Gareth Manning, Sunday Gleaner Reporter
Squatter homes in Clarendon. - Photo by Leonardo Blair
Jamaica is under siege from a rising squatter problem. Police say squatter settlements contribute between 70 per cent and 75 per cent to crime in the most volatile parishes. These informal settlements are remote and hard to access, law enforcers complain. Settlements outside of the Corporate Area have become havens for criminals escaping the law.
The latest survey, conducted by the University of Technology's (UTech) Urban and Regional Planning unit, shows there are 595 of these squatter settlements across the island and it is believed they house between 15 to 20 per cent of the country's population of 2.6 million. Eighty-two per cent of the squatter settlements are in urban areas, creating what is known to many of us as ghettos.
Their inhabitants are often poor and lack very basic social amenities. The communities are to a large extent built by the people themselves with non-permanent material that quickly deteriorates. The settlements are overcrowded and underserviced, and are usually equipped with illegally connected public utilities and services, posing risks to themselves and the environment.
Employment is marginal in many of these communities, leaving many people with little to do, the police say. Many men are engaged in farming, particularly in rural settlements, while those nearer to the urban centres are more involved in construction and vending.
In general, however, less than 18 per cent of males have full-time employment; 14 per cent have seasonal jobs; and, over 12 per cent are unemployed. Women are among those largely unemployed. Those who have an occupation are marginally employed as domestic helpers or vendors.
Raging problem in Clarendon
In Clarendon, the problem is raging. There are 22 hot spots and almost every trouble spot is a squatter community, police in the parish say, contributing 75 per cent to crime and general social disorder in the parish. Among them are areas such as Sandy Bay, Sevens Heights, Canaan Heights, Palmer's Cross and Race Track.
"Most of them are what you call capture [land] and they develop over time. Some of them don't develop yet," Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) in Clarendon, Derrick 'Cowboy' Knight tells The Sunday Gleaner.
The state of infrastructure in these settlements is similar to the description in the UTech survey. "There is no road. The lighting is limited, there is no water. As a matter of fact there is no sky. if you look in the sky, what you see is only the web from the wire that they run (to steal) light in these area ..." says SSP Knight. "Even if some of the places have road, the road is like a crater," he adds, while noting that these conditions presented severe challenges for the police to patrol the communities. "The social amenities are almost non-existent in most of these areas and these are things that fester and lead to crime," SSP Knight continues.
Hideouts
The remoteness and inaccessibility to the police of these communities make them safe harbour for many criminals escaping the law. Most of Clarendon's murders this year, SSP Knight explained were, in fact, committed by migrating criminals who manage to find ways of filtering into the community before making their presence felt.
"These men meet the people at their university, which is the prison system, build a relationship and then bring them in, house them for two or three days, make them do their due diligence by looking at the business places where they want to rob for a day or two so they understand the whole running of the place, and then lend them their gun to do the robbery. The loot is shared and the men are out," SSP Knight explains. He adds that sometimes the relationships are built by political ties where men who share a common allegiance to a political party form a link. "A man comes in and find a girl, builds a relationship for two to three months, commits a crime and then disappears," he relates.
In St. James, the problems are the same. The parish's murder figure has doubled since 2001, police statistics show, moving from 75 murders to over 176 so far this year. At least 65 guns have been recovered from criminals and 337 rounds of ammunition. There are 11 active gangs contributing to the murder trend, police say. They include the notorious 'Stone Crusher', 'Tight Pants Crew', 'Killer Bees' and 'One Order' gangs.
The gangs operate in mostly squatter dwellings just outside the parish capital, now well known for the horrendous murders committed there so far this year. The communities include Norwood, Granville, Salt Spring, Glendevon, sections of downtown Montego Bay and Flankers. Together, these communities account for 70 per cent of the parish's murders.
Some of the gangs have managed to create alliances with others to increase their control over sections of the parish, police add. The Stone Crusher gang in particular, has merged with two others and has increased its membership to 40. The police say the gangs fight for weapons, drugs and sometimes over spoils from lottery scams now plaguing Montego Bay. On top of those problems, the remote location of these troubled spots makes it hard for effective policing. The poor conditions of roads, poor lighting and the propensity of residents to blockade the road, all integrate to create added difficulty for them, Deputy Superintendent of Police Rudolph Taylor adds.
In St. Catherine, the problem is just as serious. Many of the communtities are located right inside Spanish Town, and like squatter communities elsewhere, their location and lack of amenities also create a barrier for the police. Many of the communities are controlled by gangs, chief among them the One Order and Clansman gangs. Among the troubled spots are areas such as Tawes Pen, Ellerslie Pen and other squatter settlements in the Portmore area.
