WESTERN BUREAU – Teenagers in Falmouth are said to be forming gangs and carrying out armed robberies and street fights in the town, prompting North Trelawny Member of Parliament Dr Patrick Harris to issue a call to residents not to sheid criminals.

“The truth is that at the moment there is a flare-up of misguided youngsters who have had some domestic disputes and who are now playing a tit-for-tat game,” Harris disclosed.

But according to the Constabulary Communication Network (CCN) liaison officer in the parish, Sergeant Andrea Brown, the Falmouth Police are aware of the proliferation of teenage gangs in the town and have the situation under control.

“There are two groups of boys in the Falmouth area causing a little discomfort, but we have some of them in our custody now awaiting identification parades,” she told the Observer.

However, a number of business people and Falmouth residents say they have been experiencing more than a little discomfort in recent months.

An enraged operator of a cellular outlet in Falmouth, who did not wish to be named, said three armed teens robbed his business place twice in the past six months.

“Twice in a six-month period the same boys came and robbed my place, and after it was reported the police took about 45 minutes to come, claiming they had no vehicle,” the businessman complained.

One hotel worker told the Observer that he was afraid to go home after completing the night shift because he had had a close encounter with a gunman.

“One night last week, when I was coming home, I saw a man dressed in an army camouflage suit with a pumpy (gun) like him just a come off a work (shooting scene),” the man said, adding that he crept quietly away ” mek him no see me”.

But a 46 year-old plumber, who declined to give his name, said there was no need for residents to be alarmed.

“A jus’ some little boys a fight among themselves. If you want go ina dem way a your business,” he remarked.

Not so, says the North Trelawny MP, urging residents to take a proactive stance against the young criminals.

“I want to make an appeal to all the communities to come together and make a stance against this new wave of senseless violence, and refrain from giving protection to wrongdoers,” Harris said.

The MP pointed out that these kinds of criminal activities could prove detrimental to the much-heralded development set to take off in the parish shortly.

“This will only serve to jeopardise the development slated for the parish because nobody wants to invest in a hostile environment – nobody is safe,” Harris remarked.

Last October two people were killed and another injured in what residents described as a gang-related incident involving teens in the Race Course area of Falmouth. Another gang is said to be operating out of an area off Tharpe Street known as “Dump”.

Last Friday, at a meeting with business and partisan interests at the Wyndham Rose Hall hotel, minister of national security Dr Peter Phillips remarked that crime statistics for the first five months of the year revealed that crime was becoming wide-spread across the island.