Posted on August 12, 2024August 12, 2024 by OPM Communications
Remarks
By
The Most Honourable Andrew Holness ON, PC, MP
Prime Minister of Jamaica
At the
Press Conference on Brutal Murders in Cherry Tree Lane, Clarendon
On
August 12, 2024
——————————————————————————————————
Good morning, everyone. It is indeed a sad day for all Jamaica.
First, let me begin by extending my deepest condolences to the families and loved ones of those whose lives were brutally snuffed out in this dastardly incident. I feel the pain and share the distress of the families, the loved ones, the communities and indeed the entire Jamaica, and I also pray for the recovery of those who were injured.
I stand here today with firm resolve that everyone, and I mean everyone, who was in any way involved in this incident will be brought to justice. I want to make that absolutely clear. The incident is one which cannot be allowed to stand in any way, lest it become the normal routine of criminals. It is a criminal act. It is against our laws. It is an attack on the public order, but I want you to consider for a moment that it goes beyond the victims, it goes beyond the community in which it was perpetrated; it is an attack on every Jamaican, it is an attack on every community.
The intention was not only to harm the victims. The intention was not only to spread terror in the local community. No, this act is designed to spread terror in the nation. This is an act of terror, so it can’t be treated as ordinary criminality and that is why we convened the National Security Council this morning. We deliberated for much longer than we had anticipated because there are many issues involved issues which we will not go into today, but which the nation should be assured that we are examining all dimensions of this terror act.
We know that persons overseas are involved and connected in this act. We know that persons who are incarcerated presently have connections in this act. We know that multiple gangs are connected and involved in this act. Every gang, every person who in any way facilitated, provided the arms or were involved and pulled the trigger themselves, we will find you and we will bring you to justice. I want that to be absolutely clear. We will not treat this as another criminal act. We will treat this as an act of terror therefore, we have given directions to the security forces to launch an all-out assault on the gangs that are involved. Indeed, any gang that is involved. There is no way that eight persons can be killed in one incident in Jamaica, and the state stands as if nothing happened. No! Every gang member, every gang will feel the full force of the state today. This must never happen again in Jamaica.
Last year, November, another act of terror took place where a gangster with a high-powered weapon shot up a public passenger vehicle and killed two innocent children. I made the commitment that they would be found and brought to justice and indeed they were. Today I make a similar commitment, and everyone who is involved in this will be brought to justice in whichever form the justice is visited upon them. We have played with gangs for far too long. We have treated them as if they were Robin Hoods. Communities have been too sympathetic to them. Communities have given them sucker and protection. We must use this as the opportunity to draw the line finally in the sand and to separate the gangs from our communities.
The gangs are not merely youngsters who are poor and dispossessed. If you have that view, you are under a disillusion. You’re misguided. The gangs are, some of them, second and third generation meaning that they have transitioned from just street level operations to higher level coordinated activities to transnational and some of them have transitioned into business. The gangs are organized economic enterprises. They parade as if they are in the community to protect you, but no, that’s not what they’re there for. They are there to use your community as cover to carry out illegal activities and to make profit from it. They are there to organize violence. I want you to think carefully on what happened yesterday, last night.
Someone had to acquire a vehicle. Someone had to acquire high powered weapons and the ammunition. Someone had to plan whether it is to gather the intelligence that an event was being kept. Someone was probably there as a lookout. Someone had to probably call-in others to come in who could do the shooting. This was coordinated so this is what we call organized armed violence, and this level of planned organized armed violence must be addressed unequivocally.
It is not a problem affecting Jamaica alone. It is becoming a feature right across the Caribbean and Central America and indeed in Latin America generally, and even in North America so we cannot allow this incident to be treated merely as another criminal act. It is not merely a criminal act. Organized armed violence is an act of terror, and we must treat them as criminal terrorists. So, the security forces have been given the direction. Operations are already underway from all levels, intelligence from the kinetic operations in the field to seeking the support of our partners to get those who are overseas who are facilitating and directing and funding the criminal operations here. No stone will be left unturned.
I want to give the Jamaican people the reassurance that your government will use this as the opportunity to deal with the gangs once and for all.
