A REAL elder, resident in Laventille for decades, was on the other end of the phone earlier this week.

Naturally wanting to remain anonymous -- for fear of intimidation and victimisation -- he needed to vent his feelings about the farce and hypocrisy that’s been playing out in recent attempts by an “Executive Council” to restore to sanity to Laventille and Morvant, in the first instance.

But he was one of the few who is definitely not convinced that it would make any sense.

“Madame,” he vented, “I do not know if these people could understand what they are doing, because as far as I am concerned they are setting the stage for more violence, in an election year.

“The truth is, none of the gang leaders truly have control over their members, once they put guns in their hands.

KEITH
SHEPHERD

SEAN BILL
FRANCIS

“The kind of little boys that we are dealing with here in St. Barbs and other areas is really distressing and it does not matter what Cudjoe, Crock, Fresh and all them fellas say on the radio; they cannot control them.

“If they call a truce and decide they won’t fight for turf, the young boys will find a reason to pull the trigger; it could be over a woman, or any kind of beef, since they are anxious to add the notches on the guns,” he said anxiously.

“Now, the truth is while these fellas are consolidating under an Executive Council and while they are talking of bringing peace in different areas, I cannot help but notice that it is happening in an election year.

“Now, the three men who are the top rankers of the Executive Council: Selwyn Sandy, Sean Bill Francis and Mackie Patmore, all have some sort of connection with the United National Congress (UNC).

“You hear people on the radio everyday accusing Mackie of turning PNM after he got a CEPEP contract.

“But I am worried because I saw them all pandering to Jack Warner when he returned home in the heat of the Soca Warriors’ campaign and remember someone making a comment about delivering the East-West Corridor to him,” the respected elder explained.

“So, it makes me wonder whether he is pumping money into this and only a few people will be laughing all the way to the bank, while the others clap and cheer the gangsters because they are afraid.

“But would this be creating a different kind of divide, namely a political one.

“Imagine a man like Dr. Joe Laquis, who’s a washed up politician, is getting into the mix.

“So, is the PNM pumping money into this effort too; too little to late?” he asked rhetorically.

“They are not the first people calling for peace.

“Remember how almost one year ago, Mr. King came with an instructive and popular song ‘Laventille,’ which made an appeal for peace?

“But as I said before, I am worried about the timing and the fact that political opportunists abound at this time before elections.

“A lot of other people have been left out of this. I am not hearing people talk about solutions to give support for the next generation that’s destined to be even worse because young children are growing up with the gun and dead bodies, and fear and respect for the gangsters.

“And the parenting is non-existent in the ghetto!

“Nobody’s talking about the hurt and pain because mothers are now shaking their heads every time a son is gunned down and lying in a coffin, comforting themselves with the thought that ‘now at least I know where he is’!

“Who ever are backing these talks must think about the future.

“This cannot be an opportunity for some ‘leaders’ to come and pretend that they are on peace, so they will catch some political corbeaux alive.

“There are many men among us who have given good ideas and worked at a community level since the ’70s when the culture was one of consciousness.

“We have ideas on how to make it better.

“In Jamaica organised political gangs with high powered M-16 and AK-47 assault rifles and sub-machine guns control clearly defined political boundaries and territories where political protection insulates them from the reach of the security forces.

“There is a link between garrison forces and the party’s political leadership which provides two functions: (i) the main conduit for accessing and distributing scarce benefits.

“The top rankings thus become the main brokers between the Members of Parliament and the local communities; (ii) in a transactional sense, the Member of Parliament is sure of retaining his territorial support, while the rankings are able to acquire wealth and local power as well as protection from the forces of law and order.

“Entry and exit to and from these communities are controlled by the so-called ‘top ranking’ and gang leaders who have close relationships with the constituency Member of Parliament, get preferential access to contracts and jobs and function as key elements of the local level community political leadership in both parties in these inner city poor areas.

“Here at home, the peace treaty was first signed at the Basketball Court in John John and Bill demanded that Fitzgerald Hinds come into the picture, to give that idea of real unity.

“They had a tussle over words and a misunderstanding but he demanded Hinds come into the picture.

“I was there.

“People did not see that, but the photo that appeared in the newspaper the following day made it appear that all was good, even though Hinds was saying that there can be no real peace treaty unless those fellas put down their guns.

“What is now happening is that the politicians are even more intimately involved with gangsters; they are moving on their own, thinking that they do not need Abu Bakr’s influence to get into the ghetto, as they did with the last elections.

“This could throw even the marginal seats like San Juan/Barataria, in a real spin, if the politicians believe that the gang leaders could control the votes, for real.

“For now, gangs will replace the party groups.

“And even if the top ranker decides that he’s calling a truce, the man with the gun has nothing but the gun in his hand.

“He will use it to make a living because the system has created the space for him; he will say peace, but he still has to eat and feed his family.

“They are killing people for nutten, as I have often said it’s a straight case: ‘Live fast and die young and make a pretty corpse’.

“Nobody can reach them,

“And in any event, I want to say that plenty youth out here have AIDS so they really don’t care.

“They are using a cocktail (of drugs) that is extending them life, until somebody put out their light, with a bullet.

“And Madame I want to remind you of that last article that your late editor Keith Shepherd wrote just before he died.

“Nobody wants to remind these bad boys that ‘you reap what you sow,’ or who don’t hear will have to feel,” as Sheppy used to say.

“Remember how he was saying that we must start hanging them at the age of 16 years if they refuse to heed the commandment that ‘Thou shall not kill,’ and they should be made to see the error of their ways?

“Well, what I am seeing is that people are not coming from that perspective, they just want to forgive the killers and give them more rank, in the name of political expediency!

“After all, wrong is wrong, right is right!”