Glenroy Sinclair, Staff Reporter
Members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force monitor the scene as residents move out of the Bryden Street area of east Kingston, yesterday. Ten persons have been shot and killed during three weeks of violence in several communities. - Ricardo Makyn, Staff Photographer
ROCKED BY the violence which has been reverberating throughout sections of the Corporate Area over the past few weeks, the government has called on the military to help restore law and order.
Speaking with The Gleaner yesterday, Police Commissioner Lucius Thomas said the volatile east Kingston area would be flooded before the end of the week by Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) soldiers, adding that the aim was to make the communities safe for decent law-abiding citizens.
He, however, noted that there were no immediate plans to deploy soldiers in Spanish Town, St. Catherine another hotbed area.
"We are working out other strategies for Spanish Town and this should be in place by weekend," Commissioner Thomas said.
PROTECT STATE FROM ALL THREATS
Efforts to get a comment from Rear Admiral Hardley M. Lewin last night were unsuccessful. However, in an address to the Rotary Club of Kingston a little over a week ago, he pointed out that the JDF, as a body, was obligated to protect the Jamaican state from both internal and external threats.
"We must not confine our concept of the defence of Jamaica as being defence against the forces of a foreign state," he said. "We need to clearly understand the nature of today's threats as transnational and so highly organised that they can threaten the viability of the state."
