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Re: Rema attacked by Tivoli gunmen
<span style="color: #CC0000">but knowing the police would you believe them</span>?
Recently Tony Hewitt was implicated in the killings of some very young men from Jones town. One of the guys whose outtaview I had on tape told a very chilling story of how they were ambushed by <span style="color: #CC0000">Tony Hewitt and his gang</span>.
The same Tony Hewitt was one of those cops that was put out of the force in the late 80s, I think, but I don't quite remember that he was implicated in some car scams
i rarely believe a "police version" of an incident ..
<span style="color: #CC0000"><span style='font-size: 11pt'>Jamaica always violence-prone</span></span>
Ken Chaplin
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Historically, Jamaica has always been a violence-prone society. What is different today than, say, in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s is the choice of a far more deadly weapon - the gun - to commit violence than obtained in those days, and the increased use of it as inner-city gangs grew, mostly from uneducated young people who migrated from rural communities to urban areas particularly in Kingston and St Andrew.
Ken Chaplin
"Country", as some of those young men were called, were bullied by city-born youths and forced to take up the gun and use it to demonstrate that they were "badder" in order to survive.
For the purpose of this article I am not going to include organised violence like the 1865 Morant Bay Rebellion, 1938 labour uprising or the subsequent mental asylum and Gordon Town riots. Then there were clashes between People's National Party and Jamaica Labour Party supporters mainly in Kingston for political control of the streets, but these were not sustained - nor were guns the main weapon.
Sustained gun violence from which the country is yet to recover began in 1966 when politicians in both the JLP and the PNP issued a large number of guns to their followers to fight the 1967 general elections. There was much at stake for the followers because whichever party won they would get most of the spoils and benefits of the state.
And so it is until today, except as the spoils and benefits diminished, some of the followers use their guns to rob and kill innocent citizens, political opponents, gang rivals for control of drug and extortion turf as well as for contract killings.
In the meantime, guns and ammunition continue to increase mainly from smuggling into the island through the ports and coastal borders which are rather porous. Police conservatively estimate that there are some 10,000 illegal firearms, including homemade shotguns, in the hands of criminals.
The use of the gun to kill in a one-on-one situation or in gang-on-gang disputes hardly provides any avenue for escape. Sixty years ago when I was a boy, the gun was rarely used to kill. Indeed, there were few around. There was the horsewhip which was frequently used by the middle class. One famous journalist used a horsewhip to lash his wife's lover.
For the lower classes there were the knuckle duster, black jack, cow cod, big stick, iron pipe, machete, pen knife, razor, ice pick, switch blade or plain "rock stone" which were commonly used. All of these, of course, can cause serious injuries, but the important thing is that if one did not choose to fight, he could run away and survive.
Today, one can hardly escape a gunshot fired at close range. Up to the 50s, many young people could defend themselves in a clean fist-fight or wrestling.
There were the effective neck holds, scissors lap and sit backs in which you use your hands to grab your opponent, fall on your back and throw him over your head. I have not seen any demonstration of the manly art of self-defence on the streets or in communities anywhere in Jamaica for many, many years. Recently, I overheard one youth telling another that he "does not engage in pretty fights". Most of today's youths are simply cowards.
It seems to me that the most urgent challenge facing law-abiding citizens is to help the security forces to recover illegal guns and ammunition wherever they are by providing intelligence. These weapons in the hands of criminals present a clear, present and future danger to the people wherever they reside.
Recovering the guns is going to require a great deal of police and army intelligence work and money to pay for intelligence provided by undercover civilian intelligence agents. I have my doubts as to whether declaring a period of amnesty is going to work. I recall that in the 1970s when we had an amnesty the gunmen turned in some old guns that could hardly fire and kept their choice weapons.
As I wrote in this column on October 11, the intelligence which led to the failure of the massive assault by more than 500 police and soldiers on Tivoli Gardens on October 4 to capture three wanted men and recover illegal firearms was not creditable. It seemed to me that the accuracy and analysis of the information fell short of what was desired.
The announcement three weeks ago by minister of national security Dr Peter Phillips that Special Branch (the intelligence arm of the police force) is to be reformed with deputy commissioner Charles Scarlett as director of intelligence is not surprising.
There are a few officers who doubt whether Scarlett is the right man for the job as most of his career has been in the office serving for many years as the commissioner's staff officer. But who else? Lucius Thomas who spent most of his 30 years in the force in Special Branch would be a good intelligence director, but he is commissioner.
Glenmore Hines, another Special Branch man, is now in charge of Operation Kingfish which is doing quite well in tracking down gang overlords and may not be able to handle both jobs efficiently.
<span style="color: #CC0000">Tony Hewitt, a first-class detective who had reliable intelligence connection with the underworld</span>, retired last year as senior superintendent. Perhaps he could be brought back on contract to assist the intelligence community.
Scarlett's main function is to oversee the gathering of criminal information and analysing it for action.
I am sure he has the capacity for the job. An officer occupying such a position must be professional to the utmost and politically impartial. We will see how well Scarlett measures up to this criterion.
Whatever the form of violence, the country is having too much of it. Indeed, Jamaica is floating in a sea of violence . One of the ways to turn back violence is for the country to go into a zero-tolerance mode using education, training, community and human development and family values as the main instruments.
<span style="color: #CC0000">but knowing the police would you believe them</span>?
Recently Tony Hewitt was implicated in the killings of some very young men from Jones town. One of the guys whose outtaview I had on tape told a very chilling story of how they were ambushed by <span style="color: #CC0000">Tony Hewitt and his gang</span>.
The same Tony Hewitt was one of those cops that was put out of the force in the late 80s, I think, but I don't quite remember that he was implicated in some car scams
i rarely believe a "police version" of an incident ..
<span style="color: #CC0000"><span style='font-size: 11pt'>Jamaica always violence-prone</span></span>
Ken Chaplin
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Historically, Jamaica has always been a violence-prone society. What is different today than, say, in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s is the choice of a far more deadly weapon - the gun - to commit violence than obtained in those days, and the increased use of it as inner-city gangs grew, mostly from uneducated young people who migrated from rural communities to urban areas particularly in Kingston and St Andrew.
Ken Chaplin
"Country", as some of those young men were called, were bullied by city-born youths and forced to take up the gun and use it to demonstrate that they were "badder" in order to survive.
For the purpose of this article I am not going to include organised violence like the 1865 Morant Bay Rebellion, 1938 labour uprising or the subsequent mental asylum and Gordon Town riots. Then there were clashes between People's National Party and Jamaica Labour Party supporters mainly in Kingston for political control of the streets, but these were not sustained - nor were guns the main weapon.
Sustained gun violence from which the country is yet to recover began in 1966 when politicians in both the JLP and the PNP issued a large number of guns to their followers to fight the 1967 general elections. There was much at stake for the followers because whichever party won they would get most of the spoils and benefits of the state.
And so it is until today, except as the spoils and benefits diminished, some of the followers use their guns to rob and kill innocent citizens, political opponents, gang rivals for control of drug and extortion turf as well as for contract killings.
In the meantime, guns and ammunition continue to increase mainly from smuggling into the island through the ports and coastal borders which are rather porous. Police conservatively estimate that there are some 10,000 illegal firearms, including homemade shotguns, in the hands of criminals.
The use of the gun to kill in a one-on-one situation or in gang-on-gang disputes hardly provides any avenue for escape. Sixty years ago when I was a boy, the gun was rarely used to kill. Indeed, there were few around. There was the horsewhip which was frequently used by the middle class. One famous journalist used a horsewhip to lash his wife's lover.
For the lower classes there were the knuckle duster, black jack, cow cod, big stick, iron pipe, machete, pen knife, razor, ice pick, switch blade or plain "rock stone" which were commonly used. All of these, of course, can cause serious injuries, but the important thing is that if one did not choose to fight, he could run away and survive.
Today, one can hardly escape a gunshot fired at close range. Up to the 50s, many young people could defend themselves in a clean fist-fight or wrestling.
There were the effective neck holds, scissors lap and sit backs in which you use your hands to grab your opponent, fall on your back and throw him over your head. I have not seen any demonstration of the manly art of self-defence on the streets or in communities anywhere in Jamaica for many, many years. Recently, I overheard one youth telling another that he "does not engage in pretty fights". Most of today's youths are simply cowards.
It seems to me that the most urgent challenge facing law-abiding citizens is to help the security forces to recover illegal guns and ammunition wherever they are by providing intelligence. These weapons in the hands of criminals present a clear, present and future danger to the people wherever they reside.
Recovering the guns is going to require a great deal of police and army intelligence work and money to pay for intelligence provided by undercover civilian intelligence agents. I have my doubts as to whether declaring a period of amnesty is going to work. I recall that in the 1970s when we had an amnesty the gunmen turned in some old guns that could hardly fire and kept their choice weapons.
As I wrote in this column on October 11, the intelligence which led to the failure of the massive assault by more than 500 police and soldiers on Tivoli Gardens on October 4 to capture three wanted men and recover illegal firearms was not creditable. It seemed to me that the accuracy and analysis of the information fell short of what was desired.
The announcement three weeks ago by minister of national security Dr Peter Phillips that Special Branch (the intelligence arm of the police force) is to be reformed with deputy commissioner Charles Scarlett as director of intelligence is not surprising.
There are a few officers who doubt whether Scarlett is the right man for the job as most of his career has been in the office serving for many years as the commissioner's staff officer. But who else? Lucius Thomas who spent most of his 30 years in the force in Special Branch would be a good intelligence director, but he is commissioner.
Glenmore Hines, another Special Branch man, is now in charge of Operation Kingfish which is doing quite well in tracking down gang overlords and may not be able to handle both jobs efficiently.
<span style="color: #CC0000">Tony Hewitt, a first-class detective who had reliable intelligence connection with the underworld</span>, retired last year as senior superintendent. Perhaps he could be brought back on contract to assist the intelligence community.
Scarlett's main function is to oversee the gathering of criminal information and analysing it for action.
I am sure he has the capacity for the job. An officer occupying such a position must be professional to the utmost and politically impartial. We will see how well Scarlett measures up to this criterion.
Whatever the form of violence, the country is having too much of it. Indeed, Jamaica is floating in a sea of violence . One of the ways to turn back violence is for the country to go into a zero-tolerance mode using education, training, community and human development and family values as the main instruments.
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