Leonardo Blair, Staff Reporter
CRIMINALS ARE migrating from the Corporate Area and surrounding communities, into other parts of the island, creating chaos and mayhem in their wake.
The police believe that this migration may be the reason for the decline in crime in the communities they are now covering, under the Government's new anti-crime initiative, and the flare-up of violence in other communities, which have no tradition of violent crimes.
Police officers currently monitoring violent inner-city communities such as Hannah Town, Tavares Gardens and Kintyre say there is a very strong possibility that criminals who once terrorised these areas have eluded the security forces and have taken up residence in other areas.
"We have carried out operations in these areas (Kintyre) and have apprehended men from as far away as downtown Kingston and there were warrants out for the arrest of these men," says Orlando Grant, sub-officer in charge of the Papine Police Station.
One investigating officerfrom the Greater Portmore Police Station, said the community of Portmore is now home to criminal migrants whose relatives or friends accommodate them when things get "hot" in the Corporate Area.
"What they (family and friends) do is hide them (criminals) when the pressure is on in the Corporate Area. They leave and come and stay with families and friends in Portmore and when they get hungry again they commit crimes," says the officer. "When people come and go like this it is harder to track them down," he adds.
On March 21, explains the officer, the body of 33-year-old Leroy Alphonso Gray, of a Seaview Gardens address was found in the trunk of a car in the Bridgeport area of Portmore. On March 13 and 14 the Portmore police also seized two firearms from men staying with friends in the community, who came from the Tivoli Gardens and Denham Town areas.
In May Pen, Clarendon, the police there are reporting an increase in criminal activities, which they say are in part due to a migration of criminals from the Corporate Area and Spanish Town.
The outsiders, say Constable Neville Bartley, of the May Pen Police Station, generally congregate in an area called Farm.
He explained that because Farm is surrounded by bush, it is very easy for the migrant criminals to elude the police.
"It is very difficult right now for us because the police are not readily obtaining the information from the people of this community because they are the ones supporting them (migrant criminals).
The police are appealing to friends and families who are accommodating criminals to start blowing the whistle, as they may be entertaining ticking time bombs of crime, just waiting to explode in their communities.
"We are encouraging citizens to report strange, suspicious-looking men to the police," says sub-officer Grant. "If we are getting more information we can do more to control crime."
"They don't understand that the more they support us the more we will be able to keep the area safe," says Constable Bartley.
There seems to be one positive side to the migration of criminals, however. It is now allowing many residents of the communities they leave to relax.
"Since the police come in the area we can all sleep with we door them open," says one Tavares Gardens resident, Carlene Gibson. "The only thing we need in the area now is some upliftment and work. Mi nuh want them leave, me wouldn't mind them stay."
Bouts of violence resulting in multiple deaths in Corporate Area inner-city communities, had forced many residents to run in fear for their lives.
The recent exodus started early this month when a number of residents left the Penwood Road, Olympic Gardens, area due to gang violence, triggered by the shooting death of two men.
Soon after that a wave of killings which left 10 persons dead and several others injured, forced scores of others out of the Kintyre community in St. Andrew.
Despite the recent flare-up of violence, however, police statistics indicate that fewer murders were committed in the country, in the first three months of 2003 compared to the corresponding period last year. This reduction is being attributed to the success of the anti-crime initiative.
The Constabulary Communications Network (CCN) reported that 193 murders were committed from January 1 to March 27, this year, but in the same period last year, there were 220 murders. However for March 2003, a total of 66 people have been murdered so far, compared to 59 for the same period last year.
Name withheld by request
