Montego Bay, St James – Staggered by a wave of gruesome murders in the gritty Norwood community since the start of this year, Jamaica Labour Party Deputy Leader Horace Chang yesterday urged the authorities to flood the area with police and soldiers as part of a three-pronged approach to stop the bloodshed.

In fact Chang, the parliamentary representative for North West St James, the constituency in which Norwood sits, said that if the spate of murders was allowed to continue it would push Montego Bay’s murder total to 150, compared to the 135 homicides recorded last year.

“The police and military need to go into the community immediately to restore order and keep the peace,” Chang told journalists at a news conference at the Wexford Court Hotel in this resort city. “We need to immediately introduce military patrols who have the training and equipment to deal with these difficult areas where the police cannot get to go into.”

At least nine persons from Norwood have been murdered in separate incidents since January.

. March 18 – Dwight Gray, 35, and his wife Hercent, 36, were abducted by five armed men. Their burnt bodies were discovered a few days later in Home Hill, Ironshore, some distance from Norwood.

. May 5 – Tristan Chambers, 22, was shot and killed by gunmen in Norwood.

. May 8 – Garfield McKenzie, 32, auto mechanic shot to death and his severed head placed on a stool along the roadside in the middle of the community. His girlfriend, Taneisha Lawrence, was also shot and killed.

. May 27 – The body of an unidentified man, who police estimate to be about 18 years old, was found in Glendevon, Norwood.

. June 8 – Garrett Clarke, 49, a bus driver and his wife Claudette, 47, a receptionist, were shot and killed along with their neighbour Nitonye Christie, 28, a mason. Residents say that the couple, who lived next door to Christie in an area of the community known as “Gulf”, was murdered because they opened their window to investigate after they heard shots at Christie’s house.

In addition, four members of the Stone Crushers gang, which has been operating from Norwood, have been shot dead by the police between April 30 and May 23. They are:

. Garfield ‘Don’ Sawyers on April 30;

. A man known only as ‘Spiffy’ on May 11; and

. Delano ‘Bigga Crime’ Willians and Roy McLennon on May 23. Police said both men were wanted in connection with 10 murders.

Yesterday, Chang said that Montego Bay had the highest homicide rate per capita in the Western Hemisphere. “The murders are particularly frightening, brutal and brazen,” he said, citing the case of the severing of Garfield McKenzie’s head and its display on a stool.

He proposed that in addition to flooding Norwood with police and soldiers, the authorities should start a social intervention programme, including training and employment for school dropouts and provisional opportunities for low-income housing.

He said that the city had recorded over 65 murders since the start of the year and blamed both the government and the public sector for abandoning the inner-city communities from which most of the violence stemmed.

“The government of the day doesn’t seem to take the crime situation seriously,” he said, calling the present crime problem intolerable and unacceptable. “If the issues surrounding the inner-cities are not resolved, they will destroy tourism.”

He said that the problem in many inner-city communities was that they were teeming with frustrated young men who had no opportunities. He also drew attention to the ages of the gang members from Norwood and other informal settlements in the parish who were recently killed by the police. They were primarily between ages 16 and 20 with none older than 22, he said.

“There is a widespread neglect of young males in these communities,” Chang insisted, adding that according to his researchers, 70 per cent of these young men dropped out of school between grades seven and nine. “We must find a way to give them opportunities,” he said. “They live in frustration and anger and have no respect for life.”

This frustration, he said, was fuelled by the state’s failure to implement the necessary social and physical infrastructure in inner-city communities.

He said that in Norwood alone there were more than 7,000 housing solutions but no proper roads, water or electricity. “These people have to survive on their own,” he said. “They have to cut their own road, and run their own water and light.”

Chang charged that Operation Pride, which was responsible for land development in the area, was a total failure, having paid out over $600 million for road work, which was yet to give the people in the area any proper road.

He said that he would not rule out taking to the streets with his constituents to ensure that their voices were heard, but noted that for now he would be employing other mechanisms to draw attention to the people’s plight.

This, he said, would include pushing for the implementation of a social development programme he launched last month, as well as working with churches in the area and the police Victim Support Unit to provide psychological help for victims of crime.