Nadisha Hunter, Staff reporter

Founder of the Mustard Seed Communities, the Very Reverend Monsignor Father Gregory Ramkissoon, has lambasted the Government for the length of time it has taken to comment on the shooting of a pregnant woman by a policeman in St Thomas and the eviction of homeless people off a property on Duke Street in downtown Kingston.

Prior to a release from the Ministry of National Security on the St Thomas shooting, Ramkissoon categorically called for the Government to break its silence in the two recent matters.

His comments came days after eight months pregnant Kayann Lamont was shot and killed and her sister injured by the police corporal in Yallahs, St Thomas, last Saturday.

Unacceptable

"I am very worried with the route that we are going. This man killed two persons - a woman and her baby - this is unacceptable. Why aren't we having annual evaluation and psychological testing of people on the front line? Why are we waiting for these things to happen and then say that you are sorry but the man needed counselling," he lamented.

"In all of this, we heard nothing from the Government, the Church has said nothing. Where are the other groups such as the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica and the legal association? We can't just depend on the media alone to do this."

He added: "We are celebrating disgrace. It is shocking; we should bow our heads in shame of what's happening."

Pointing to the eviction of more than 80 adults and 40 children off the Duke Street-based premises where their houses were demolished, he suggested that different government agencies should collaborate to build safe areas that could accommodate these people.

"We have legitimised that property rights come before human rights. Granted that they are illegal but if you are going to move children, they should have at least informed the Child Development Agency instead of turning them out on the streets," he lamented.

"We reach 50 now and we can't have a holding area to put people who are squatters, especially the elderly and children when something like this happen, anybody could have been dead," he further said.

nadisha.hunter@gleanerjm.com