100 years, 100 murders - Growing up in the killing fields of Denham Town
Published:Sunday | May 4, 2014 | 12:00 AM
Erica Virtue, Senior Gleaner Writer
Hundreds of children on Easter holiday break were out in the streets of Denham Town, one of Kingston's many violent inner-city communities.
The decibel level of the noise from their play can do serious damage to the eardrum.
The streets are their playground. That is when they get a break from the trigger-happy, gun-toting criminals firing high-powered weapons in a community where nearly everyone is hustling or unemployed.
Beneath the laughter, however, the children carry the heavy burden of violence in their youthful days. Emotional scars which will mark them for life.
In one small area, less than a quarter of an acre, eight children with a combined age of 100 years - the youngest at nine and the oldest 14 - told The Sunday Gleaner that they have already seen, or have knowledge of, more violent crimes than their years combined.
The violence involved neighbours, close family members and even friends, who have been injured or killed by the gun, knives or machetes.
REGULAR OUTBREAKS OF VIOLENCE
Violence, to them, is as common as breathing, and "getting flat" (lying on the ground quickly) at the sound of gunfire is like a game for nearly all of them. The sound of police sirens is the signal of normality.
"I know about 20 persons right 'round here who have been killed," one 12-year-old girl said.
The nonchalance with which the information was reported was as 'normal' as playing with friends, and appears to be the new normal for children in violent inner-city communities.
For one 14-year-old high-school student, who also knows more than 20 persons who have been killed, her best friend is numbered among the victims.
"I ask God to protect me from all the perils and danger. Anytime I hear the gunshots, anywhere I am, I get flat, and I pray while I am flat," said the 14-year-old, with her eyes reflecting pain, which one so young should not be shouldering.
"I don't think they are really after children, because children are in their houses at nights and the shootings mostly happen at nights when the adults are out. I believe it's a big-people war that children get caught in," she added.
The presence of the police is her only comfort - most times.
One 13-year-old high-school boy counted more than 10 persons he knew who have been killed.
"You stay inside when you hear shots. If you are outside, you run inside. And you stay inside until you hear talking or hear the police sirens. We [are] used to that," the young boy told The Sunday Gleaner.
At his school, counselling sessions are not structured, but he can go and "talk with the counsellor".
For him, the shootings are a way of life, and he just return to the streets once they are over.
For another 11-year-old boy, the number of killings he can recall more than doubles his age.
"Nuff, nuff people. Tell the truth, most time, we feel like killing them back, but we feel better when the police kill them back," he said.
PAIN OF LOSING RELATIVE
While he spoke with a level of maturity beyond his years, he could not hide the trauma he felt when his cousin died.
"I was so afraid when she was shot and killed. I couldn't go in the house 'cause I feel she was in there," he said.
"Run inside your house if you are outside. Drop on the ground if you are inside and stay inside. When you hear talking, it's kind of safe to come outside," another 14-year-old high-school student added, sharing the survival strategy.
The presence of the police gives some comfort to the teen, who has to leave early for school in another parish.
For one nine-year-old primary-school boy, the almost-nightly gunshots bring terror.
"Run and hide behind the block wall, 'cause gunshots can come through the board walls. I hide until they stop firing. But when the police come, I feel safe to come outside," he said.
It's the same thing for another 14-year-old high-school boy, who lost his sister to violence less than a year ago, and knows as many as 30 persons who are victims of violence.
"Boy, tell the truth, people tired a di violence. Every day so? You have to run inside and stay inside. But you feel safe when the police is around," he said.
"Dem a war fi nutten and a just children a get killed," he stated.
For another 13-year-old boy, the guidance counsellor at his school encouraged him to talk about the more than 25 violent deaths he knows of.
"I don't think the killers know how they have stolen our future," bemoaned one teenage girl, with the maturity of a great-grandmother of yesteryear.