By Glenroy Sinclair, Staff Reporter
Daley
SCORES OF residents of west Kingston, in a rare public show of support for the police, yesterday demonstrated against the proposed transfer of Superintendent Harry Daley, the commanding officer for that police division.
He is being transferred to the Inspection Branch.
Police standing on the steps of the Denham Town Police Station, Spanish Town Road, near the corner of Industrial Terrace, watched as scores of placard-bearing residents blocked the road with debris then sat in the street in the midday sun, at the intersection of Industrial Terrace and Spanish Town Road. The residents ordered motorists to drive elsewhere.
"If Harry Daley leave West Kingston now, a nuff gunshot a go start fire again. Him mek everybody can walk 'bout in peace again," a group of residents on Spanish Town Road told a Gleaner news team.
At one stage the situation threatened to get ugly when a police party removed the debris on Spanish Town Road. The police were heckled and verbally abused. Immediately after they left, the irate citizens mounted the roadblocks again.
ROADBLOCKS MOUNTED
Reports are that the residents began blocking the roads from 10:00 a.m. and up to 1:00 p.m., the police had not responded to the protest. A fire truck which was speeding to put out a blaze had to negotiate its way slowly around the debris to get to its assignment. Public passenger vehicles, including route taxis transporting school children from school, were forced to make about-turns.
Mayor Desmond McKenzie, who was seen near to the police station, said, "Is caught I get caught up in this." His vehicle then turned and headed back in the direction of Parade, downtown Kingston.
The roadblock stretched from Spanish Town Road to Race Course Lane and Collie Smith Drive in Wilton Gardens, Maxfield Avenue near Rose Town andintersection of Slipe Road and Hannah Street, near the Kingston Public Hospital.
Residents from the adjoining communities have been restive for the past week since word got out that Supt. Daley was about to be transferred.
Speaking with The Gleaner yesterday, a member of the Police High Command said that despite the protest, Supt. Daley would still be transferred on January 15. He served a stint at the inspection branch a few years ago.
There are reports that Supt. Daley was influential in winning back the support of many residents, following a four-day operation by the security forces more than two years ago in sections of the community, which resulted in 27 people being shot dead and more that 30 civilians shot and injured.
With the situation threatening to escalate, Supt. Daley pleaded with the residents to desist from blocking the road.
"I will still be in the Corporate Area, I am not going far," he told them.
