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JAMAICANS for Justice (JFJ) says it remains opposed to the Government's imposition of states of emergencies (SOE) as a sustainable crime-fighting strategy. "While JFJ is equally concerned about the pervasive crime and violence and the spate of killings of members of the citizenry, fear, however, cannot be a driver for public policy."In our experience, knee-jerk reactions to tackle crime and violence often result in the infringement of the human rights of the most vulnerable," the rights organisation said in a release in the wake of the SOE announcement."The organisation therefore supports and calls for sustained, legitimate crime-fighting strategies that will keep all Jamaicans safe; strategies that will both prevent the commission of crime and those that will see perpetrators brought to justice..."States of public emergency cannot be a routine crime-fighting strategy. For decades, the Jamaican society has been trying to deal with the 'crime monster'. Across successive administrations, the GOJ has committed to draconian methods that have not worked, do not work, and cannot work," said JFJ. It rapped successive administrations for failing to "wholesomely implement the recommendations in the various reports, such as the 1994 Wolfe report, to tackle crime at its root, including, by targeting the highly connected or the powerful behind these criminal networks".This, the JFJ contended, was among the reasons criminals continue to thrive, "because those in authority have not had the desire or the will to take the necessary steps to deal with the corrupt linkages and the tentacles of organised crime which reach to the highest levels of all spheres of the society".The body described as alarming the prime minister's decision to place seven police divisions across some five parishes under the SOE, given that the matter is before the Supreme Court. "Emergency powers, as those utilised under the SoPE, usually sees security forces arresting and detaining Jamaicans, mostly from poor and marginalised communities, without reasonable grounds or credible evidence."JFJ said the police commissioner's statement that the SOE would allow for time to remove suspected persons out of the communities, detain them and then investigate to build cases, "goes against intelligence-based, proactive policing".In 2020, JFJ said, it reviewed over 100 cases of reported human rights violations by persons detained under the State of Emergency Power Act for the period April 2019 to August 2020.According to JFJ, a majority of the persons indicated that they feared for their lives, with others disclosing reports of police brutality, physical and psychological abuse. Data revealed "a rather alarming number of persons reporting to be victims of abuse from the members of security forces as a result of personal vendettas or disputes".It said the attorney general's assurance that the review tribunal would also do a periodic review of those detained in seven divisions "offers no real assurance given the concerns about the tribunals"."We call upon the GOJ to develop a comprehensive, effective and sustainable crime-fighting plan that will result in inroads to tackle crime... The Jamaica Constabulary Force, after all, is and ought to be the society's biggest human rights organisation," JFJ declared.