Life returning to Barrett Town
St James community healing from the deep wounds inflicted by the Ski Mask Gang’s reign of terror
Published:Sunday | April 2, 2023 | 9:58 AMAlbert Ferguson - Sunday Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
Ninety-eight-year-old Maysie Reeves-Mattis would never have imagined that Barrett Town, the community where she has lived all her life, would be overrun with gun-toting hoodlums, wreaking havoc and forcing families to abandon their homes for safer ground.
In her early years, there was no need to fear, as community members, mostly descendants of rebellious slaves owned by the Barrett family in the 18th century, sought to improve their lives by forming the St James settlement.
Today, she is hoping that the community can fully heal and return to its former glory, having been freed from the deadly clutches of the Ski Mask Gang six years ago.
For several years gang leader Oswyn ‘Ski Mask’ Jarrett and his cronies terrorised the residents of • Barrett Town and neighbouring communities, with the police reporting that they were responsible for over 20 murders and shootings, including women and children. The gang was also linked to rapes and other crimes in western Jamaica.
A shoot-out with the police in 2017 ended their reign of terror.
“In those early days, you could walk any hour of the day, because no one would trouble you. The only thing people were afraid of in the night was duppy,” Reeves-Mattis told The Sunday Gleaner last week.
Back then, residents lived so neighbourly that they would cook enough to share with each other.
“We would share the neighbour’s portion in the calabash, no matter how small,” she recalled fondly. “That’s how we used to live, but not anymore.”
“First time, when you heard about murder you were afraid, but these days you can’t even bother to be afraid again because it deh right under your nose every day. You get so used to it,” said Reeves-Mattis, affectionately called May-May.
PERFECT BREEDING GROUND FOR CRIMINALS
The police revealed that the problems for the oceanfront community began when a flood of persons migrated from rural areas in search of employment opportunities in Montego Bay. But with little or no housing solutions available, many chose to capture lands, giving rise to some 23 unplanned settlements across St James, creating the perfect breeding ground for criminals and a nightmare for the security forces.
According to the police, the more congested the unplanned settlements became, the more they gave rise to criminal organisations such as the infamous Stone Crusher Gang, who were glorified as modern-day Robin Hoods across the garrisons in the west.
Barrett Town soon developed a reputation of notoriety, with imaginary battle lines drawn as internal conflicts escalated to crisis proportions driven by the cold-blooded Ski Mask Gang. Jarrett and his gangsters breed fear into the residents, firebombing homes, killing many and leaving several families homeless and terrified, forcing many to flee the community.
Clinton Burnard, president of the community development committee, said on average a murder would occur every three years prior to the rise of the gang. But things escalated drastically once they took root, made worst by infighting among the gangsters over ill-gotten loot.
In January 2017, six of the gangsters, including Jarrett, were killed in a gun battle with a police-military patrol in the quiet Goodwill community located on the St James-Trelawny border.
A seventh member, Jermaine Samuels, otherwise called ‘Badbwoy’, was fatally shot during a confrontation with the police in Settlement district, Old Harbour Bay in St Catherine days later.
In November 2018, Husana ‘Reds’ Johnson, who the police labelled as one of the key operatives of the rebranded Ski Mask Gang that fled the Barrett Town area, was arrested in Bunkers Hill, Trelawny, and slapped with a slew of charges ranging from shooting to illegal possession of a firearm after four identification parades.
SERIOUS DECLINE IN CRIME
“Since the dismantling of the gang, we have seen a serious decline in killings and shootings in the Barrett Town space,” Burnard said. “People are now able to move around freely and conduct their regular day-to-day affairs, and some who had left have since returned and reclaimed their property.”
One resident, who gave his name as Gervis, said the residents are feeling much better, and the fear no longer exists.
“We might have one or two incidents, but not to the level it once was. There is now peace, especially in the Jenkins area of the community where people had to run and leave their homes,” he said.
Anthony Murray, councillor for the Rose Hall division in which Barrett Town is located on the northwestern tourism elegant corridor, said the image of the community is being restored.
“The image of the community took a battering during the period of the Ski Mask Gang, but the days when Barrett Town was associated with crime and violence no longer exist,” Murray told The Sunday Gleaner last week.
But Reeves-Mattis is not taking anything for granted and is hopeful that the residents will act with greater care in opening their doors to strangers.
“I would like the young people to understand that it is important to live in peace and love. We need to get back to the days when we never hear about any killing going on inside here,” said the elderly woman. “The days when girls and boys eating, drinking and going to dance together until three and four in the morning, with nothing to fear.”
She added, “But I am not afraid, even in these days, because I have faith that God will not allow those people to come to disturb me because I am not in their way and those who born and grow up in Barrett Town and know May-May won’t disturb me; it will have to be a stranger.”
CRITICAL COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
Following the end of the Ski Mask Gang’s reign, the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF) stepped in with the World Bank-funded Integrated Community Development Project (ICDP).
The initiative was designed to enhance citizens’ access to basic infrastructure and services, as well as to increase community safety through targeted, comprehensive violence prevention programmes.
It implemented critical infrastructure and services, such as a greenspace, zinc fence substitution project, improved solid waste management with the introduction of skip enclosures and a recycling initiative, road rehabilitation, improvements to drainage and water supply, and rehabilitation of the Barrett Town Primary School, including the setting up of a greenhouse.
Impacting over 5,000 citizens, Barrett Town is one of four informal settlements in St James to benefit from the ICDP. The other three are Anchovy, Salt Spring and Granville.