Targeting Grants Pen
published: Wednesday | December 18, 2002

Delroy Chuck

GRANTS PEN has the image and reputation of a volatile, violent and troublesome community. Incidents of violence, unrest and demonstrations reverberate in people's minds when Grants Pen is mentioned. Yet, for the past four years or more, Grants Pen has been relatively quiet. There is no gang warfare and, to the best of my knowledge, no organised gang operates there. Shootings and murders in the area are significantly down, when compared to five years ago. Still, Grants Pen retains the undeserved image of a restless, rampaging, inner-city garrison.

To be sure, Grants Pen is an overcrowded, urban ghetto, with a strong Christian tradition and with the most churches in comparison to any other community in Jamaica. Within a mile radius of Four Roads in Grants Pen, it is possible to find twenty or more churches, of various denominations, active, full on Sundays, catering and caring for the sick, old and weak, and generally ministering to the community in a wholesome, edifying and unselfish manner. Without fear of contradiction, there are more churchgoing, practising Christians, God-fearing citizens in Grants Pen than in any other community. One simply has to visit the area on a Sunday to feel the serenity, enjoy the calm and see the well-dressed churchgoers. Sundays are truly contradictions to the carnival of the weekdays.

Grants Pen in fact is a study in contrasts, between the good and the wicked, the opulence of those passing by and the poverty through which they pass, and the plenty of the surrounding communities to the deprivation of this contiguous, urban ghetto. I spend a disproportionate amount of my time and effort there, attending to people's needs, listening to complaints and resolving disputes. The Stella Maris Foundation is doing yeoman service, assisting the young and old, finding jobs and providing skills training. A Peace Centre, sponsored by USAID and managed by the Kingston Restoration Company, was opened in January and conducts personal improvement classes, dispute resolution seminars, business and professional sessions, and providing advice and assistance to the residents. The latest report from the KRC confirms that crime and violence have trended down this year. Why then was Grants Pen targeted for the curfew, cordon and search on Saturday and Sunday, 7th and 8th December?

For reasons best known to the authorities, a small area of Grants Pen was cordoned, put under curfew, searched and, as happened on the Sunday, terrorised. The cordoned area has not had much criminal activity, save and except a number of conflicts involving the police. Fagan Avenue, Shortwood Avenue and Morgan Lane, where there have been recent criminal activity, including the killing of the young schoolgirl on the gully banks of Fagan Avenue, were spared the cordon and search. It is simply inexplicable why, in this new crime initiative, Grants Pen was targeted, and in this selected area.

On the Sunday, 8th December, we saw some of the worst form of policing. Whereas community policing is desirable, the community of Grants Pen witnessed a nasty, brutish and depraved policing that cannot bring credit to the Police Force. Once again, young men, some 35 of them, were detained, some beaten and ill-treated, held in the hot sun for more than 6 hours, without food and water, taken to Constant Spring Police Station, unlawfully fingerprinted and videotaped, and later 31 of them, innocent no doubt, were released, without charge. Whereas on the Saturday, the police conducted themselves decently and interfaced humanely with the citizens, on the Sunday, it was a different story, another study in contrast, as brutal policing was practised.

A 75-year-old man was assaulted, injured and spent the next three days seeking and getting medical attention. Women and old people were abused and threatened. Innocent young men, going about their lawful business were stopped, searched and detained. This type of policing generates nothing but bitterness, resentment and distrust. Assault of this nature on targeted inner-city communities cannot instil the trust and confidence that are so necessary for good, effective policing. Will there be an investigation? Will anyone be held

accountable for the brutalities and atrocities? Will the innocent young men be compensated? With such gross injustices, can we contain crime and bring peace to the community or the nation?

Grants Pen is regularly targeted and assaulted. It is a community that has become a beating ground, a place to let off anger and emotional steam, for the Crime Management Unit. Notwithstand-ing that nothing was found during the curfew, the CMU returned again during the week, and again found nothing. Why is Grants Pen so regularly targeted? It is repeatedly abused and assaulted by rogue elements in the Police Force. On October 16th, Election Day, cops passed through Grants Pen Drive, shooting wildly, openly declaring that too many labourites live in the area. When the shooting subsided, two innocent young men, none of whom were enumerated and therefore incapable of voting, were shot. One victim, a young schoolboy, had his hand splintered and remains in hospital as doctors try to restore and save his hand. The other victim, a quiet Christian young man, was shot in his legs, scrotum, and on his penis, and, after a long period in hospital, presently recuperates at home. Will anyone be held accountable for the injury to these young men?

The people of Grants Pen are just tired of being targeted, assaulted and labelled. What have they done to deserve this treatment? By no stretch of any decent imagination can it be labelled a political garrison. Different political views contend and no one needs to hide his political persuasion. Democracy is encouraged and practised, comrades and labourites respect one another, and people are free to vote for the candidate and party of their choice. Simply check the General Election results in December 1997 and October 2002, and it can easily be discerned that Grants Pen voted no differently from the rest of the constituency - i.e. a strong majority for the JLP and its candidate.

If Grants Pen is to be targeted, then target it with jobs and opportunities, bring in investment and new businesses, build up the infrastructure, rehabilitate the housing stock, repair the bridges and gullies, provide playing fields and basketball courts, and treat the community with decency and dignity. The few heartless, dog-hearted, criminal-minded young men are well known and can be isolated and controlled, if the police really want to co-operate with the community. However, the mainly law-abiding residents do not deserve the image and reputation of Grants Pen as a criminal haven. Grants Pen wants to move on, to leave criminality behind and, with proper community policing, provide its residents with the safety and security every citizen deserves.

More Commentary