As the country searches for solutions in the wake of sustained bloodshed over the last two days, church leaders have come out strongly against lawlessness and indiscipline.
They are calling for swift justice, challenging every Jamaican to become a crime fighter and warning Jamaicans against ignoring the plight of the dispossessed.
Reverend Al Miller of Fellowship Tabernacle said strong and immediate action was needed to halt the current crime wave, noting that it was not beyond the nation to solve the crime problem.
He told The Gleaner yesterday that every law-abiding Jamaican must become a crime fighter. "Every citizen must say my future is at stake, I have to get involved, I must be part of the process of helping to fight crime".
Reverend Miller called for a system of swift justice to help curtail the wanton crime levels. "It's a principle of the word of God: Justice delayed only makes people become more careless, and so we've got to look at some measures that a person knows if I commit a crime, I will have to deal with the consequences."
He said the Crime Stop initiative was not enough for persons to break their silence, suggesting that a committee be established involving the leadership of the church working with the police.
Reverend Miller said that many Jamaicans would prefer to share information with church leaders, who would then liaise with the relevant authorities.
Political resolve
The role of politicians in helping to weed out criminal elements from communities was also noted by Reverend Miller. He argued that the political machinery must demonstrate that "they are 100 per cent serious and committed to deal with the problem of crime".
"They must be prepared to unequivocally divorce themselves from the criminal element, and not divorce it in principle as we have always heard, but yet it suits the political machinery to keep it going," he said.
President of the Moravian Church in Jamaica, the Reverend Dr. Paul Gardner, said for too long the country has overlooked a simmering sociocultural problem that is manifesting itself in the crime surge now affecting Jamaica.
He chided the private sector for not doing enough to support "meaningful social intervention in this country".
Rev. Dr. Gardner said several community projects managed by the church in inner-city communities were not adequately funded, even though requests had been made for private-sector interests to assist with financing.
However, he said the private sector rushed to provide millions of dollars to fund political campaigns. "They are not serious about their priorities," he contended.
He urged Jamaicans to show more than "a passing interest in the people who are living in squalor in Jamaica. The respect for one life in the ghetto is as important as the life of an uptown person killed by the gun, and we don't make noise in this country when the guys who wear dirty trousers are killed."
Meanwhile, the Jamaica Council of Churches (JCC) has decried what it describes as the wanton disrespect for law and order evidenced by the escalating senseless and vicious murders.
The church group, calling for action now, is urging key stakeholders to revisit the drive to promote values and attitudes and to target rampant indiscipline on the roads.
"We need action now! Enough is enough! Those of us who shape public thought and influence public behaviour must act now," the JCC declared.
