Legislation Targeting Gangs and Guns to be Brought Before Parliament – PM

Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, says the Government will be taking new legislation to the House of Representatives to deal with threats posed by gangs and guns.

The Prime Minister made the disclosure while making his presentation to the 2019/20 Budget Debate in the House of Representatives on March 19.

“We will shortly come to the Parliament with a new piece of legislation to create an intermediary extraordinary power to assist the police and the military,” he said.

He called on the support of the Opposition in the passage of the legislative measure.

The Prime Minister assured Jamaicans that the Government “is doing everything in its power” to address crime and violence.

He said that in addition to guns and gangs, the activities of dons, youth disengagement and unattached youth, and cybersecurity also pose a threat to the society.

The Prime Minister said that while the Government needs to have the capacity to effectively address these issues, “this is not a capacity that can be arbitrarily used”.

“There must be systems, rules, procedures, accountability in how the capacity we acquire is used. Jamaica is not a banana republic,” the Prime Minister said.

“We will do this in a very transparent and cooperative manner, because what we wouldn’t want is for Jamaica’s name to be tarnished by virtue of any misuse of capabilities,” he added.