Howard Campbell, Gleaner Writer
A discarded vehicle, set on fire, burns out of control during yesterday's demonstration on Mannings Hill Road, St. Andrew. - PHOTO BY RAYMOND SIMPSON
POLICE FROM the St. Andrew North Division were kept busy yesterday along Red Hills Road, home to several businesses, many of which were closed due to protests that reportedly started early yesterday morning.
Corporal Machel Panton told The Gleaner that since midnight Monday, police teams were on the beat.
"Between that time and now (11:00 a.m.) we have cleared the roads five times, some people just waited till we cleared it and they put it (obstacles) up back," said Cpl. Panton.
Stephanie White, a mother of two who operates a beauty salon at the intersection of Havendale and Red Hills roads, said the protest was justified.
"Yuh can't inna a country an' yuh can't afford not even food. Dat nuh right," she said. "Mi have two pickney an' mi can't sen' dem go school 'cause tings too high."
Her mother Nomie, operator of the neighbouring Sally's Restaurant for 30 years, was just as vocal.
"Light too high, water too high, bus fare too high, crime too high," she said. "The Prime Minister can go to hell!"
There were similar scenes at nearby Mannings Hill Road where several placard bearers vented their anger. Dressed in the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) trademark green, some of their signs read: 'We want work, not words,' 'P.J. is worst than tsunami' and 'Government too savage'.
Like the protesters on Red Hills Road, they were singing the economic blues.
Derrick Smith, the JLP's Member of Parliament for North West St. Andrew and Spokesman on national security, was at Perkins Boulevard at the foot of Red Hills when The Gleaner passed through that area which had also had sections blocked by debris.
JCF HARASSMENT
He said party leaders were concerned that some demonstrators had strayed from JLP Leader Bruce Golding's call for a peaceful protest. He said the situation was not helped by members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force, whom he accused of harassing some protesters.
"We are concerned about two issues: one is that some persons not authorised by us, are setting up roadblocks to indicate their disgust at the level of rising prices," he told The Gleaner. "But the police have been going to areas and removing leaders of some of the protests because they believe if they arrest the leader, it will break up the protest. That has not worked."
The Constabulary Communication Network said it had no reports of police acting in this manner, but confirmed that a policeman was shot and injured while clearing a roadblock along Red Hills Road.
