GOLDING (left) and WHITEMAN(right)
THE PEOPLE'S National Party (PNP) last night blasted Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) Leader Bruce Golding for what it says are his "inflammatory statements" made on Wednesday night during which he compared the curfew strategies of the police force in sections of Spanish Town to Nazi concentration camps.
Mr. Golding made the comments while addressing a constituency conference in Fletcher's Land in West Kingston as he prepares for the April 13 by-election.
"The police have the full support of the JLP but what happened in Spanish Town is unacceptable," Mr. Golding said. "They went in there before day and proceeded to grab up every young man. What is happening down there is something that is happening in Afghanistan. If it is wrong in Afghanistan, then it is doubly wrong in Jamaica. This is like a Nazi concentration camp."
Mr. Golding also took a swipe at the new Deputy Commissioner of Police, Mark Shields, who is on secondment from Scotland Yard. "If this is the new kind of strategy that this new deputy commissioner has brought from England, he brought nothing new with him. We have people here from a long time who were inclined to do these things," he said.
CONFRONTATIONAL AND AGGRESSIVE
But last night's statement from PNP General Secretary Burchell Whiteman, charged that since Mr. Golding's accession to the leadership of the JLP, "the rhetoric and tone from the JLP have become confrontational and aggressive". It said Mr. Golding "continues to display the worst characteristics of old-style politics, despite projecting himself as being new and different".
Mr. Whiteman said the security forces should be allowed to pursue criminals and their connections at any place and in any community in the country.
"As a party, we have maintained that no area is off limits for the security forces and we will not shield any criminal under the guise of political protection," Mr. Whiteman said.
He has called on Mr. Golding to state clearly what he meant when he said there would be 'bangarang' if the security forces continued these types of operations.
