Sav-la-Mar youth hostages in their own town, says bishop

Stakeholders in Savanna-la-Mar, Westmoreland, are yearning for peace among the communities in the parish capital, but there seems to be no end in sight, as warring factions from Coke Street, Darling Street, Russia, Dexter Street and Gully Bank are refusing to agree on a truce.

The mostly underdeveloped seaside villages have been at odds since 2007, a conflict that has been inherited by the younger generation and has contributed significantly to the 52 murders committed in the parish since the start of the year.

“Last year at this time we had seven murders in the Savanna-la-Mar police area, but this year we have 15 for the same period, most of which emanated from conflict between these gangs,” Superintendent Robert Gordon, divisional commander for Westmoreland, shared with The Sunday Gleaner.

“The main concern of Savanna-la-Mar is the lower end of the police area, and that covers Russia, Coke Street, Seaton Crescent, Dexter Street, and that general area.”

According to Gordon, shooting is up by 19 from the 45 reported incidents last year, while rape, robberies and break-ins declined significantly. The police have also recovered 16 more illegal firearms than the eight seized over the corresponding period in 2020.

The police’s main concern is the current internal conflict in the notorious Delete gang between two cousins, which has triggered a spate of killings in recent months.

Bishop O’Neil Russell, pastor of Ark of the Covenant Holy Trinity in the volatile Coke Street area, recalls several failed attempts to stop the war, but says the distrust between the participating groups was such that any act of aggression during a friendly football game was said to be deliberate.

“We made several attempts to end this, including just before the pandemic started, when we staged a football competition among all the areas that were fighting against each other, but it was a tense moment, we had to have the security forces present,” he said.

“It is difficult to see how this war will end, no one man can stop this, because each time there is killing, there is a counter-killing and there seems to be no end to it,” said Russell, who has been a resident in Coke Street since the late 1970s. “Nobody is saying let’s find another way of resolving our disputes other than pulling the trigger.”

GENERATIONAL REVENGE WAR

Still, no one can say how it all started, and unlike other unplanned settlements, the war is not influenced by ill-gotten proceeds of the advance fee fraud or lotto scam, Russell claims.

He describes it as a generational revenge war, with Coke and Dexter Street teaming up against the other side, as he casually admits that his community is armed with illegal weapons.

“When this community kills somebody from across there (Russia), as long as it is, it will never change until there is revenge on a resident, even if they are not involved,” Bishop Russell charged.

“Our youths are living in fear, they can’t tell you when last they walk or drive to KFC, just one mile away. If they do, they will be killed by the other side, especially when you are from Coke or Queen Street. They are hostages in their own town.”

The situation is so dire that residents seeking medical care at the Savanna-la-Mar Hospital must get police escort to the facility, which is located along Barracks Road, an area controlled by hoodlums from Gully Bank.

Russell is the only resident in Coke Street that frequents rivalling communities and leaves unharmed, thanks to his role as a member of the clergy and the peace management initiative (PMI). He even suggests that The Sunday Gleaner team was only allowed into the community because the vehicle was marked, otherwise “a few young men would be checking you out”.

Like the opposing communities, Coke Street is “controlled” by a don, but when The Sunday Gleaner team requested a meeting, we were advised that he is overseas.

The don makes all the decisions in the community, including who gets the vote of the nearly 1,000 registered voters, but Russell claims that the political representatives do not associate themselves with the criminal activities in the area.

MUST PAY ‘TAX’

The communities are located on the backside of the business district and businesses must pay a ‘tax’ to the don’s representative on a weekly basis or face closure. However, Moses Chybar, the president of the Westmoreland Chamber of Commerce, says there is no such complaint from his membership.

These unplanned communities are bordered by the Caribbean Sea, providing a ready-made passage for the flow of illegal guns, which are supplied by the don.

The Reverend Hartley Perrin, the custos rotulorum for Westmoreland, believes that the illicit lottery scam has given power to criminals to purchase guns and possibly corrupt the police.

“What you find is that underneath all of this is the lotto scamming. This is where the money comes from to acquire the guns and ammunition, but my greatest fear is that this new-found power can even corrupt the police,” Rev Perrin told The Sunday Gleaner.

“I am in no way saying that the police are corrupt but from time to time you wonder whose side the police are really on, when they associate with some who you know are troublemakers.”

Russell also suggested that some of the police in the division have been compromised by association, creating a bigger challenge for residents who want to give information to the cops, but SP Gordon said that there are numerous ways to provide information on corruption.

“Anecdotally, you will get a report about corruption but when you seek to investigate you come up empty-handed,” Gordon noted.

“I want to identify the corrupt police, but we get a lot of information without adequate details. While these are somewhat volatile communities, it is just a small fraction of the people living in these areas who are really criminal-minded or even criminals. We have a lot of law-abiding people living in these areas.”

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