Hundreds held in Sp Town curfews

MORE THAN 200 people remained in custody yesterday evening after the security forces imposed two predawn curfews in and around Spanish Town, St Catherine.

The Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) yesterday said 275 males and two females had been taken into custody during the curfews, which started at 4 a.m.

"Of the 277 persons taken into custody, 70 have already been processed, interviewed and released," said Karl Angell, communications director for the JCF.

One homemade shotgun and an undetermined quantity of marijuana had been recovered by the police.

The usual early-morning exodus of Spanish Town residents to jobs outside the parish capital took on a different feel yesterday when security forces swarmed the area, blocking access to several roads and manning checkpoints.

As traffic crawled through the town, soldiers stopped motorists at random, ordering some to submit to searches.

A state of public emergency, which was previously limited to Kingston and St Andrew, was imposed at midnight Tuesday, giving the police and army leverage to staunch violence which has claimed nearly 200 lives in St Catherine this year.

Access into and out of Tawes Pen was restricted, with soldiers using concertina razor wire to cordon streets in the area. Heavily armed and steel-faced, the soldiers searched pedestrians and turned away all vehicles.

Shakera Hill, a 23-year-old resident of Homestead, said she was surprised to awaken to the sight of dozens of soldiers standing just outside her yard.

"Mi did know dem was going to come here eventually, but mi never expect so much o' dem, and so quick," she told The Gleaner.

For many residents, though, life went on normally, as hawkers were out at their usual spots on Young Street, taxis and buses crowded Burke Road, and shoppers patronised streetside vendors on Cumberland Road.