‘Might as well we pull up the SOE’

Luther Buchanan, member of parliament for Eastern Westmoreland, is calling for more efficient states of public emergency - one where soldiers and police are properly equipped with the necessary tools to be more mobile.

This comes a day after a gas station operator, Shaun Thompson, was murdered in his home in the parish.

"A police(man) could be in every home almost ... you still couldn't prevent murder by way of that. But the real issue is that the static checkpoints are like mannequins. You have soldiers and police at a checkpoint and within less than a quarter of a mile from there, there was a barrage of gunshots," said Buchanan. "They could have heard clearly from all stretch of the imagination by way of their distance. If they were even notified by way of a citizen, they couldn't move! These static checkpoints without the capacity to move a vehicle makes no sense."

Enough manpower

He called for checkpoints be equipped with enough manpower and vehicular resources to assist and respond in such an instance.

"It is sad to say that even the Whitehouse police were without patrol. I happen to know that it is the Bluefields police who were covering the Whitehouse area. The (Whitehouse police) response time was delayed," he said. "My call is for the minister of national security, the prime minister, and the commissioner to understand that a state of emergency with static checkpoints, and failing to provide vehicles for those points, means that might as well we pull up the state of emergency."

Buchanan acknowledged that tackling crime takes time.

"I know we can't just get up tomorrow morning and solve it, but mek we do wah mek sense. The man dem weh a carry out dem act a seh listen 'The soldiers are up there on foot ... they not going to be able to move to me by time I drive out'," he said.