By Tyrone Reid, Staff Reporter
Area Leader of the Southside community, Franklyn 'Chubby Dread' Allen, gives an animated speech at the official launch of the Central Kingston Task Team at the Jamaica Conference Centre, downtown Kingston, yesterday. - Ian Allen/Staff Photographer
WAR-TORN COMMUNITIES of 'Tel Aviv', 'Spoilers', 'Southside' and Rae Town in central Kingston have begun to embrace a new movement towards peace under the banner 'Gone Too Soon. Stop the Violence.'
The new movement the Central Kingston Task Team (CKTT) is geared towards maintaining law and order in the Parade Gardens community.
At yesterday's official launch of the CKTT at the Jamaica Conference Centre, downtown Kingston, Superintendent of Police Carlton Wilson of the Kingston Central Division declared the beginning of a "new day in an area known nationally and internationally for sporadic outbursts of violence and political and social segregation."
"Everybody knows that downtown Kingston has changed and this is not just because of the police but because of the people who are working in the communities..." Supt. Wilson said.
The senior officer gave two thumbs up to the organisation's for the fervent bid to "reclaim the future of the children, the grandchildren and succeeding generations from the clutches of crime and violence."
He noted that in 2002, 83 murders were recorded in the division compared to last year's 39, a 49 per cent reduction. He also stated that robberies and shootings were on the decline - 56 and 60 per cent less respectively.
The lawman, along with Dunstan Whittingham, chairman of the CKTT, and others who addressed the gathering, paid homage to the efforts of Grace, Kennedy and Company for its contribution to the project.
Several calls where made for other private sector organisations to come on board so that employment opportunities can be provided for the residents of central Kingston.
