Hope and healing in Denham Town
THE SCREAMS erupted as shots ricochet off a wall behind the missed target. Expletives followed, laced with disappointment and joy from either side of the shoot-out. In the end, however, no one died, and the patrols of police and soldiers drove by the scene unbothered.
This is the ‘Scream HQ’, once one of the grittiest corners in Denham Town, West Kingston. But on Friday night, instead of chasing each other with high-powered rifles and handguns, rivals chased one another for a football – the referee commanding all the power on the pitch.
On the sidelines, the teams made up of police and soldiers hold their corners. This is the battle for third and fourth, and they have long been ousted from the five-a-side ‘Unity’ match-up weeks ago. In another scenario, they would have been chasing these same players through lanes and zinc fences breathlessly.
That gathering was probably the most tangible show of peace in these parts. Twenty-six teams and their supporters venture beyond ‘borders’ they wouldn’t dare cross before in a contest for a $100,000 grand prize in the 5-A-Side Football League: Football for Unity 2022. This could only happen under the zone of special operations (ZOSO), and with the help of committed sponsorship, they say.
Yet, there was one team missing – that of Tivoli Gardens, home to gangs which have for years raged deadly feuds with others from Denham Town, claiming the lives of adults and children alike from both sides.
Five years into the ZOSO, and with their only commander of ‘real’ order – Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke – still imprisoned in the United States, some wounds are still fresh, bad blood still brews, and it will take time for trust to reach the point of their involvement. But invitations remain open.
“We have more of a cohesiveness in the community now. Once there were divisions. Certain corners were not getting along well,” said Robert Carr, the chief competition organiser and Denham Town data collection officer at the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF).
“With the success of this competition, we have everybody speaking in one voice, and that is how the real development will come. That way, we don’t have one set of people benefiting. Everybody is benefiting from this as one community,” Carr noted.
A respected elder and child of the community, Carr’s head is heavy. He selects beneficiaries of the JSIF programme, and in many ways is the buffer between peace and bloodshed, hunger and opportunities for the gunslingers in Denham Town.
With the football competition ending next week, he must find new ways to keep their hopes alive.
“They (residents) feel like their voices are being heard, and we are seeing a lot more agencies and institutions who want to be a part of what we are doing,” he told The Sunday Gleaner last week.
“One of the outcomes of the football competition is to target some youths with some more businesses. A lot of them are unemployable, and a lot of them can’t stray past Spanish Town Road. So we have to look at creating inside opportunities,” he noted. “Even though we are saying everything is good, some man just not going to stray. So if they say they are going to look for work, it has to be in here. They can’t go on the road.”
Many don’t have formal education, but are strong labourers. A chicken hatchery, a farm-produce packaging plant or a block-making factory are among some of the ideas Carr has, with hopes of rallying support for his childhood hometown.
For now, he said, it’s about maintaining hope among the most hot-headed.
NOW IN ‘BUILD’ PHASE
Both Mount Salem in St James and Denham Town are in the ‘build’ phase of the ZOSOs that were declared in the communities in September and October of 2017, respectively. Five years on, after numerous detentions and clashes between cops and residents, fruits have just started to bear.
JSIF aims to develop physical infrastructure and human employment capacity while improving land tenure, community business and economic opportunities in the spaces.
Covering their checklist, the organisation said some 8,000 persons have benefited from social interventions in Denham Town, and that there have been rehabilitation of major roadways, water and sewerage systems, as well as the Denham Town Police Station.
“I would rate it right now at about an eight [out of 10],” said Omar Sweeney, managing director of JSIF. “Certainly, I think that we are wanting in the ability to apply more resources, and I’m not even saying from the JSIF’s standpoint, but across the Government.
“COVID was difficult for everyone budget-wise and a lot more money had to be spent dealing with that. So there is some lag there, but I think overall, we have been strong and able to continue to provide investments,” said Sweeney, citing the pandemic as the biggest curveball of the programme designed for increased social interaction.
“But overall, I think the residents have seen improvements in their lives, and they will continue to look for that improvement. More than anything else, I think the fact that the Government has created a presence in their community has given them redress to whatever challenges they have,” he told The Sunday Gleaner.
“Specifically, in Mount Salem and Denham Town, they have transected to the ‘build’ phase and that is ongoing. In Mount Salem, we certainly feel as if we have gotten way down the wicket. We are almost at the end of completion in terms of the physical aspects,” he continued, noting that community governance, groups and leadership have been working well in the area.
Though JSIF is nearing the completion of its activities in the area, support will continue, he emphasised.
The Jamaica Defence Force did not respond to questions regarding the fulfilment of the army’s Denham Town ZOSO objectives up to press time, but Senior Superintendent Michael Phipps, who heads the Kingston West Police Division, lauded the initiative in reducing murders under his watch.
100 DAYS WITHOUT A MURDER
“We have seen the positive impact. The issue of crime and violence is on the downward trajectory and we believe this will continue going forward,” he said, praising the intervention of social agencies, a long-standing call from police in the island’s toughest enclaves.
“If you even look at this year, we have seen in comparison to last year, 15 [fewer] murders, and 20-plus [fewer] shootings this year in the zone, and that number continues to trend downwards. You always have fights and other domestic disputes, but in terms of the gang-on-gang situation, we have seen a lessening of that,” he explained.
“We have gone more than 100 days without a single murder in the zone, which is quite unusual, compared to former years. This particular football league brought the community much closer and all the different corners were able to traverse different sections of the community. So it’s total good vibes right across.”
Tensions reached a crescendo in July when the bodies of four men from Denham Town were found in a section of Tivoli Gardens. Word on the streets is that they were thieves, and for now, Denham Town has accepted their deaths as a hazard of their trade.
“We cannot say that (stealing) is the reason, but we have not linked it to any gang situation there. Even the communities where they were from are saying they were involved in stealing, and are not really in support of them going to steal,” Phipps said, noting that investigations continue into those deaths.
In the meantime, progress is being made even into domestic cases because of the ZOSO intervention, explained Damion Burke, the Ministry of Justice’s community liaison officer for Denham Town, who also leads the Curfew Monitoring Programme in the area.
“The ZOSO has limited the high-crime cases, but we are seeing more of the domestic dispute cases, but people are now having more confidence in the programme. The cultural mindset that ‘I’m not carrying my case to restorative justice’ is changing,” said Burke.
“So when a case is referred here to us or through the police, and when they see that their conflicts can be resolved this way, they go and refer it to another friend,” he continued. “That is how we start seeing the changes and the healings taking place.”
Among some of the issues before the Denham Town restorative justice court are disputes over homes, families not treating each other well, malicious destruction of property and domestic violence.