- File
Residents of Southside and Tel Aviv in central Kingston in a unity march for peace in September 2003.
Glenroy Sinclair, Staff Reporter
AFTER EXPERIENCING a lull in homicides for most of the year, the 'Southside' community in central Kingston has experienced a resurgence of gun violence during the past three weeks. At least five persons have been killed and seven others injured.
Among the victims are 36-year-old Christopher Wallace who was gunned down Thursday morning along Fleet Street. On Wednesday, a 15-year-old youth, Ricardo Kelly, was shot and killed while pushing a hand cart along Andrews Lane. Prior to that, a man known only as 'Carl' was shot and killed a week ago on Water Lane. A fifth man was killed on Foster Lane three weeks ago.
The political directorate have not only denounced the violence, but have declined to sit in any more meetings to discuss peace with the rival factions.
"We have decided not to meet with any of the factions involved, because enough is enough. We have spoken with them over and over again. The police must step in and do their work," said central Kingston Member of Parliament, Victor Cummings.
CHILDREN DODGING GUNSHOTS
Mr. Cummings' view was supported by the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) Councillor for the Rae Town division, Rosie Hamilton. Reports are that some mornings young children had to be dodging gunshots while on their way to school.
Head of the Kingston Central CIB, Acting Deputy Superinten-dent Michael Phipps, said the police have already identified the suspects involved in the shootings.
"I don't care if they are big fish or little fish, we are going after them. We are now in the process of obtaining warrants for their arrests," the Acting DSP said.
The conflict is centred around a bloody turf war between men, "some of whom were happily partying together, playing football and rubbing shoulders in the dancehall, up to three months ago," DSP Phipps explained.
The central Kingston task force team has been very influential in enforcing peace in the area.
The central Kingston community had recovered from a choking 79 murders for the first six months of 2002 and 40 for the same period in 2003. Up to Friday the death toll stood at 40 so far this year.
Grace, Kennedy, one of the companies geographically located in the community, had implemented social intervention programmes to addressed the infighting between the gangs.
GRACE AND STAFF DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION
Francis Kennedy of Grace, Kennedy, said last year the company developed the Grace and Staff Development Foundation in which staff members make monthly contributions to the Foundation.
This, he said, amounts to $250,000 monthly. However, Grace, Kennedy adds another $500,000 each month, bringing the total collected to $750,000.
As part of the initial thrust to get the two warring communities together, the management of the Grace and Staff Foundation invited leaders of both communities to regular meetings.
"We found that nobody was talking to each other," Mr. Kennedy told The Sunday Gleaner in June of this year.
That was the point at which the acrimony and ill-will began to fester.
"We never closed a meeting without hammering out a solution to the problem or issue," he said, noting that some meetings went on to midnight.
