Political will needed to transform Norwood, residents charge

The usual buzz of activities has been replaced with a tension-filled air of uncertainty among residents and members of the security forces, as the country’s largest zone of special operations (ZOSO) in Norwood, St James, enters its second week.

The ZOSO was influenced by police intelligence that suggests that six gangs, fighting over turf, have been responsible for a spate of shootings and homicides that have spiralled to 66 since 2019, but while four guns have been recovered, and suspects taken into custody, since June 20, questions have been raised as to the lack of urgency from the security forces to find the plethora of high-powered weapons said to be in the war-torn community.

“They don’t know who they are looking for, or what they are doing,” said Calvin Biggs*, who has lived in Norwood for 25 years. “You cannot identify the criminals by flying over the area. There is no house-to-house search taking place, all they are doing is standing at checkpoints, and rarely checking vehicles.”

Members of the security forces are also frustrated at the lack of activity, with one military personnel describing the entire exercise as a mockery.

“They send us to pick up two rusty guns and then we are told to hold the space for social intervention work, no searching, no action,” the army man said. “They give us baskets to carry water.”

However, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Clifford Chambers, head of Area One, told The Sunday Gleaner that the strategy is deliberate.

“A three-pronged approach is how we operate in a ZOSO – clear, hold and build,” Chambers explained. “We are still in the clear phase of the zone, where members of the security forces tactical team, acting on intelligence, will be moving in to remove the threats. Threat, in this case, could be a person, illegal weapon or ammunition.”

After the space is cleared, it will be held and made sterile for state agencies to establish social intervention projects beneficial to the community.

However, Biggs and his domino buddies are not impressed, arguing that if the police are serious about stopping the illegal weapons, ammunition, and gangsters, a detailed house-to-house search is a must.

THE COMMUNITY SETUP

Norwood is located approximately nine kilometres from the Montego Bay city centre. It comprises the districts of Norwood, Hendon Norwood, Norwood Gardens, Hollywood, Greens, and Paradise Norwood. The community has a population numbering approximately 11,000, including an estimated 7,000 squatters.

The squatting phenomenon was sparked by the proliferation of new tourism jobs that emerged in the 1960s, resulting in the rise of 23 unplanned settlements, including Norwood, with successive governments failing to come to grips with the social ills, including the crime that is engendered.

Besides those who are dwelling on lands illegally, there are three formal housing developments established in the 1990s and early 2000s that are occupied by professionals in the education, health, outsourcing, and tourism sectors – namely Norwood Meadows, Ocean Ridge Estate, and Paradise Heights.

According to data from the Social Development Commission’s 2017 Norwood Safety Plan, Norwood has an estimated 3,244 households and a gender distribution of 52 per cent males to 48 per cent females. Approximately 27 per cent of the population is under 15 years and slightly under half of the population (49.8 per cent) is 24 years or younger.

The age dependency ratio stands at 43 dependent persons per 100 persons of working age, with a total labour force of 7,494 individuals – approximately 33 per cent of that number being between the ages of 14 and 24 years old.

Interestingly, there are no political strongholds within Norwood, but this was not the case during the reign of the notorious Stone Crusher Gang, which had its genesis in Hendon Norwood in the 1990s, and whose sheer brutality left a bloody trail throughout the western region.

Residents say the use of guns became more pronounced when politicians used the gangs to “intimidate the less fortunate and secure votes”. Residents feared yet revered the gang members as community protectors, and even Robin Hood-like heroes, because of their willingness to share proceeds of their robberies with the community.

RISE OF STONE CRUSHER

The top leadership steadily changed hands, and the younger leaders took on a more forceful image, opening the door to an era of cold-blooded murders, with the beheading of victims becoming their trademark.

“The Stone Crusher ruled Norwood, there were no other gangs, they were like the police for the whole jurisdiction – across all the 20-odd garrison communities – and if you disagreed with their methods, they would burn down your house or kill you,” one senior citizen recounted. “If they came to your house and said that they are hungry, you better start cooking. Those who could run did that to escape tyranny.”

But things would change for the worse with the emergence of the illicit lottery scam or Advance Fee Fraud, in the mid-2000s, where scammers led victims to believe they had won a drawing of lottery valued at several million dollars, but the cash or prizes would not be released without upfront payment of fees or taxes.

The scammers began to live large, buying expensive items and properties, and hosting high-profile parties, with Stone Crusher men operating as bodyguards for a percentage of their ill-gotten gains. But that arrangement did not last long because the fraudsters felt they were paying too much for security, so they went and bought their own guns.

“It really changed the vibe. Imagine struggling all these years and then being able to change your life, buy anything you want by just making some calls to some white people,” admitted a former scammer.

“Everyone wanted a piece of the game, and not only youths like me that live in the trenches (inner city), but everyone you could think of was hunting loot. But money makes and breaks friends, and the more money you got is the greater the need for you to get a piece (gun).”

The homes of the unemployed were soon transformed into more permanent structures, which more often than not was accompanied by a high-end vehicle.

According to the former gangster, turf did not relate to location but more to earnings from their illegal actions.

“They will kill you if you drive a better car than they drive or if it appears as if you are making more than they are making, anything can cost you your life,” he stated.

According to residents, the current move to introduce social intervention without finding and removing the guns is believed to be more a political move than an attempt to change the characteristics of the Norwood community.

“Any social intervention that demands the youths to work might not be enticing to them, especially when they can do nothing but make a call to the US and earn 10 times more, so they will not give up the guns, because scamming will never stop, there is always another way,” one resident opined.

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‘Old foot can come out again’

Norwood elderly welcome ZOSO peace

The explosive sound of gunshots was an acceptable norm for residents of Norwood in St James, prior to the establishment of the zone of special operations (ZOSO) last month, but the presence of the security forces has caused a welcome change for senior community members, who say they can live in peace again.

“Right now the old foot them take over, the place free up where old people can come out again,” said Charles Higgins*, a tradesman living in Hendon Norwood.

“The young boys who say they run things and that we the old boys should go one side, either run away or hide in a hole somewhere. We used to be sitting on the side of the road in the evenings and a car would drive up and all you hear after that is pure explosions, then when you look two or three on the ground … dead.”

He added, “That is the life people of Norwood have been enduring for years. But since the ZOSO, I have not heard a gunshot, not even one.”

The elderly (60 years and over) accounts for 5.2 per cent of the total population of 11,000 in Norwood, data from the St James Social Development Commission (SDC) says, while approximately 27 per cent is under 15 years, and 49.8 per cent is 24 years or younger.

However, this is worrying for 52-year-old businessman Derron Jarrett, who admits that his parents were the second persons to capture land in Norwood, but after watching the community transformed from thick shrubs to a war-torn concrete jungle, he is convinced that it’s no longer safe to raise children in the inner city.

“I have lived here all my life from 1974, that’s when Norwood just captured, this house is the second of such to be built here in Norwood,” said Jarrett, also called Brown Man. “It’s very hard because it’s so unpredictable, that when you send your child to the shop, they might not come back to you.”

Brown Man has been operating a laundry service in Norwood since 2010, and is hoping that peace can be maintained and business restored to a more profitable level, but says enhanced security measures might be the only solution, if there is to be real change.

Giving the police information will also cost your life, The Sunday Gleaner understands.

“You will be dead or shot in the mouth,” another resident advised.

[* Names changes to protect identity]

editorial@gleanerjm.com