Glenroy Sinclair, Staff Reporter
This elderly woman looks in distress over her fence at a scanty but very tense Bray Street in east Kingston on Wednesday, March 9, 2005. The ongoing gang war in the area has left more than eight people dead in recent weeks. - NORMAN GRINDLEY/DEPUTY CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER
MORE THAN 50 persons were detained yesterday during a joint police/military operation carried out in the hotbed of Franklyn Town and McIntyre Land (Dunkirk) in east Kingston.
"They are being processed now and those who are not wanted will be released," Superintendent Doric Sinclair, the commanding officer for the Kingston Eastern Division, told The Gleaner yesterday.
At least eight persons have been shot and killed between Franklyn Town, McIntyre Land and Bray/Black streets, during the past six weeks. Several are nursing gunshot wounds. Also, scores of persons have reportedly been fleeing their homes as a result of the violence.
The Gleaner has learnt that residents from Waveland, a small board settlement above McIntyre Land, York Street and Bray Street are the ones mostly affected.
The once busy thoroughfares where people once conversed and children played, are now deserted. According to residents, their traumatised children have been unable to attend school.
Reports are that at least one of the affected families is being housed temporarily on the compound of the Elletson Road Police Complex.
Further reports are that the police have intervened and offered to provide counselling for the traumatised teachers, parents and students in the community.
CALLS FOR CURFEW
Central Kingston's Member of Parliament, Victor Cummings, who's constituency include Franklyn Town, said he knew personally, the four persons killed in Franklyn Town.
"Nobody seems to know what they are fighting for. I am calling on the security forces to curfew the area, lock down the community and search every houses for guns," said Mr. Cummings.
Residents of nearby McIntyre Land said since the upsurge of violence in the community, they have not seen their Member of Parliament, Phillip Paulwell. They claimed he is too busy trying to cool down another gang feud in the Rockfort area.
The residents are also accusing Black/Bray streets residents of switching allegiance to the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP). They said gunmen want to chase them out and take control of the McIntyre Villa housing scheme.
