THE police have started demolishing derelict ghetto structures used by gangs to mask their violent assaults on inner-Kingston communities and as cover to evade the cops.

Already, one shop has been razed as crime chief Mark Shields and his team take the fight to the shooters, and the police are to seek permission from city managers to step up the programme.

During a tour of the area yesterday Shields, a deputy commissioner of police, said the constabulary, with the assistance of residents, are in the process of identifying which buildings pose a risk to the public and police officers.

Shields said Superintendent Delroy Hewitt of the Kingston West Police division and his colleagues would determine buildings being used by gunmen as vantage points or as dormitories.

“We have identified one and it has already been demolished, but there are others,” said Shields.

“The biggest priority are the ones that are used as vantage points by the gunmen and we will do everything we can to remove them.” Shields said that the police intended to seek permission from the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation (KSAC) before destroying the buildings.

“We have to go through the council, but if they are a risk, and they clearly are because some of them are derelict then we will get permission to have these buildings removed,” he said, noting that South St Andrew was plagued by crime and violence and had seen more than 40 murders and hundreds of shootings in just over a year.

Shields made the tour of Torrington Park, Top Jungle, Greenwich Park Road, Jones Town and Craig Town as follow-up to a programme implemented by the police a week ago, in which they removed many road blocks apparently mounted by residents for community security, and simultaneously increased police presence in those areas.

He also viewed the first building that was demolished, disclosing that it was used by snipers to target both residents and the police.

Most of the roadways remained clear, and several residents backed up Shields’ claims that the area had been peaceful since the police stepped up their effort to curb the violence in the communities.

“The feeling from the community tends to be quite positive because some of the people have said that their kids are beginning to sleep at night and I am hoping that by the time they go back to school after the Christmas break things will be back to normal,” said the crime chief.

“So far, we have managed to keep the areas clear for about four to five days,” he said of the debris cleared by the cops.

Shields said one of the major complaints from the residents was that the roadblocks were being used to extort residents in the community.

“Local criminals have been stopping people who are coming back from work in the evenings when it gets dark and demanding money from them to let them through the roadblocks,” he said.

The police action appeared to have paid off, from a community standpoint.

Devon Smith, a resident of Greenwich Park Road said since the more police had come into his area, the violence had been minimal.

“Yeah man, me no hear nothing a gwaan and me love that,” he told DCP Shields on the tour yesterday.

Donarie Robinson also extended gratitude to Shields and over in Torrington Park another resident also expressed satisfaction with the changing mood in his community.

“Me like what me see,” he said. “Is long time this should have happened. So much people wouldn’t dead if this did happen long time.”

In most of the communities the deputy commissioner visited, residents were seen out and about on the streets – something which Shields says was unknown a few days ago.

He told reporters that the morale of the communities had been boosted because there was less trauma.

“There is a definite improvement and what we have to do now is sustain that in the months ahead,” he said, adding that social intervention will have to play a key role in the development of these communities.

davidsont@jamaicaobserver.com