Police Keeping Close Watch On Sections Of West Kingston

This plac­ard car­ries a strong mes­sage from res­i­dents of West Kingston who say they are tired of vio­lence in their communities.

POLICE have increased secu­ri­ty along Spanish Town Road, in the vicin­i­ty of Denham Town, after receiv­ing reports that res­i­dents in West Kingston have again come under threat from gang mem­bers locked in a dead­ly feud in the city’s west end. West Kingston res­i­dents said they have been ‘liv­ing on edge’ as the con­flict between crim­i­nals from Tivoli Gardens and Denham Town has esca­lat­ed. The gang­sters, they said, have now set up a so-called imag­i­nary bor­der where res­i­dents have been warned not to cross. “… They have threat­en to kill any­one from oppos­ing com­mu­ni­ties who try to pass that area,” said a man who resides in Denham Town. The man, who asked not to be named because of the fear of being attacked, was among a small group of res­i­dents who shared sim­i­lar sen­ti­ments with the Jamaica Observer on Thursday. “Right now the peo­ple are liv­ing in fear; police are doing what they can but the crim­i­nals find ways to work around them,” said a female res­i­dent from Tivoli Gardens. Member of Parliament for West Kingston Desmond McKenzie, con­firmed the reports about the attacks. “I have heard of the reports and the peo­ple in com­mu­ni­ties are call­ing on the police to increase their pres­ence as Spanish Town Road is the major hot spot,” said McKenzie.

He said that efforts by the police to bring crime in the area under con­trol was bear­ing fruits. McKenzie said the major­i­ty of peo­ple were buy­ing into the con­cept that crime in the divi­sion can­not con­tin­ue. Head of the Kingston Western Division Steve McGregor have also con­firmed receiv­ing reports of attacks by feud­ing gangs in the area.. “Police are keep­ing a 24-hour pres­ence along Spanish Town Road as we have heard about these reports,” said McGregor. Yesterday, one res­i­dent claimed that at least two fam­i­lies were instruct­ed to leave from where they were liv­ing because they had rel­a­tives in the oppos­ing com­mu­ni­ty. Police have warned that they would leave no stones unturned in going after crim­i­nals who were hell bent on cre­at­ing hav­oc in the area. At the same time, the con­stab­u­lary said its work with sev­er­al agen­cies have been mak­ing sig­nif­i­cant head­way in ‘break­ing the back of the crime mon­ster’ in West Kingston. It not­ed that pro­grammes such as the youth cur­few, under which young­sters under the age of 17 must be off the streets by 9:00 pm, as well as the pro­gramme where moti­va­tion­al speak­ers meet and hold dis­cus­sions with res­i­dents, have been wel­comed by the peo­ple of West Kingston. http://​www​.jamaicaob​serv​er​.com/​n​e​w​s​/​P​o​l​i​c​e​-​k​e​e​p​i​n​g​-​c​l​o​s​e​-​w​a​t​c​h​-​o​n​-​s​e​c​t​i​o​n​s​-​o​f​-​W​e​s​t​-​K​i​n​g​s​t​o​n​_​1​6​3​6​4​297