SPANISH Town, the old capital, remained tense last night following Thursday night’s attack on the car transporting member of parliament Olivia “Babsy” Grange.

Grange was not hurt.

Earlier in the day residents blocked roads in the town to protest against the shooting-up of the car in which Grange was travelling, and the shooting of one of her supporters, who later died in hospital.

Police said that at about 6:00 am Brunswick Avenue, Cumberland Road and Young Street were blocked with logs, stones, old cars and debris. However by 8:00 am the police cleared the blockage.

There was no more blockage during the day as strong squads of police and soldiers patrolled the streets, but business establishments experienced a slow day. The police promised to keep a close watch on the town.

Last night, Superintendent Kenneth Wade, the man in charge of the St Catherine North Police, said things were quiet but tense.

Shortly after 6:00 pm on Thursday, Grange was returning from a peace meeting at the parish council offices when her car was fired on at the intersection of Church Street and Wellington Street. Two men riding on a motorcycle behind the MP’s car were shot and injured. One of them, Omar Campbell, alias “Tickrus”, 25, was shot in the right side and died at hospital. The other, Brian Williamson, 33, who was shot in the buttocks, was admitted to hospital. Both men are of Tawes Pen, an enclave of Grange’s Jamaica Labour Party.

Yesterday, the attack drew condemnation from the security minister Peter Phillips, Sharon Hay-Webster, the South Central St Catherine MP, who was at the peace meeting with Grange, as well as the ruling People’s National Party.

However, the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) said the attack was among others on its leaders.

Phillips, in condemning the attack on Grange’s vehicle, said it was an attempt to destabilise the fragile stability in Spanish Town.

Pointing out that the upsurge in crime and violence could be traced back to elements of serious organised criminal network, the security minister said the search by the security forces for wanted criminals in Tivoli Garden on Tuesday was the ultimate consequence of allowing networks of organised crime to thrive.

“Over the past week we have witnessed events that have highlighted tragically and brutally the ultimate consequences of allowing these networks of organised criminals to thrive.

All the search for wanted criminals in sections of Western Kingston or the attempt in Spanish Town yesterday (Thursday) to destabilise the fragile stability in Spanish Town could be traced back to some element of serious organised criminal network,” said Phillips.

Speaking yesterday at the graduation ceremony of 32 regional law enforcement officers at the Caribbean Regional Drug Law Enforcement Training Centre, Twickenham Park, Spanish Town, St Catherine, Phillips said Jamaicans should learn from history that there could be no compromise between law-abiding people and criminal elements.

He said leaders should not by their utterances or actions fail to help the police in arresting criminals, but added that everybody had the right to expect the security forces in their activities to respect the civil, constitutional and human rights of the citizen. He added that when the security forces breach these rights they deserved to be censured and condemned.

Burchell Whiteman, the information minister and general secretary of the PNP, also had concerns that the attack on Grange’s car could shatter efforts to have peace in Spanish Town.

“The shootings last night (Thursday) have undermined bipartisan efforts aimed at bringing about lasting peace in the Spanish Town area. As a party, we remain committed to ensuring that Spanish Town and other communities return to an atmosphere of calm and normality,” Whiteman said.

Opposition security spokesman Derrick Smith, in a statement yesterday, said the police operation in Tivoli Gardens and the attack on Grange’s car was an attack on the JLP’s leadership.

“.It was of extreme significance that Miss Grange and her party supporters were returning from a peace meeting. aimed at reducing tension between rival political gangs and bringing an end to their protracted feud.”

Hay-Webster, in the meantime, appealed to those bent on destroying the “peace-building process, to stop and think of what they were doing by continuing to erode the economic development of the town and destroying the life of people in the parish capital, Spanish Town”.

In the meantime, Dr Ken Baugh, the chairman of the JLP, said he was forced yesterday to close his medical practice for the day because of reports of threats that the building would be fired on.