- Rudolph Brown/Chief Photographer
Soldiers were brought into Spanish Town, St. Catherine, last week to help restore order after gunmen stormed the area, causing people to flee for their lives and a shutdown of businesses.
Leonardo Blair, Staff Reporter
GRAPPLING FOR a solution to Spanish Town's crime problem, the St. Catherine Chamber of Commerce has pledged to provide computers for the embattled police there to help them manage their database of criminals.
But some business operators there feel that the police have got help time and again from the business community with very little result. They are suggesting more strategic community policing as an alternate solution.
The town, which has been rocked by bouts of gang warfare and scores of murders since January, was virtually shut down Monday after Oliver 'Bubba' Smith, the reputed leader of the 'One Order Gang', was murdered on Whitehall Avenue in St. Andrew.
Heavy gunfire erupted throughout the Old Capital after news of his death spread.
"The police in Spanish Town are a reactionary force at the moment. If they attempted more community policing then they might have a better chance of limiting the crime. It all stems from politics and it is directly related to the extortion racket," said Spanish Town businessman, Sean Wellington.
"How can one person, a gunman, cause the whole town to lock down? The word on the street was that we should close for two days," Wellington told The Sunday Gleaner. "Extortion takes place. People either deal with it the best way they know how. If you call the police, by the time they can do anything the criminals disappear into the woodwork."
President of the St. Catherine Chamber of Commerce (SCCC), Rudolph Green, told The Sunday Gleaner in an interview last week that despite the organisation's tight budget, it will be donating computers to the Spanish Town Police to help them prepare a database to track crime.
This move comes on the heels of a decision by business leaders in St. James to provide financial backing for police to stem crime.
Mr. Green was quick to note that the SCCC's initiative is not new as they have been assisting the police with petrol and helping to improve station facilities for sometime now. The request for the computers came last Wednesday at a parish development meeting where town leaders discussed methods to clamp down on criminal activity in the Old Capital.
CLIENTS DISAPPEAR
"Everytime you have a flare-up of violence clients disappear and it takes a while before some of them come back," said Dwight Cunningham, manager of the Insurance Company of the West Indies' (ICWI) Spanish Town branch. "We need to look at the social amenities available to the people in Spanish Town. Since coming here a lot of persons have approached us for assistance. There are some persons who definitely don't want to work and that's a difficult mindset to break."
PNP Councillor, Enos Lawrence of the De la Vega City Division in Spanish Town, was vigilant: "Let us call a spade a spade. I think what is really happening is that there are certain elements that are hell-bent on destroying this town. There are people who want to see this town improved but there is a division where that is concerned.
"The question of fear to inform the police is one of the issues. People need to just take the question of crime and violence in hand and put away the fear."
Clifford Blake, Senior Superintendent of Police in charge of St. Catherine North Division, attended the development meeting. He explained that it was very difficult for police in Spanish Town at this time as they are unable to track criminals without adequate equipment.
He told the meeting that since the start of the year murders have jumped by 68 per cent over last year. So far, 109 murders have been committed in St. Catherine, 89 of them in Spanish Town. There are 12 other police stations in the division.
Name changed to protect the person's identity
