Cops winning the fight against gangs
Published:Thursday | March 31, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Senior law enforcers say major inroads made in dismantling posses
Livern Barrett, Gleaner Writer
Police commanders have indicated that they have significantly disrupted some of the country's deadliest criminal gangs ahead of today's March 31 deadline set by their boss, Police Commissioner Owen Ellington.
Some of the gangs the police say they have destabilised are the Clansman and One Order, based in the St Catherine North Police Division; Presidential Click, Rat Bat and Stinger, based in the Kingston Western Police Division; and Dog Paw and Markie Puss, based in the St Andrew Central Police Division.
Some divisional commanders told The Gleaner that several top-ranking gang leaders have been killed or taken into custody and a number of illegal firearms seized during various anti-gang initiatives implemented throughout the 19 police divisions.
Donovan 'Don' Topping, a feared Clansman enforcer who had been listed as a major person of interest in several murders, is among those killed by the police, while Christopher Linton, better known as 'Dog Paw' and head of the Papine-based gang named after him, is now in custody facing multiple murder charges.
Other commanders have, however, refused to divulge the names of the most active criminal gangs in their divisions, fearing that those not listed could resume their nefarious activities out of "jealousy".
"Some persons are jealous when they hear other gangs being mentioned in any high-profile way, hence they will want to do things to prove that their gang is more active and deserve more money," explained Superintendent Beau Rigaby, who is in charge of operations for the St James Police Division.
"The high intensity of your criminal network determines how much you dominate a particular area. The more you dominate an area, the more feared you become. The more feared you become is the more money you can demand," Rigaby added.
New year's directive
The push by the police to crush some of the most active criminal gangs across the island is in keeping with a directive from Ellington, which was delivered in his New Year's message to the men and women under his command.
Ellington said then that each division should identify the top-three gangs in their geographical area and implement strategies to significantly disrupt their activities, "if not completely demolish them by March 31, 2011".
Despite the successes, the St Catherine North police have conceded that they are still faced with numerous challenges in their push to completely dismantle the Clansman and One Order gangs, widely regarded as the two most deadliest in the country.
Superintendent Anthony Castelle, who heads the division, said while the One Order gang has been "very" inactive, the Clansman gang has presented the biggest challenge.
"They (the challenges) are so many. They are the ones killing the witnesses; in some of the cases ... they are killing themselves. They are responsible for numerous amounts of murders in this division," Castelle told The Gleaner recently.
"What I do know, if we are not even able to dismantle, we are causing major disruption with both gangs," he added.
The Kingston Western police said they, too, had made "major inroads" in the operations of the top gangs based in the division and have identified some of the "key players".
Head of the division, Senior Superintendent Terrence Bent, said two key components of its anti-gang strategy will include social intervention "to change negative behaviour into positive behaviour" and the use of the Proceeds of Crime Act.
He, however, cautioned that uprooting these gangs would not happen in a short time.
"You don't just dismantle these gangs in three or four months. These gangs are well rooted, but we are very optimistic that within a short time these gangs will have been reduced in power," Bent said.
The Clarendon Police Division said its anti-gang activities have resulted in a 54 per cent decline in murders and 50 per cent drop in shootings in the first two months of the year.