Economic decline, increased crime defines PNP Gov't — Holness

  Leader of the Opposition Andrew Holness last night described National Security Minister Peter Bunting as the most "callous" Government minister, for his characterisation of the current increase in murders as a “bump in the road”.
Holness told a packed meeting at the Somerset Primary School in the Johns Hall Division of North West Manchester that, “while your brothers and sisters are being killed in the most brutal way, the minister is being very casual about it, calling the increased murders a bump in the road".
The Opposition leader said that whenever the People’s National Party is in power, murders rise. He pointed to murder statistics from 1971, to every time afterwards that the PNP has been in government.
Holness explained that the JLP administration that went into governance from 2007 to 2011 brought murders down to 1,125, a decrease of 28 per cent, adding that the murder rate to date at 601 – which he said is 19 per cent ahead of where it was last year.
Holness also expressed concern that if this trend continues, then murders could pass the 1,200 mark by year end. He further told the audience that murders were rising because whenever the PNP is in power, the economy declines, noting that several studies have shown that there is a direct inverse and reinforcing relationship between crime and economic growth.
“Low economic growth means high unemployment, particularly among youth. This drives them to gangs, which in turn drives an increase in crimes, especially murders, and further reduces economic growth in a vicious cycle,” he stated.
The meeting marked the ninth in a series of 15 conferences, dubbed the JLP Manchester invasion, spearheaded by MP caretaker for Central Manchester, Dr St Aubyn Bartlett. (http://www.jamaicaobserver.com)
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