Clan wars in CLARENDON
Bloody family fights hurting central Jamaica parish
MORE THAN a year after she was shot and her toddler killed in an attack by gunmen, Clarendon resident Patricia Simpson* is still grappling with the fact that the evil deed was likely carried out by her relatives.
Last week, Simpson told The
Sunday Gleaner that while her family has always had bloody feuds, she did not expect to be a victim as she always tried to stay clear of the clan disputes.
But late last year, tragedy struck at her home in the central section of the parish.
“I was awakened by gunshots and by the time I got off the bed to wake the kids, I realised that my hand was burning me. When I looked at it I realised that my hand was bleeding and my bone was protruding. I lost balance and fell to the ground and noticed that my two daughters were awake, so I called to them and asked them to pass me a towel,” recounted Simpson, who was shot twice in her left arm.
“In the midst of passing me the towel, they were losing it. They were screaming and jumping all over the place. When I wrapped my hand, I realised that my son was still on the bed. I was like, why is he not up? When I went and pulled him by the foot, I realised that there was a pool of blood where he was lying and we were in the house for some 10 to 15 minutes before I got help,” she added with tears streaming down her face.
Initially, doctors wanted to amputate her arm, but they later realised it could be saved. She has since started university and is trying to pick up the pieces.
Simpson is not sure whether the police are still investigating her case but so far no one has been arrested for the murder of her son and the attack on her family, but she is convinced that her attackers are family.
“One and two of the persons names that were called in my shooting, I am related to them by blood,” Simpson told The Sunday Gleaner.
She said she has refused help from persons who want to avenge her son’s killing as she has lost several relatives through gun violence between last year and this year already. She just wants the violence to end, and made this clear to one of her relatives, accused of being involved in her son’s killing, while they travelled in the same ambulance to get treatment at hospital on one occasion.
“It came to the point where I had to buy him a drink and I did it, to just show that I am just tired of it,” she said.
This suspected bloody family dispute is just one of many that the Clarendon police are investigating, and Senior Superintendent Vendolyn Cameron-Powell, who heads the division, is tired of the violence she sees when relatives clash in the parish.
“One thing I know is that the love in this parish is very toxic,” CameronPowell told The Sunday Gleaner.
“We treat our one another very bad and it is not just concentrated in May Pen. It is right across the parish. South, central and north, where family members tend to forget that they are actually blood relatives and they should treat one another good,” she noted. SONS KILLING FATHERS
She said the parish has recorded incidents of brothers killing brothers and sons killing fathers.
“I don’t know why they are so hostile. We are trying to find out the reason they go to the extreme. A basic situation in the family leads to wounding and possible murder. They don’t think about anything else but the extreme, and that is something that we are struggling with, just trying to understand why some of our citizens are so violent, especially in the central part of the parish.”
The senior cop pointed out that May Pen, Four Paths, York Town, Pleasant Valley, Hayes and Lionel Town are among the areas where domestic disputes are rampant.
“The families, they are just violent, and they are not necessarily using guns all the time on one another, [they are using] stones, knives, stick, anything, fish gun. The basic dispute in a family turns so violent sometimes. It is amazing,” she said.
“They lack love, they lack togetherness, especially on a Sunday. On a Sunday in this parish, we attend to more disputes and stress than any other day, because we realise that persons are at home and they are fighting over soap, they are fighting over chicken, they are fighting over rice, they are fighting over everything you can think of. These basic situations lead to major crimes in the parish,” said CameronPowell, as she pointed out that the police have been trying to address the situation by introducing persons to conflict-resolution measures.
“We continue to assist with the education part of it, to change the whole mindset of these families, to teach them how to love one another,” added Cameron-Powell. * Name changed on request
We treat our one another very bad and it is not just concentrated in May Pen. It is right across the parish.