Tendai Franklyn-Brown, Staff Reporter

Participants in the 'Wear Black Today Campaign' at the Denham Town Police Station in west Kingston place their signatures beside the photographs of the two policemen who were murdered in Trench Town, west Kingston, police division, on May 23. - Rudolph Brown/Chief Photographer

They came from near and far, in all styles of attire but all in black to express outrage at the murders being committed in Jamaica.

Civilians from all sectors of society went to the Denham Town Police Station, west Kingston, yesterday in protest against the crime wave and to sign a condolence book in memory of the most recent policemen to be slain.

Constables Cornell Grant and Delano Lawrence were killed while on patrol in Trench Town and their weapons stolen on Labour Day, May 23.

The 'Wear Black Today Campaign' was spearheaded by Lawman Lynch, president of the youth division of the Kingston and St Andrew Action Forum.

Mourning

"Over 700 persons have been murdered so far this year, that's 120 people per month," Lynch said. "We are mourning the death of our fellow Jamaicans."

Those who turned up at the Denham Town station bustled in every crevice of the small building to pay tribute to the memory of the constables.

Godfrey Lothian, the president of the Kingston and St Andrew Action Forum, said there was an urgency for social cohesion.

"An attack on the police is an attack on the state and so we need solidarity," he said.

"Stringent measures are needed, not just policy from the Government and an operational framework where the police and the soldiers are working in tandem with each other."

tendai.franklyn-brown@gleanerjm.com