Bullets&Blood

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• • gleanerjamaica • jamaicagleaner • BULLETS & BLOOD THE GLEANER, TUESDAY, JULY 5, 2016 D3
IN ST James’ informal communities,
the majority of which exist in the
northwest region of the parish, it is
not uncommon, especially in gang
conflicts, to see groups of young
men, high on weed and alcohol,
walking around their communities with
high-powered rifles, ready to kill at the
slightest provocation.
The rough and tumble of inner-city life
often gives birth to, and maintains, deadly
gangs and violent confrontations. For many
who survive these communities, the realities
of ghetto life are not without scars. It is
often from this background that some per-
sons join the police force and other forms
of employment. They become formally
engaged while maintaining connec-
tions to the gangs of their childhood
and home communities.
In the western city, from as far
back as 2006, when the lottery
scam first came to the fore,
then Assistant Commissioner
of Police Denver Frater
warned that with the
money generated
through the scam,
criminals were able
to move out of inner
cities and buy
high-powered
guns and fast cars to increase their capacity
to wreak havoc and speed away in mere
minutes.
“Unless these guys are reined in quickly,
the region could pay a heavy price in the
not-too-distant future … . With high-pow-
ered weapons in the hands of criminals, we
are bound to see more murders,” warned
Frater.
While the Law Reform (Fraudulent
Transactions) Special Provision Act, 2013,
has been enacted, allowing for the extradi-
tion of scammers to the United States, their
imprint has grown so big that the areas
under their influence have become killing
fields, making Montego Bay the nation’s
most murderous policing district.
Earlier this year in the Shanty Town area
of Norwood, one of the city’s
unplanned/informal communities, four
rifle-wielding thugs walked into a cookshop
shortly after midday and murdered the
operator and two customers, all because the
operator allegedly threw water on a phone
belonging to a woman, who is said to be in a
relationship with one of the gangsters.
“This is an example of the kind of sense-
less killings we are having in St James … .
A dispute developed at the cookshop over
water getting into a phone … . The rest is
history,” said Senior Superintendent of
Police Steve McGregor, then commanding
officer for the parish.
“The owner of the cookshop is dead and
[so, too,] two innocent bystanders, just over
a dispute of water getting into a phone.”
‘UNLESS THESE
GUYS ARE REINED
IN QUICKLY, THE
REGION COULD PAY
A HEAVY PRICE’
FILE
In this 2013 photograph,
Senior Superintendent
Steve McGregor points
to five illegal guns that
were seized in Luke
Lane, Kingston.
211 204 In 2015, St James recorded:
murders shootings