Chuck: Not negotiation, but communication

Chairman of the Violence Prevention Alliance (VPA), Dr Elizabeth Ward, believes that the multi-stakeholder approach used in Grants Pen, St Andrew, to bring the conflicting gangs in the past together to iron out their differences and chart a road map towards lasting peace can be replicated in other crime-torn communities.

“It is important to maintain the peace and to teach the story and to stop the rumours that you cannot talk to people to get them from killing each other,” said Ward, a senior epidemiologist who has devoted much of her time helping solve the crime problem facing communities across the country.

On the question of whether the relative calm that has prevailed in Grants Pen can be replicated in some troubled communities across the island, Ward said: “You have to get the right people around the table, you have to get the data and you have to make sure that everyone has a seat at the table.”

Achieving a certain level of stability in a community that was once characterised by daily carnage, stemming from the barking guns of gangsters who targeted each other at will, is not easy to accomplish. However, Ward has suggested that with consistent hard work involving all the critical stakeholders, there can be a peaceful outcome.

“We have to ensure that they are going to work consistently and we have to make sure that the police are a part of the solution and everybody understands each other’s role,” she told The Gleaner.

National debate

Last week, State Minister Homer Davis ignited national debate when he suggested that the police and Government appease gangsters to end deadly conflicts. His suggestion was shot down by National Security Minister Dr Horace Chang, who charged that the Government would not sit down with criminals.

But Delroy Chuck, the minister of justice who is also the member of parliament (MP) for St Andrew North Eastern, where Grants Pen is located, told The Gleaner that with the help of the Christian Ministers’ Fraternal, he was able to bring gangsters together to discuss solutions that dramatically reduced conflicts and brought about relative peace.

Sharing examples of how he confronted the situation in the mid-’90s, Chuck said there was a flare-up between two sections of the community called Top Gully and Bottom Gully.

Chuck, along with the Reverend Ian Muirhead, met with about 50 young men from Top Gully and decided to have them hold talks with their counterparts from Bottom Gully to address claims and counterclaims of which side started a conflict.

“When I reached down Bottom Gully, they call me to say that the police are up there and asking for two trucks to come down to take up all the boys,” said Chuck.

The MP said that when he went to the police, a corporal told him that he came to take all the young men into custody. However, Chuck said he asked the officer who exactly he wanted.

Muirhead chimed in to say that the police wanted to also “put five pastors into the truck as suspects”. The clergyman recalled that Chuck asked the police if they were “crazy”.

“At the end of the day, he (corporal) identified three fellows he believed he wanted. They went up there (Constant Spring Police Station). They had nothing on them, and they were released within half an hour,” Chuck said.

The politician made it clear that every time he had meetings with the gangs, he informed the Ministers’ Fraternal as well as the police.

“They were aware that I was sitting on the gully bank with them.”

Chuck explained that the gangsters did not trust the police, and as such, they did not want the cops at the mediatory sessions.

“We have had umpteen meetings with them and at no time do they want [the police] to be there,” Chuck confirmed.

“We need to get them to communicate, not to negotiate,” he said.

Fighting over misinformation

The MP explained that oftentimes, they were fighting over misinformation, noting that each gang blamed the other side for a wide variety of things.

When they meet to thrash out their differences, Chuck said it became evident in many instances that the allegations amounted to misinformation.

“Unless you can get them to communicate, they are going to be fighting, and the sad thing is that when they are fighting one another, it’s innocent people who often get hurt.”

Chuck said that before he walks away from the political scene, he wants to see a significant improvement in the quality of life of the people living in Grants Pen.

“One of the things that I have said is that I would like to see all the infrastructure within the Grants Pen community and Barbican built out properly. People think when I say that that I am interested in gentrification, which means moving out and then putting in some buildings.”

Chuck is suggesting that he could bring property owners and developers together with the aim of building out their properties.

“They might put in 20 apartments of which you can get five and the developers sell 15,” said Chuck, noting that ultimately property owners can benefit from joint-venture projects.

edmond.campbell@gleanerjm.com