This play area at the entrance to the Braeton Phase III community has remained unfenced and largely unused for almost three years. It is reportedly earmarked for development by the Lift Up Jamaica programme.
Norman Grindley/ Staff PhotographerClaude Mills, Staff Reporter
The weed-choked children's playground, with its structures in various stages of rust and decay, stands at the entrance of the Braeton Phase III housing scheme like an accusation mark.
It is an early indication that things may have gone terribly wrong in the Portmore, St. Catherine, community which recently was the scene of one of the most telling examples of deadly force in recent history, as seven young men lost their lives in an alleged shoot-out with members of the security forces.
On the airwaves, the incident is referred to theatrically as the "Braeton Seven". And while all the deceased have been buried, the nation remains at odds with itself -- painfully divided between the twin emotions of remorse and relief.
The finger-pointing has already begun.
"The bodies are gone, but the problem remains," a resident told The Sunday Gleaner. "There is no unity in this community, it's everyone for himself. Is only when there is some sort of catastrophe that people try to come together, but Braeton people noh care about dem neighbours more than soh."
Some concerned citizens, strapped with guilt, are attempting to rally residents to ensure that there is no repeat of that Wednesday morning's dark events.
"I partly blame myself," one man said. "I took an aloof attitude at times when I could have got involved. I realise now that I can't live for myself and my family unit alone. People knew that these kids were in that house but did nothing. Neighbours are no longer kind and loving anymore, we have to get away from that sort of thinking ... we are all to blame for their deaths."
'Death house'
Today, weeks after the March 14 incident, outsiders -- some toting cameras -- still trickle into Braeton Phase III. Caught up in curiosity's ebb and flow, they make a daily pilgrimage to the "death house" on Fifth Seal Way, which suddenly has become a mirror of society's ills.
"Braeton is a microcosm of the Jamaican society. In almost all of the cases, the parents were either overseas, absent or hard workers who did not know where their children were sometimes. The last time I checked, that was not a crime ... the police just abuse dem power," one resident said.
Other residents have justified the police's actions.
"Dem fi dead! Look how dem kill off poor Mr. Locke (a shopkeeper who was shot and killed in Braeton) who never hurt a soul," a middle-aged resident explained. "From that, mi fear all of them. All the youths do is hold off ends, and smoke weed ... Some of the boys who died were maybe innocent, but what dem a do inna house with known murderers at 4 a.m.? Birds of a feather flock together. If dem wasn't wrongdoer, dem did a train fi do wrong. The wages of sin is death."
Others apparently agreed. A rally, planned two Saturdays ago by Families Against State Terrorism (FAST), did not generate much support from within the community. The youths are not surprised.
In recent weeks, human rights advocacy groups such as Jamaicans for Justice, and FAST have added their voices to the quest for truth with impassioned pleas for "due process".
Little change
Meanwhile, Braeton residents have to live with the memory of the March 14 tragedy. Some tell tales of young children experiencing nightmares about the incident and those who talk of ghosts, head-shots and loud explosions. The community's future is still uncertain.
"The youths dem a go bury and den is just back to the same old ting," a 19-year-old said. "Is months now mi a look a work since mi left school last year, and nothing nah turn for me. Everybody against me even though mi no tief or rob nobody, dem look pon mi suspicious. Mi a try keep off ah the road ... but yu dun know, nobody no care."
Other youths in Braeton echo similar sentiments of indifferent neighbours and "entrenched sufferation" -- a charge that is denied by the president of the Braeton Citizens Association Monica Powell.
"Something has to be done now," she said. "I'd like to know the young people in the scheme, and help them in any way I can. But Braeton can only be better if the people want it better.
"A lot of persons don't even participate in the community activities. This community is one of the hardest ones to get together. People nuh care, dem nuh business. We have been trying with this association for a long time. We were trying to form a police youth club one time, but it didn't work."
She also pointed to a need for a genuine community centre, and a play area for the children.
Owen Saunderson, the councillor for the Braeton communities who lives in Braeton Phase III, tried to remain impartial.
"I don't believe in a police state or in extra-judicial killings, but everyone who died that morning had a nice home to live in," he said. "They made a personal choice to be there. Everyone there knew that a gun was there. We need to change the mind-set of our youths, there are programmes in the SDC and HEART that they can take advantage of."
Mr. Saunderson, who is also vice-president of the National Workers Union added that in the past, several attempts were made to form a police youth club in the community, but "a club will only work if the youths have the desire to make it work."
There are plans for a meeting this morning of special interest groups, relatives of the deceased and residents to discuss how to approach the issue that has gripped the nation for the past three weeks. Even garbage collection is a sore point in the community. Residents complain that garbage collection, which is scheduled for Tuesdays and Fridays, is haphazard at best, and the area is often a filthy eyesore. Randall Williams, general manager of Garbage Disposal and Sanitation Systems which operates in Braeton, admitted that "there were occasional problems."
After March 14, even those seemed to have multiplied.
