Inspector Raymond Robinson of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) mobile reserve talks to a resident [deliberately kept out of the photograph] at the intersection of Ninth Street and Collie Smith Drive, Arnett Gardens, in Kingston last Tuesday. - Ross Sheil Photo

Arnett Gardens is not an easy place these days. One resident says its worse than Iraq; another says it's rotten; and yet another says it is dangerous.

In some parts of the community, children play on the streets and grown men and women crouch over tables to knock a few bones or flip cards. Despite this, you can feel the tension.

The police have intensified their presence in the community and have said they have things under control. However, from speaking with residents there you get they feeling that Arnett Gardens is a time bomb. On one hand, it can explode anytime; on the other, it can be easily defused.

A People's National Party (PNP) stronghold, Arnett Gardens falls in Dr. Omar Davies's South St. Andrew constituency. The community has been rocked by a resurgence of gang violence recently. Several lives have been lost in a bloody conflict which escalated a few months ago, but police and residents say this conflict has been going on for more than three years.

"It is not a political war. It is a stupid war over turf," Inspector Raymond Robinson of the Mobile Reserves tells The Sunday Gleaner while keeping watch over the communitylast week.

Insp. Robinson and his team of six police officers are positioned in an area of the community known as Pegasus. Their role is to be the buffer between men from that section of the community and men from an area known as Angola. Patrol vehicles are visible traversing the streets along with plain-clothes police in unmarked vehicles.

Despite the police presence, commercial activities in the war-torn sections of the community have been crippled. In Pegasus alone, three shops on one road are closed, thanks to the violence.

Makeshift barriers are mounted at the mouths of streets leading into Angola and some places in 'Top Jungle', signs that people are not taking any chances. Everyone is vulnerable in this community should violence erupt, even the children.

Meet Troy, a 15-year-old student of Charlie Smith High School. Troy lives in Wilton Gardens, more popularly known as Rema. Today he is in school. He has missed a few days over the last weeks because of the violence in Arnett. He says life there "nuh pretty".

"When yuh live and go school inna dem place yah, yuh eye dem affi open," the schoolboy says.

"Like now when war a gwan, mi watch di pickney dem flow. If mi si nuff a dem pon di road a move up and down, mi move, otherwise mi just kick back a mi yard," Troy says.

Children like Troy have from time to time found themselves in the firing line, especially in war-torm communities. Some 91 children were murdered in 2005 according to the United Nations Children Fund, which also says that more than 300 children have been murdered in Jamaica within the last five years.

Under control

The police, meanwhile, say they have managed to get things under control in the area now.

"Order is gradually returning; it is not as bad as in recent weeks," Insp. Robinson says.

"The majority of the people living here are law-abiding citizens and they want peace. It is just the few rotten elements that were causing the problem and many of them have run away," the inspector adds.

As recently as last Sunday, police recovered two AK-47 assault rifles in a shoot-out with a group of gunmen. Two men were hit in the exchange, one fatally.

But while the police are claiming some degree of success in the area, some residents claim to know the genesis of the war there and do not believe the end will come anytime soon.

"Is wicked (people) a fight wicked (people) and (those) who can mek it dun, nuh want it done ... Corruption and badmanism mix up ... This thing yah dirty, dirty!" one woman commented.

Believed to be at the centre of the conflict is the Tony Spaulding Sports Complex, home of the Arnett Gardens Football Club.

The Sunday Gleaner has learned that warring factions have an interest in controlling the immaculate complex, which houses a team which was once number one in the island. This though is just a fraction of the greedy pie for which men vie for there.

The Sunday Gleaner has been told that the current war is being waged by men who were all once members of the Bibow gang led by George Phang. An influential gang member engineered a split in the Bibow crew in 2004 and took with him nearly half of the thugs.

Soon afterwards, an attempt was made to unseat Phang who was shot 18 times in a drive-by shooting. A mini-war developed during which several persons were killed.

In 2005, Phang, along with brother Andrew and PNP candidate for West Central St. Andrew Patrick Roberts, spent Christmas behind bars after being detained by the police in relation to the number of shootings in the community. Then, nearly 50 persons were killed in the community within a three-month period leading up to the detention. The men were never charged.

Police have not pointed a finger at any specific persons whom they believe to be responsible for the violence in the community, but residents say the factions involved in the war now are hell-bent on controlling things.

However, Dr. Davies on Thursday declared that the community would be taken back from the criminals.

Renewed energy

"I have come withrenewed energy," he said, adding that there are enough persons in the community who are willing to partner with him and the police to fight the criminal elements.

"We are taking back our community from the criminals, not only because it is right, but we are doing it for the children. They deserve it.

"We have an obligation to give them a chance to be what they can be; not to be constrained by their parents' income and certainly not to be constrained by violence, but to be given the chance to blossom," Dr. Davies said at an opening ceremony for a new wing at the Iris Gelly Primary School in the community.

But Dr. Davies is without criticism as many residents say he knows how to get through to the strongmen there.

Former Prime Minister P.J. Patterson, who said he was speaking as a concerned Jamaican, suggested that the habit of Arnett Gardens residents referring to themselves as 'Junglists' may be a factor influencing the behaviours of some members.

"Stop calling yourself Junglists. You don't come from no jungle," Mr. Patterson said.

Can be done

Like Dr. Davies, Mr. Patterson believes the community can be reclaimed from the criminals and persons can again walk across borders without fear.

"It can be done," Mr. Patterson said.

"The security forces cannot do it by themselves. You could give them all the guns in the world it won't solve it; you can give them all the technology that they need; it will help, but it will not deal with the situation.

"You know, all of you know the people that are causing the trouble in the area. It cannot continue," said Mr. Patterson, who was guest speaker at the Iris Gelly Primary school function.

The former Prime Minister said he was confident that an end to the conflict could be achieved. As he spoke, a woman uttered "and it will be done". She later told The Sunday Gleaner that if people were united against violence in the community, the evil could be defeated.

"Mi very frighten, di pickney dem frignten ... everybody frighten. A pure madness a tek place, but it can stop," she said.

Another resident agreed that the community should play a more active role in eliminating the criminals, but noted that it was not easy to trust the police.

"People know who a di bad man dem, but dem fraid fi talk cause a di corruption. Next ting yuh tell di police an it reach back di man dem ears and a your name a call up, a scared young male told The Sunday Gleaner.

Name changed.

daraine.luton@gleanerjm.com