Cops prepare for ‘hell’ as at-risk youths return to school

Police targeting of gang activities in the crime hotspots of Newland, Naggo Head, Gregory Park, and Central Village has paid off with a reduction in murders, says Senior Superintendent Christopher Phillips, who commands the St Catherine South Division.

That has resulted in 10 fewer murders in the division year-on-year, but Phillips has warned that massive social intervention is needed within schools in these communities, especially with the full-scale resumption of face-to-face learning.

Phillips theorises that many already at-risk youths might have been exposed to any of the 20 known gangs in the division during online classes at home for long stretches of the two-year-long COVID-19 pandemic, which has kept school doors closed.

“We have seen where it has already started in some parishes, and I am predicting that we are going to have hell, for at least another year, with these children returning to face-to-face classes,” Phillips said in a Gleaner interview.

“... In addition to going after the seasoned gang members, we have to look out for the at-risk youngsters, who would have interacted with them. Some probably got involved, whether as look-outs, or [were] used as pawns in extortion rackets.

Referencing a football tournament his division hosted for youths in Gregory Park, Phillips said he was drawn to a particular player who he learnt was a dropout but wanted to get back in school. Arrangements were made with national training agency HEART Trust NSTA for intervention.

But the St Catherine South commander is aware that many at-risk youngsters might not be as fortunate and are in urgent need of counselling. He forecasts that as the country emerges from the shadow of coronavirus regulations, there could be “pandemonium” because some may have forged relations with seedy characters and got engaged in crime.

Criminologist Dr Jason McKay, who has studied St Catherine gangs and has been part of the fight against organised crime for almost 20 years, agreed with his commander, adding that the “small-space influence” was most recognisable post-2017.

“The surge in crimes started around 2017, seven years after we thought we had defeated them. The 10-year-olds became adults and took over where their relatives had left off in 2010. The failing was not with the police, but instead a lack of recognition of the small-space influence and its ability to continue creating criminals,” said McKay, who serves on the Special Operations Unit as a district constable,

McKay believes there should have been a major social intervention programme in 2011, a year after the security forces suppressed gunmen loyal to Tivoli Gardens don Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke, who is now serving a 23-year sentence in the US on drug and gun convictions.

“We have been having great success against the gangs, but we will need surgical social intervention to ensure the descendants of those apprehended, convicted, or killed in confrontations with the police will not follow that path,” he told The Gleaner.

The St Catherine South Police Division has a history of gang activity, resulting in a surge in murders for the period 2003-2009, with 163 killings registered in the latter year. An anti-gang thrust reduced the annual murder toll to under 100 by 2010, which was maintained until 2017.

St Catherine South, led by its Proactive Investigation Unit, CIB, and Special Operations Unit, has severely impacted one of the parish’s most deadly organised-crime networks, the Umbrella Gang, arresting 10 members.

The Umbrella Gang has been implicated in more than 100 murders in its decades-long history, during which it has been led by a convicted murderer who is scheduled to face parole this year.

Members of the gang arrested so far include:

1. Dwayne Douglas, o/c Breadie

2. Ian Langley, o/c Chicken Back

3. Jamar Drecketts, o/c Poochie

4. Edward Forbes, o/c Edmond

5. Craig Carty, o/c Vittie

6. Deamo Lewis, o/c Pookie

7. Kerval Fisher, o/c Fire

8. Shamar Maxwell, o/c Droopy

9. Patrick Harris, o/c Sparrow

10. Shamarly McDonald

In addition to the Umbrella Gang, St Catherine South has also moved against another well-established criminal outfit, Central Village’s Stinger Gang, led by the division’s longest-standing fugitive, Stokley Collins, also called ‘Pepper’, who has been allegedly linked to murder, shootings, and anti-gang offences.

Two menbers of the gang have been charged and warrants issued for others. The Stinger Gang wreaks havoc in the hillside community of Windsor Heights.

Factions of the Stinger Gang broke off to form the likes of Zambia Gang, which recently featured in the police blotters when four members were killed in an alleged shoot-out with the security forces.

Among those killed were men the Zambia Gang had reportedly recruited from east and central Kingston.

Three guns were recovered during the operation.

ainsley.walters@gleanerjm.com