Bullets&Blood

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IN SOME inner-city communi-
ties across the island, more than
70 per cent of the youngsters
are unemployed and have never
held a job.
For the young men, they will
only earn the respect of the community
when they have money to share widely
or when they have a gun and develop
the reputation of not being afraid to use
it to ‘mek a duppy’ (kill someone).
These angry young men generate
money through extortion, lottery scam-
ming, peddling drugs and armed rob-
beries.
“Food haffi eat … so man caa afraid
fi go look it,” said one young criminal,
who is steadily developing a reputation
in his community as ‘cold’. That is
someone not afraid to kill for whatever
reason.
“Me believe seh it is better fi dead
trying to eat a food (getting money by
an illegal act) than to sit down and dead
fi hungry … . A just so it go,” he said.
To compound the challenge facing
these communities, many of the young-
sters involved in criminal activities are
fairly intelligent and always looking for
the next scam or the latest scheme to
use their guns to ‘eat a food’.
However, many seemingly lack any
formal training, having dropped out of
school before the age of 12, and
engage in heavy smoking and drinking
long before they even reach the age of
consent.
Now they have little value for their
own lives, and even less for the lives of
others.
“Some a dem youth yah a ‘hot head’
… if you tell them to put it on (shoot
somebody), dem just do it, no question
asked,” one young inner-city resident
explained.
“Most of dem youth yah lose family
to crime, so them bitter … blood a boil.
…When dem hit the streets is not a
picnic or Sunday school … a life or
death,” added the young man.
While the young women, for the most
part, stay away from the hardcore
crimes, many of them are close to the
gangsters and will call on them for sup-
port if they are faced with a situation
they cannot handle.
The women are also known to carry
the guns for their men, while police in
at least two Corporate Area divisions
have information that some of shoot-
ings carried out in their areas have been
done by women.
A recent shooting outside a popular
Corporate Area nightclub was reportedly
done by a young girl who charged that
she had been disrespected by another
girl in the club.
One mother in western Jamaica
told The Gleaner that her daugh-
ter gave her a scare recently
when she asked the child what
kind of job her boyfriend, who
was always ‘up and down’ the road
in his flashy car, had.
“She just said, ‘Him a scammer,’
as if scamming is a job … . Me just
kiss mi teeth and walk weh,” said
the woman. “They have no shame at
all.”
And that lack of shame, and lack
of respect for life, is what is making
these young people the menace they
have become on the killing fields of
Jamaica.
• • gleanerjamaica • jamaicagleaner • BULLETS & BLOOD THE GLEANER, TUESDAY, JULY 5, 2016 D4
‘MOST OF DEM
YOUTH YAH LOSE
FAMILY TO CRIME
SO THEM BITTER’
FILE
Above:
A police-
man holds
a submachine
gun that was recovered
in March at Harbour
View, St Andrew.
Left: A gun recovered
this year.
1,055
Total number of
shootings in 2015