[Firemon]

How do you expect the police to deal with such brazen gun slinging when the public is too intimidated to cooperate and the policemen and women are themselves targets?   

They need military assistance in the short term.  The police are simply out-gunned.  

Long term?  The weed for guns trade flowing through the port of Kingston aboard container ships needs addressing.
Low-paid workers are far too easy to corrupt.  Jamaica needs a permanent police presence on the docks to be effective.

And certainly the disadvantaged and unemployed and desperate people across the island deserve better economic opportunity/aid.
I should stop there since I've done no research but I'm gonna guess the largest percentage of the money earned across Jamaica
from tourism leaves the island to foreign investors profiting from Jamaica's multi-faceted charms without adequate renumeration.
Raise the taxes on these foreign investors to fund programs for the people.  

And motorcycle riding gunmen shooting up bars in the country not only kill their target but they leave lead in bartenders, waitresses, and domino players.  Collateral damage is of no concern. 

[Aquavit]

"How do we deal with this in our own countries? Certainly not with the army "
Governors of various states have in our history brought in the National Guard to deal with extreme violence in certain cities here in the US.

You can't compare issues and crime in the UK or the US with crime in places like Jamaica or Haiti. Apples and oranges. The fact remains the police in Jamaica are sorely undertrained and underpaid which is why so many turn to crime through shakedowns, bribery or even guns for hire (which might have been the case with this sharp-shooter, who knows).

I mean - shit! We can't even get a handle on our own fairly unique problem of lunatics with automatic weapons shooting up schools, movie theaters and shopping malls. All the kings horses and all the kings men....and still we are plagues with these tragedies several times each year.

The root of this problem is the lottery scam. The exacerbation of gun crime is the availability of guns, no matter where from. Like our mass shooting problem, this problem seems to be an enigma when it comes to law enforcement in Jamaica. They have finally started dealing with this issue internationally - just try to wire money to Jamaica from a Western Union in the US to see what you are now up against. They have also started to allow international prosecution - so much like Dudus Coke, they are allowing law enforcement from other countries into Jamaica to capture and extradite the perpetrators for prosecution.

Starting. Still a very long way to go.

When I was in Negril the 3rd week of January and that week alone there were four or five shootings THAT WE KNEW OF in Negril. One of those shootings took place two doors from my yard - and it was over a land dispute. My friends were waiting on the corner of Westland Mountain Road and West End Road when shots rang out on Westland Mountain Road, just a few doors away from where they were standing, the day after the shooting in my neighborhood.

It's a frustrating situation - I believe they are truly afraid to bring the army into Negril because it will negatively affect tourism. They were in Westmoreland though, I saw them in Brighton in November. And the fact is the SOE in MoBay actually had positive affects while it was in place - the number of murders and gun violence decreased significantly, very significantly in that city's most troubled areas. Thing is a lot of these bad guys got out of MoBay and spread out throughout the island, many hunkering down in the remote areas of Westmoreland. And when the army goes away, what happens? Same old, same old? They can't be there or anywhere on any kind of permanent basis.

The answer is there is no easy answer, similar to what we face in our US cities where deadly shootings are a daily occurrence and mass shootings have become the new normal. Every resident I know, Jamaican and otherwise, wants to see the army in Negril. Maybe, even for just a short time, there could be peace of mind.

[IJ]

"And tourists will not feel safer spending time in a place that favours a war zone."     You, obviously, have never been in a war zone. 

[Aquavit]

"Don’t know one Jamaican in Negril who want the army in"
You see? I know many. In fact every Jamaican I know wouldn't mind seeing the army come in and clean this shit up.

Bottom line there is nothing we can do about it - its a Jamaican problem. The only thing we can do is make our views known with our wallets if we feel threatened or have had enough.

I'm don't feel threatened, and while the situation is sad and makes me angry for the people involved....I'm going to continue to visit. Next trip is in the books in fact.

[Aquavit]

"But I can’t imagine many tourists wanting to visit somewhere where the army is in town to make the place safe. "
I'd be curious to know how or if the tourist business in Montego Bay was affected during the SOE?

No easy answers, that's for sure.

[shipmaster]

Ya'll been to Mexico or the Bahamas lately ?

Quintana Roo is an army encampment

New Providence Island is crawling with armed police

[IJ]

On a recent (January) visit to Bahamas, I visited Nassau for several days. There were two policemen on every corner downtown. The police presence seemed to be welcomed by everyone. Didn't seem to be hurting tourism. Not the Army, but still a strong presence.

[Westenders]

Just been talking to hub and discussing this thread.
His opinion is that this is a dramatic reaction, just like others say, these things happen in everyone’s countries . He quite rightly points out that the army do patrol Negril and Westmorland , an SOE seems to be what people here think, which restricts and affects everyone not just the shooters. Who would want that when businesses are already struggling

His take is these boards are a small minority of people talking talking and that people will still keep coming to Negril. The all inclusives are full and nuff white people were walking and chilling in the west end on our recent trip.

I do agree with him that sometimes people are sat saying loads of negative crap online, but still they go...

[oldtimer]

I'm not to sure about that Westie . AI's full do nothing for the locals . In my opinion bad behaving does not help matters . There was no Canada vs Jamaica pool tourny this year after 39 years. The poolroom closes at 6:00PM . Too much trifling happening from the move of bad guys from MoBay to Negril . A 45 year friendship with one of the pool tourny Canadians left the island never to return . He had built up a property over all those years , putting about $300,000 . into it and it was taken over by thugs from MoBay . Enough was enough and he walked . White Bob , the white drummer at Drifters left his apartment up in Whitehall because of all the crap it takes to get to the beach . These are the guys that were staying for 5-6 months every year , spending all their money at local places and now they are gone .To say they will come any way is not correct I spend about 90% of my money within 200 yards each way from Treehouse . I'm there for the weather as are most people in AI's .

[Westenders]

I don’t agree with you OT sorry

The AI employs locals for a start and all those guests go on excursions and spend money in the area too. Whenever we stay AI my husband spends loads of time chatting with people he went to school with and who live in the west end to this day

Locals work everywhere and profit from all tourism styles in Negril.

Of course times have changed in Negril over the last few years let alone decades , but there has always been a level of violence and is no different to trends across the world

I do continue to say getting older is part of the problem in how we view things, when i was younger I went all over and spent time in ropey places. Now I avoid a lot of these places. They didn’t change, I did . Lol

I met a lady from London last month who sings at drifters, spends a month every year in Negril staying local. Still loving it.

Look at this board alone, no matter how bad is the perception, most people still go

I think it’s normal to be shocked at shootings when they happen in Negril, just like I am in my home town and ones I see on the media in North American countries. But to lend more weight to the problems in Negril is not right or fair