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Mandville cries 'Murder! Thief'
By Rhoma Tomlinson Sunday Observer writer Investigative Coverage Unit [email protected]
Sunday, June 21, 2009
MANDEVILLE, Manchester - The good thing was that on this occasion the victim had the last laugh.
But for residents of this once sedate Manchester capital, the abduction of a woman in broad daylight in late May by men posing as police was a crude wake- up call that emphasised how criminals had invaded their space.
Bustling Mandeville town centre where surveillance cameras will be mounted
The report carried by the Sunday Observer tabloid stablemate, Chat! said that a Manchester woman who was driving along the Winston Jones Highway at 11:30 that May morning, was 'pulled over' by men dressed in 'red seam' clothing. She assumed they were police officers.
While one man asked to see her car papers, the other jumped in the car, brandished a gun and ordered her to drive. She was gun-butted and robbed, but to the shock of her assailants, the woman blasted the gunman with pepper spray and stabbed him in the thigh with a pair of scissors, before escaping what might have been a worse ordeal.
The woman in this true horror story has become a sort of folk hero to residents of Mandeville who have long taken their relatively crime-free environment for granted.
Police have made no headway as yet with the crime. But Manchester's crime chief, Deputy Superintendent Barrington Daley said it should be treated as a signal that everyone - ordinary citizens, motorists and police - needed to be more vigilant and for all motorists to be absolutely sure before stopping even for those they assume to be police.
"Ensure that you see a marked vehicle. If you're not sure, drive away to the police station. Our officers will understand, we have sensitised them that this has happened and may happen again," Daley advised.
Mandeville Police Station pushing for community policing.
"We've told them to give the motorists the benefit of the doubt. It's a difficult choice, but it's better to drive away to the police station, than to be held by would-be police officers. Our officers are trained to know that they must not shoot at a moving vehicle." he assured.
But it will take a bit more than assurances to calm residents who fear that the slump in bauxite mining and alumina processing that resulted in the closure of the two plants in the Manchester mining area - Alpart and Kirkvine - will now make an already bad situation worse.
"With the fallout in the economy, and what's happening with bauxite, people will become impatient and turn to these things," said Manchester Chamber of Commerce president, Winston Lawson.
Gas station operator, George Bird, whose entire stock of the two daily newspapers was stolen from in front of the gas station shortly after their early-morning delivery recently, expects more such incidents as hard times kick in.
DALEY... says robberies and break-ins are major areas of concern
"I remember the days when you could boast that there is no crime in Mandeville. But with the economic downturn I expect that things may get even worse than it is now. Everyone will just have to be more vigilant and support the police as best we can," he said.
Similar sentiments came from Jasmine Pottinger, president of the Central Manchester Returned Residents Association. "With unemployment rising, I expect the crime situation will get worse, and right now it is bad - a lot of people are seeking the easy way out. The police have a tough job and need all the help they can get," she said.
Things had started to look good for Manchester when the murder figures dropped to 16 so far this year, compared with 23 in the same period last year. In 2008, there was an unprecedented 52 murders across the parish over the 12-month period.
But any solace from that reality is dampened by figures that suggest robberies, burglaries, rape, carnal abuse, and shootings are increasing parishwide. Anecdotal evidence also suggests an increase in criminal activity in and around Mandeville. Daley admitted that robberies and break-ins "are major areas of concern" for the police.
Break-ins are up from 47 between January and June last year, to 186 since the start of this year, a 400 per cent increase. Robberies, up more than 100 per cent from 33 last year to 71 so far this year, have been taking on a new trend.
Daley said there had been reports of criminals lurking in banks and watching for persons who make large withdrawals. They are then trailed and robbed. Since this new trend intensified last year, the police had been working with the banks to report any suspicious persons, he told the Sunday Observer.
But at least two recent robberies in Mandeville, suggest that the robbers may be becoming even more daring. A prominent vehicle parts supply operator, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisal, said two weeks ago, gunmen walked into his business place in broad daylight, held his daughter at gunpoint, ordered customers to lie on the ground, and robbed the businessman of $150,000 in cash.
"It leaves me wondering what next? I'm happy they didn't hurt anybody, but it not easy working and thinking about it, when you realise that you can't really do anything about it," he said.
Another business place, Pay Day Advance, in the Sun Village Plaza, had its glass door completely taken off, and computer equipment removed. As a result, the shop has been closed for the past two weeks.
In the Cedar Grove community just south of Mandeville, numerous Northern Caribbean University students have been attacked by would-be rapists and robbers. One student, Lincoln David, said he stepped out of his house one evening, and was attacked by a machete wielding man. The attacker followed him into his room, and attempted to steal his laptop.
"He took his eyes off me for two minutes to get the laptop, and I held on to the machete, all the time I was crying thief!, thief! We struggled, and he eventually got away." Though David escaped with his life, he was injured and had to be hospitalised.
A similar escalation in crime last year spurred the Mandeville Ministers Fraternal to join a call to rally Manchesterians against crime. Then president Rev Oliver Daley said he had received numerous complaints of robberies, and business people receiving "ominous" telephone calls from extortionists, demanding "protection money".
At the time, Daley (no relation to the crime chief) levelled strong criticism at the police for not implementing a crime plan for the parish. The Ministers Fraternal has since been meeting with numerous community groups, and sensitising them to the growing problem.
Though murders are down, Superintendent Daley was especially worried that communities such as Greenvale, Mike Town, Grey Ground and Comfort are still hotbeds for murders and illegal firearms. Greenvale, in particular, has been the scene of community in-fighting.
Daley said criminals had found a new gun of choice - the AK-47, the former Soviet Union's response to the United States' M-16. "We're investigating crimes in these communities where we're finding AK-47 spent shells and we're not talking about one or two, but we're talking about 17, 18. It just gives you an idea as to the extent of the problem," Daley said, his face a mask of concern.
He too believed that the large number of guns in the community was a spill over from the numerous guns entering the country via the drugs-for-gun trade with Haiti.
"We're not saying there is a direct connection with the community, but we believe that is what is causing the prevalence of guns on the streets," Daley noted, adding that his officers had sent a special squad into the community, and had intensified their surveillance through 24-hour patrols. He said the parish was still troubled my criminals migrating from Kingston and Clarendon, though it was "not as intense as last year".
He said investigators were also speaking with residents and "we are establishing community policing in the area". Daley also renewed his calls for residents to report any strangers in the community.
"People can't just come into your community, and rent a place, and they're not working. Find out about them. If you're not sure about them, call us, we'll do the investigating," he said.
Head of the Neighbourhood Watch Programme for the parish, Leroy Chang, urged communities, like Greenvale, to fight back through community action. "In Greenvale, for example, there is only one neighbourhood watch. People are afraid to talk to the police, until they come to the reality that they have to fight crime, it won't happen," he said.
Chang said that the 35 communities in Manchester which had neighbourhood Watches did not have a problem with crime, because "people don't just come in your area so. They come in the area, they survey the area, when they realise people are watching them, they move to other communities, where nobody is watching," he suggested.
For its part, the Manchester Chamber of Commerce said the long-awaited CCTV cameras were finally here and would be fully up and running by June end. President Lawson said the multimillion dollar surveillance cameras would be placed at crime hot spots in the town centre, to clamp down on criminal activity. He said police officers were now being trained to monitor the cameras.
But Daley said it was not all doom and gloom and pointed to some recent successes in the courts recently. He gave the Sunday Observer a list of persons convicted for serious crimes over the last three weeks. They include:
. Dwayne Douglas - life sentence for murder
. Rohan Canage - 15 years for murder
. Prince Dell - 15 years for illegal possession of a firearm
. Wayne Williams - landed three 10-year sentences and a 15-year sentence for firearm possession, and
. Kevin Powell - two 10-year sentences for firearm possession.
- With additional reporting by Garfield Myers
By Rhoma Tomlinson Sunday Observer writer Investigative Coverage Unit [email protected]
Sunday, June 21, 2009
MANDEVILLE, Manchester - The good thing was that on this occasion the victim had the last laugh.
But for residents of this once sedate Manchester capital, the abduction of a woman in broad daylight in late May by men posing as police was a crude wake- up call that emphasised how criminals had invaded their space.
Bustling Mandeville town centre where surveillance cameras will be mounted
The report carried by the Sunday Observer tabloid stablemate, Chat! said that a Manchester woman who was driving along the Winston Jones Highway at 11:30 that May morning, was 'pulled over' by men dressed in 'red seam' clothing. She assumed they were police officers.
While one man asked to see her car papers, the other jumped in the car, brandished a gun and ordered her to drive. She was gun-butted and robbed, but to the shock of her assailants, the woman blasted the gunman with pepper spray and stabbed him in the thigh with a pair of scissors, before escaping what might have been a worse ordeal.
The woman in this true horror story has become a sort of folk hero to residents of Mandeville who have long taken their relatively crime-free environment for granted.
Police have made no headway as yet with the crime. But Manchester's crime chief, Deputy Superintendent Barrington Daley said it should be treated as a signal that everyone - ordinary citizens, motorists and police - needed to be more vigilant and for all motorists to be absolutely sure before stopping even for those they assume to be police.
"Ensure that you see a marked vehicle. If you're not sure, drive away to the police station. Our officers will understand, we have sensitised them that this has happened and may happen again," Daley advised.
Mandeville Police Station pushing for community policing.
"We've told them to give the motorists the benefit of the doubt. It's a difficult choice, but it's better to drive away to the police station, than to be held by would-be police officers. Our officers are trained to know that they must not shoot at a moving vehicle." he assured.
But it will take a bit more than assurances to calm residents who fear that the slump in bauxite mining and alumina processing that resulted in the closure of the two plants in the Manchester mining area - Alpart and Kirkvine - will now make an already bad situation worse.
"With the fallout in the economy, and what's happening with bauxite, people will become impatient and turn to these things," said Manchester Chamber of Commerce president, Winston Lawson.
Gas station operator, George Bird, whose entire stock of the two daily newspapers was stolen from in front of the gas station shortly after their early-morning delivery recently, expects more such incidents as hard times kick in.
DALEY... says robberies and break-ins are major areas of concern
"I remember the days when you could boast that there is no crime in Mandeville. But with the economic downturn I expect that things may get even worse than it is now. Everyone will just have to be more vigilant and support the police as best we can," he said.
Similar sentiments came from Jasmine Pottinger, president of the Central Manchester Returned Residents Association. "With unemployment rising, I expect the crime situation will get worse, and right now it is bad - a lot of people are seeking the easy way out. The police have a tough job and need all the help they can get," she said.
Things had started to look good for Manchester when the murder figures dropped to 16 so far this year, compared with 23 in the same period last year. In 2008, there was an unprecedented 52 murders across the parish over the 12-month period.
But any solace from that reality is dampened by figures that suggest robberies, burglaries, rape, carnal abuse, and shootings are increasing parishwide. Anecdotal evidence also suggests an increase in criminal activity in and around Mandeville. Daley admitted that robberies and break-ins "are major areas of concern" for the police.
Break-ins are up from 47 between January and June last year, to 186 since the start of this year, a 400 per cent increase. Robberies, up more than 100 per cent from 33 last year to 71 so far this year, have been taking on a new trend.
Daley said there had been reports of criminals lurking in banks and watching for persons who make large withdrawals. They are then trailed and robbed. Since this new trend intensified last year, the police had been working with the banks to report any suspicious persons, he told the Sunday Observer.
But at least two recent robberies in Mandeville, suggest that the robbers may be becoming even more daring. A prominent vehicle parts supply operator, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisal, said two weeks ago, gunmen walked into his business place in broad daylight, held his daughter at gunpoint, ordered customers to lie on the ground, and robbed the businessman of $150,000 in cash.
"It leaves me wondering what next? I'm happy they didn't hurt anybody, but it not easy working and thinking about it, when you realise that you can't really do anything about it," he said.
Another business place, Pay Day Advance, in the Sun Village Plaza, had its glass door completely taken off, and computer equipment removed. As a result, the shop has been closed for the past two weeks.
In the Cedar Grove community just south of Mandeville, numerous Northern Caribbean University students have been attacked by would-be rapists and robbers. One student, Lincoln David, said he stepped out of his house one evening, and was attacked by a machete wielding man. The attacker followed him into his room, and attempted to steal his laptop.
"He took his eyes off me for two minutes to get the laptop, and I held on to the machete, all the time I was crying thief!, thief! We struggled, and he eventually got away." Though David escaped with his life, he was injured and had to be hospitalised.
A similar escalation in crime last year spurred the Mandeville Ministers Fraternal to join a call to rally Manchesterians against crime. Then president Rev Oliver Daley said he had received numerous complaints of robberies, and business people receiving "ominous" telephone calls from extortionists, demanding "protection money".
At the time, Daley (no relation to the crime chief) levelled strong criticism at the police for not implementing a crime plan for the parish. The Ministers Fraternal has since been meeting with numerous community groups, and sensitising them to the growing problem.
Though murders are down, Superintendent Daley was especially worried that communities such as Greenvale, Mike Town, Grey Ground and Comfort are still hotbeds for murders and illegal firearms. Greenvale, in particular, has been the scene of community in-fighting.
Daley said criminals had found a new gun of choice - the AK-47, the former Soviet Union's response to the United States' M-16. "We're investigating crimes in these communities where we're finding AK-47 spent shells and we're not talking about one or two, but we're talking about 17, 18. It just gives you an idea as to the extent of the problem," Daley said, his face a mask of concern.
He too believed that the large number of guns in the community was a spill over from the numerous guns entering the country via the drugs-for-gun trade with Haiti.
"We're not saying there is a direct connection with the community, but we believe that is what is causing the prevalence of guns on the streets," Daley noted, adding that his officers had sent a special squad into the community, and had intensified their surveillance through 24-hour patrols. He said the parish was still troubled my criminals migrating from Kingston and Clarendon, though it was "not as intense as last year".
He said investigators were also speaking with residents and "we are establishing community policing in the area". Daley also renewed his calls for residents to report any strangers in the community.
"People can't just come into your community, and rent a place, and they're not working. Find out about them. If you're not sure about them, call us, we'll do the investigating," he said.
Head of the Neighbourhood Watch Programme for the parish, Leroy Chang, urged communities, like Greenvale, to fight back through community action. "In Greenvale, for example, there is only one neighbourhood watch. People are afraid to talk to the police, until they come to the reality that they have to fight crime, it won't happen," he said.
Chang said that the 35 communities in Manchester which had neighbourhood Watches did not have a problem with crime, because "people don't just come in your area so. They come in the area, they survey the area, when they realise people are watching them, they move to other communities, where nobody is watching," he suggested.
For its part, the Manchester Chamber of Commerce said the long-awaited CCTV cameras were finally here and would be fully up and running by June end. President Lawson said the multimillion dollar surveillance cameras would be placed at crime hot spots in the town centre, to clamp down on criminal activity. He said police officers were now being trained to monitor the cameras.
But Daley said it was not all doom and gloom and pointed to some recent successes in the courts recently. He gave the Sunday Observer a list of persons convicted for serious crimes over the last three weeks. They include:
. Dwayne Douglas - life sentence for murder
. Rohan Canage - 15 years for murder
. Prince Dell - 15 years for illegal possession of a firearm
. Wayne Williams - landed three 10-year sentences and a 15-year sentence for firearm possession, and
. Kevin Powell - two 10-year sentences for firearm possession.
- With additional reporting by Garfield Myers