A claim by One Order gangsters that their dances are being unduly targeted by the police and shut down at the stipulated 2:00 am, while those of their rivals, the Clansman gang, are being allowed to go on through the night has been rubbished by the constabulary.

The accusation of favouritism by the police was made by a One Order leader on Friday when the National Transformation Programme (NTP) led by Pastor Al Miller and the Peace Management Initiative, visited Spanish Town, St Catherine on its continued peace trek into violence-plagued communities.

“If you a police and a peace officer you haffi try and balance the ting,” said a top One Order man who claimed that the police have always shut down the dances held by the One Order leader while allowing dances in the Clansman-controlled Dela Vega City, which is next door the Spanish Town Police Station, to continue way into the morning.

He said the One Order leader was committed to seeing peace in Spanish Town, especially since he now operates a disco and is in the process of registering his recently established company.

Another man, said to be the head of the One Order and who also met with the NTP team, said he is committed to maintaining peace in the area but he wanted the police to be fair.

He said on three occasions his dances, which were peaceful events, were locked down prematurely by the police and dozens of men hauled away to jail.

Following that, they said the Clansmen had a memorial dance for their former leader, Donovan ‘Bulbie’ Bennett, which was allowed to go on until 8:00 in the morning, although it was held almost next door to the police station.

The One Order leader said despite these things, he has encouraged those under his command to continue to hold the peace.

“Me beg them fi just easy, because me no want Spanish Town fi erupt, and so me a try me best fi control my people,” he said.

However, a police source who opted not to be named, said the claim of favouritism was nonsense.

“The Clansmen have been complaining bitterly, saying that the police have been unduly harsh on them, especially since the murder of Douglas Chambers,” the cop said.

Chambers, who was chairman of the Jamaica Urban Transit Company, was shot dead outside the state-run bus company’s head office in Spanish Town in June last year.

According to the cop, his colleagues have staged operations in the Clansman-dominated communities of Jones Avenue, Nursery, Dela Vega City, and along the Sligoville Road up to Gravel Heights.

Friday’s tour also brought out the deep divisions between both gangs, even as they both claimed that the violence between them was being fuelled by police bias.

“The police dem want we fi war because them say when we at war we will kill off each other and them will come in and kill the rest,” said one member of the One Order.

He said they had already put measures in place to ensure that if someone from their side creates mayhem in another area, they would be dealt with.

However, that was denied by the men from the Clansman gang when the NTP team met with them.

According to one top Clansman, when reports are made to the One Order leader he denies knowledge of any wrongdoing.

“Everything him deny and say him no know bout it. How him a leader and him no know wha dem ah do?” he asked.

He claimed that people from their area are constantly robbed of their goods by men from One Order. It was only recently, he said, that a man selling shoes on a cart was robbed of all his goods by men from that gang who took away his cart. He said when the matter was reported to the One Order leader, he denied knowledge of it.

The NTP team also heard complaints of police mistreatment of people in the communities visited, a common accusation they also heard from residents in the Kingston communities of Big Yard, off Mannings Hill Road; Cassava Piece; Woodford Park; Whitfield Town; Southside; Telaviv; Rockfort; Burger Gully; and Bayshore.

“How comes the police can’t teck a gun from a man without killing him and when the don want a gun him just send fi it and him haffi get it?” asked one man in Tawes Pen, St Catherine.

When the peace team visited Big Yard on New Year’s Eve, one man alleged that people in Cassava Piece are allowed to keep their dances for as long as they want, while dance promoters in his area have been denied permits or have had their dances shut down prematurely.

This, he said, has caused bitterness, anger and frustration among the young men under his control who believe the police are showing bias.

“When the youths dem look pon these things it just ah mek them more frustrated and just ah mek the tings get worse,” he said.

He claimed the police constantly harass men in their area, while the men at Cassava Piece are allowed to do what they want.

However, two men from Cassava Piece said they do not trust the police.

“Them and everybody ah link and they are a major part of the problem,” one of them said.

In Woodford Park, the men said peace can be maintained in that community but the cops need to know how to treat people.

“When they come in here dem see we and say ‘b…y bwoy, come yah, how yu face tan so?’,” one youth said, adding that if the police don’t change their ways it will only make the situation worse.

However, another young man related a positive experience he had with one cop but admitted that it surprised him.

“Me see police come in here and say to we ‘gentlemen, ah me work me a do and me asking yu fi a search’, and we so shock cause we never hear that yet, we haffi wonder weh him come from,” the young man said.

He said they have always co-operated with police like those because the cops respected them first as human beings.