DESPITE yesterday’s early-morning discovery of two ecomposing corpses dumped behind Spanish Town’s Redemption Ground arcade, defiant vendors and shoppers ventured into the old capital, determined to get along with their business.

The bodies, said police, were those of 26 year-old Kevin Davis otherwise called ‘Scav’ and 19 year-old Gary Smith, also called ‘Goat’, two brothers from Three East, Sandown Park in Greater Portmore who had been reported missing since Tuesday, April 4.

At the Spanish Town Police Station a less-than-cheerful Superintendent Kenneth ‘Jack’ Wade was at pains to point out that the latest policing strategy was working, and that the bodies were of men killed earlier and elsewhere and dumped in the town.

“The police received a number of calls, and those calls led us to a section of Spanish Town called ‘Capture Land’ where the bodies of two males were discovered and later identified as those persons who were reported missing from Portmore.

The police are carrying out investigations, but at this moment we have no leads as to what or who could have caused these gruesome murders,” he said, pointing out that to his knowledge there had been no shootings or killings in the troubled town for over 72 hours.

The recent flare of violence between rival gangs the Klansman, who support the governing People’s National Party and the One Order, who are allegedly aligned to the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party, has claimed about 21 lives.

On Saturday morning, along the historic, winding streets, in the arcade stalls of the bus park and even in church, the talk of the town was the morning’s gruesome discovery, which seemed to only sadden but not scare Spanish Town’s battle-hardened populace.

“Dem treat dawg better than man! Di dead man lay dung inna di hot sun for hours!” screamed an outraged Rev GG Cooper from the pulpit of the Faith Temple Seventh Day Church of God Apostolic on Morrison Street.

To a chorus of ‘amens’ and ‘praise the Lords’ he chastised everyone, from the gangsters to the police to the political leadership, but challenged his congregants to remain vigilant.

“They kill.

They think human life is theirs to take away. Look what Spanish Town come to! But we not afraid because we have the Lord! Any day we ‘fraid we can pack up everything and leave, but we still here and we have to stay because evil shall not win!” he thundered to a packed church hall.

Last Wednesday on Oxford Street, just north west of the JUTC bus depot, a woman who operates a hair salon nearby had to restrain tears as she told the Sunday Observer how the violence “mash up her business”.

“Mi siddung whole day, nobody come. I all have to send home staff. Mi ‘fraid yes, and worried, cause I can’t pay my rent. Me no know how fi find the $4,000 a month cause nobody coming,” she said, reminiscing on erstwhile days, during a tense peace, when business was booming.

“A Mr Adams we want,” she adds thoughtfully, referring to controversial cop Reneto Adams. “A only him dem bwoy fraid of. And me know say it a grieve him inna him heart to see the place like this. A yah so him come from y’know. A fi him place.”

Since last Wednesday, additional police personnel have been deployed to Spanish Town to diffuse a bloody standoff between two rival gangs.

Those extra officers weren’t immediately visible doing walking patrols, but a close look revealed blue-fatigued police officers with large guns standing guard at strategic points, in plazas, in the notorious Spanish Town bus park and in some stores. More frequently, marked vehicles including armoured trucks would drive through.

The police are confident that it’s their effort that has curtailed the non-stop bloodletting.

“We have no doubt that the increased police presence has had an effect on the situation,” said Supt Wade. “From where we sit, the gang situation is somewhat under control. So far we have not had any intelligence or information coming in about any gang warfare.”

Few residents share his confidence.

“Darling, we only look to the almighty. When we go out we pray, and when we come in we ‘fraid same way,” said one woman sitting outside an almost-abandoned wholesale. “All the same, the police a do dem job, but the man have gun bigger than the police … a taximan all dead over the bus park with police truck park right behind the depot. Our backs are against the wall.”

campbello@jamaicaobserver.com