Hinds
Head of Operation Kingfish, Assistant Commissioner of Police Glenmore Hinds, says, while the same is not true for all communities, gang implosions are playing a significant role in the wave of murders plaguing volatile communities in the Corporate Area.
"If you look at the situation in Rockfort, it is a splintering of a gang, and quite often we see this where there is intra-gang conflict and it results in a breakaway," ACP Hinds tells The Sunday Gleaner.
He says the infraction usually stems from a disagreement over spoils and manifests itself in bloody struggles over turf.
"Sometimes that turf has some underpinning economic value, for example, the control of labour," he says.
Marauding gunmen
A week ago, marauding gunmen fatally shot seven persons in Rockfort, east Kingston. Most of the victims were women and children. The incident was followed up last week with an attempt to burn to death six other children in reprisal for the death of one of the two children killed previously.
According to one resident, who has been living in the community for several years, the killings are being caused by a leader who is losing his grip on the community and his followers.
"Him a lose respect ... you know how much a dem no really want in a nothing, but dem jus fraid," the resident explains.
"Di yute dem no want nothing fi do with him because him abuse people ... Him have him man dem fi beat them and ting like that, and you nuh hear nutten bout that. Now that them a disrespect him, him a try fi get rid a them," the resident relates.
Still not clear
It is still not clear who killed the seven persons in Rockfort. Some residents believe the murderous acts might have been carried out by those who felt disrespected by the old gang leader.
"Them (the youths) buy them own gun. When minister give them contract is that them take them money and do, " the resident states. "Him (the leader) can't talk to them because everybody have them own tings."
Social worker, Horace Levy, who has worked closely with communities in Jones Town, Craig Town and Mountain View, shares some of these views.
"A lot of youth can acquire guns of their own. Formerly, they couldn't so easily. They were dependent on a group leader or gang leader to do this," he says. "It's just a gradual process not so much of fragmenting, but people having their own machine and feeling free to use it," he adds.
"Mixed with the need to make a name for themselves and a declining value system, they kill anyone - including women and children," laments Levy.
Former gangster wants to help youth
Athaliah Reynolds, Staff Reporter
They called him 'Killa Brown.'
André Brown's story isn't any different from that of many other young boys growing up in the 'war torn' community of Denham Town, west Kingston.
Raised by a teenage mother and without the guidance of a father, he was inevitably heading towards a life of crime.
During his tenure at the Tivoli Gardens High School in Kingston, André said he was the leader of a "gang of about 14 guys."
The now-devout Christian said he once got suspended 12 times in one month.
"I would get suspended from school today and then I would be back at school tomorrow in another name until they finally catch up on me and put my picture up on the wall at school under the title 'Tivoli Most Wanted,'" he recounts. André said this made him proud as he took pride in the fact that he was banned from school.
At 16 years old, he was in charge of collecting extortion money from the minibuses that ran through his community. The vendors and wholesalers also had to pay him to keep their businesses going.
"At that time, I didn't have any ambition," he says. "I didn't have any dreams. I didn't want to do anything."
André says in his community it is a given that you do not live a long life. "I know I could die at any time and so I didn't care. I just decided I would live how I could until that happened," he relates.
Found hope
But amid his errant and delinquent years as a teenager, André found hope. Today, he is a member of the organisation, 'Youth Reaching Youth,' (YRY) - a faith-based organisation and a ministry of Swallowfield Chapel in St. Andrew. YRY aims to help young people attain their full potential. André tells The Sunday Gleaner the organisation helped to save his life.
The 21-year-old is now on track to start a degree programme at the Churches Teachers' College in Mandeville. The once misguided youth says he now dreams of changing the lives of other young men in his community.
