Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) general secretary, Karl Samuda has accused the police of bias and mishandling the conflict which in two months has claimed 26 lives in the troubled community of Common off Red Hills Road in his North Central St Andrew constituency.

The member of parliament claimed that the cops had been feeding the media with false information, by naming Cleveland ‘Cassie’ Downer as a wanted man.

Samuda reserved his most biting criticism for the head of the Major Investigation Task Force, Assistant Commissioner Les Green: “If Les Green hadn’t called out names, why doesn’t he go about his business of doing the work instead of creating excitement in the area and agitating the people?”

“The police are not helping the situation, they are making public utterances that serve to agitate rather than calm,” Samuda said, “You don’t go around blabbing off your mouth and calling people’s names. The people don’t like it”.

Last week police said Ian Simpson, also called ‘Giant’; Denver Pink, and men known only as ‘Bang’, ‘Dello’, ‘Little’, ‘Eric’, ‘Lukong’ and ‘Joe Joe’, were wanted in connection with the violence that flared up in the area, as JLP factions fought each other.

Downer was not named as a wanted man by the cops and Green said the police had never named him as a wanted for any crime.

“He has been named as person of interest, not as wanted. We need to speak to him. He was shot, a man died in his house and several others were injured,” Green told the Observer.

Samuda said Downer was overseas recuperating from the effects of a bullet which is lodged in his spine. But Green said the police had not been able to speak to Downer since he came under attack from his cronies.

Conceding that relations between his constituents were strained at the moment, Samuda said he was trying to mend fences so life could return to normal in the community.

“I’ve been working like hell with the members of the community but the thing is, this is something that will take time, there is no quick fix because it’s a very deep-seated resentment,” Samuda said. “Let’s get practical, when someone has a shooting of that nature where a colleague is shot and killed and an area leader shot up and his son is shot and others around are shot, the only thing to do is to try and calm the situation by being balanced and not jump to conclusions.”

Samuda also acknowledged that politics was not behind the violence.

“It has to do with an internal situation. The people who are in contention are ultra strong supporters of the JLP, there is no PNP in this. They are warring over conflict within the family,” he said.