By Garwin Davis, Assistant News EditorSCORES OF angry residents took to the streets of sections of western Kingston yesterday morning, bringing traffic to a standstill and forcing the closure of several businesses. They were protesting against the killing of two men by the police on Saturday. A District Constable was shot dead shortly after this incident.
From as early as 9 a.m., the protesters, many of them bearing placards, started blocking several main roads in the busy commercial area of Princess Street, Orange Street and Beckford Street.
The police kept a watchful eye on them. Business owners, apparently fearing trouble, immediately started closing their shutters, a move which was to signal the closing of some businesses for the day.
Chanting "No justice, no town" the demonstrators then took their protest to the Denham Town police station, Spanish Town Road, but the police there hastily locked the doors and windows. Some protesters, mainly women and children, then started banging on the closed station door and they went away only when it became evident that the police had no intention of coming out.
"What they did was cold-blooded murder," charged Sandy Brown, a higgler and girlfriend of one of the men.
"My boyfriend had just arrived at his stall when they shot him. He didn't do anything and they just took his life with his baby clutched in his arms. How can this be right? Who do we turn to for protection? They asked us to leave the street and go into the arcade...this we have done and look what has happened to my baby father?"
According to the police, in response to information that a group of men were robbing persons and ordering them to leave the West Street area of downtown, a team of police went there and were met with gunfire on arrival.
They said a shoot-out ensued in which Ricardo Dwyer, 23, trying to escape, was killed by the police in an area adjacent the Princess Street/Spanish Town Road known as Back Market. Also during the alleged shoot-out, 26-year-old Dean Duncan, who residents say was a popular higgler in the arcade, was killed while attending to his stall. And in what is considered a reprisal, gunmen later shot dead District Constable Linden "Jono" Smith at point blank range.
Supt. Talbert White, head of the Kingston Western Police Division, in describing the protesters as "peaceful but vocal" said the police would continue to maintain a presence in the area to ensure that things did not deteriorate. His team was later joined by soldiers.
A businessman who declined to be identified in the story said the incident was bound to affect commerce in the area for the remainder of the week and possibly beyond, noting that "lawlessness had taken over the area again."
"Once again we see a general breakdown of law and order," he said. "Tell me, who is in charge here? All of this going on and there is not one policeman in sight. Can we run a country like this?"
