SOS | Logwood working to shake stigma as haven for criminals

Haunted by years of gang feuds, murders and extortion, residents of Logwood in Hanover, having been forced to embrace a culture of silence, are now desperately seeking to remove the stigma of being a haven for criminals.

The political representatives at the local and central government levels appear to be singing from the same hymn sheet, despite differing political loyalties, but the police and some residents in the community are voicing a different tune.

“In my understanding, most of the things that happened are not internal,” said Marvell Sewell, councillor for the Green Island division in which Logwood is located.

“We have situations here where we know that outsiders come in and create the crimes and it paints a bad picture for Logwood, so I think the stereotype is really higher than the reality. It’s just a stigma which at times spills over to give a bad image of Logwood.”

When contacted, Tamika Davis, member of parliament for Hanover Western, was unable to speak at length to The Sunday Gleaner as she was heading to a meeting, but was quick to suggest that criminality in Logwood is of the past. A later promised interview did not materialise as calls to her cellular phone went unanswered.

NOTHING HAS CHANGED

While there is a slight lull in gang activities in recent times, the police have said that nothing has changed since the gang feud between the 100-Rounds/Crocs and the Ants Nest gangs escalated in 2017.

Both gangs finance their criminal enterprise from extortion and lottery scamming activities and have created imaginary borderlines in the small tourism-dependent community.

“The area is very tense and there is a lull, yes, because the leader of the 100-Rounds/Crocs gang is in prison, but there is evidence that he still operates and manipulates the space. We have been targeting individuals who basically run the operations for this person, but the situation there is just as volatile,” said Detective Sergeant Jermaine Jenkins, head of the proactive investigations unit in the Hanover Police Division.

While murders in the area have dropped, Jenkins says the police have maintained a significant presence, targeting the individuals who they think are seeking an opportunity to carry out acts of violence.

“They are bringing this lottery [scamming] thing to a whole new height of sophistication. It is not the normal scenes where back in the day you find a man with a lead sheet in a house dialling on the phone,” Jenkins told The Sunday Gleaner. ‘’The gangs have taken the lottery scam to a new level.”

Extortion is also a challenge, with victims afraid to give the cops information.

Jenkins, who has been tracking the gangsters since 2013, said while criminals continue to get support from some community members, the police are also receiving valuable support from law-abiding citizens, which has led to the apprehension of some of these criminals.

Unlike other crime-ridden communities, Logwood has all the basic amenities, such as water, light, and Internet, while the road infrastructure is in decent condition. The community centre is also in good condition and can facilitate several sporting disciplines.

There are about 3,000 residents living in the community, most of whom are employed in the hotel sector, while farming is slowly losing its appeal. Motorcycles are the favoured mode of transportation, with a thriving but illegal bike taxi trade the sole means of earning for many.

PERIOD OF CALM

Furniture maker Garfield Williams said he was concerned with the level of crime in his community, but theorised that curfews established by the authorities under the Disaster Risk Management Act have restricted the movements of the gangsters, resulting in the current period of calm.

“At first, things did nice here, but the young boys spoiled it. It has gotten fuzzy since the [lottery] scamming come in and man grudge another man over their gains, some pitching down one another,” he said.

“This curfew thing, it helps us out a lot because it is the longest time we haven’t heard anything bad. Most of the time, they (gangsters) have to come off the streets early.”

For Joyce Smith, the senior justice of the peace and president of the Community Development Committee in Logwood, she is troubled over this ongoing feud among gangsters.

“I am sick and disturbed about what is happening in and around the community,” she told The Sunday Gleaner. “I don’t know where the guns came from all of a sudden. I am just assuming that it has to do with the lottery scamming, because some of the young men who I heard are holding guns, it could only be coming from scamming.”

Her suspicion of those involved in lottery scamming is based on their sudden change in fortunes without any legal means of earning, and the fact that they are the ones who are subsequently killed.

Smith’s dream is for the community to get back together, and the imaginary lines erased.

“Our community needs some sort of intervention; I don’t know what or how we are going to go about doing it, but it needs help. I am not afraid, but other members of the community might be, especially the young people. I can talk to any one of the young people in the area and I can go on any street without fear, but not everyone can,” she shared.

Councillor Sewell is hoping for a new health centre in the community, turning the current one into a police post.

There are now plans to meet with the warring factions, but there are still uncertainties as to how this will happen.

However, one young man, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said talks have not helped over the years.

“Not very long ago, we had a shooting where five persons – all young men who were heading home from a wake – were shot and injured. Nobody knows why; how can that be?” he reasoned.

mark.titus@gleanerjm.com