Thursday, July 08, 2004

Ja: Jamaica deadlier than Iraq and Judea & Samaria combined

CRIME AND violence have now reached a level in Jamaica that calls for a psychological state of emergency in which our leaders would, by their words and actions, demonstrate how serious the situation is and call on the nation to face the crisis.

Dr. Peter Phillips, Minister of National Security, made a start in this direction when he warned Parliamentarians to sever their connections with known drug dons but since his presentation in the House of Representatives the murder rate has continued to soar, culminating in 150 murders for June. If this continues, we are likely to exceed 1,400 killings for the year, a rate of 56 per 100,000 of the population. In London, at this rate, there would be 4,480 murders for a year whereas in fact, there were only 204 murders in that city for the twelve-month period to May 2004. Even New York has only about 700 murders a year. More Jamaicans are dying by the gun in one year than all American casualties in Iraq or those killed in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

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