March 19, 2004 – Capital of Jamaica from1534 to 1872, the city of Spanish Town has been coping with a new outbreak in gang and gun violence. Conflict broke out at the beginning of February and took 12 lives in three days, causing local businesses, schools and non-governmental organisations to close down.
The motives behind the violence are not entirely clear, with politicians, academics and community activists saying that it was either political, "turf war" between rival gangs, or a combination of the two.
Jamaican opposition leader and head of the Jamaica Labour Party, Edward Seaga said that the violence was sparked by the governing People’s National Party to destabilise a JLP member of parliament from Spanish Town and to divert attention from the state of the economy. Mr. Seaga was prime minister during the 1980s when political violence was at a high.
Prime Minister P.J. Patterson of the People’s National Party responded to Seaga’s accusations saying that there was no political motive behind the violence. "It was a fight between gangs...for turf." He said that intelligence briefings did not suggest that it was a clash between rival political gangs, but was rather linked to criminal gangs involved in extortion.
Alternative government
Keith Noel, principal of the St. Jago High School in downtown Spanish Town told the newspaper the Gleaner that "the well organised ‘dons’ of Spanish Town...have instituted an ‘alternative government’ which they use to control a thriving multimillion dollar extortion racket in the town which targets businessmen, market vendors, and taxi operators in the town centre."
Horace Levy, a professor at the University of the West Indies, said that the violence stems from a desire to control resources, with an added political element. "The JLP swept island-wide local elections, including in the parish of St. Catherine, where Spanish Town is located, and feel that they should be getting a bigger piece of the pie. The gang One Order (with JLP ties) is trying to carve out control over extortion, to extend control over both JLP and PNP areas", said Levy. The result is an increase in gun violence.
Violence and youth
Children and youth are both victims and perpetrators of the Spanish Town violence. Executive Director of the child protection organisation Children First, which works with at-risk children and youth in Spanish Town, Claudette Richardson-Pious says that "we had to do a lot of trauma counselling. We lost four parents in recent violence. We had to do conflict and anger management. Children come and want to fight other children from across the border. There are two main gangs and we have young people from areas dominated by both."
"Once there is a socio-economic problem in the community, the dons take over, become a form of local government. The community gravitates to the dons and sometimes young people are forced and sometimes they go on their free will" said the child rights advocate.
"We are still trying to figure out what happened. It is a matter of wanting to control areas and turf, a turf war. Not sure how political it is."
Sources: The Gleaner
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