curfews and cordon-and-search operations,” the PNP said in a statement.