RESIDENTS of Tivoli Gardens are relying less on ‘jungle justice’ and underworld enforcers to settle disputes in their community, and are turning instead to the police in the aftermath of the military incursion last year.

This declaration comes from Senior Superintendent of police Terrence Bent, who has been in command of the Kingston Western Police Division since the violent clash between the police and gangsters that took place one year ago, tomorrow.

“Back in the pre-May 2010 operation, many of the reports were made to the enforcers and they would beat who are to get beaten and do all manner of evil,” explained Bent. “What has happened (now) is that the state has resumed its rightful role in providing all of those security services. The police have now assumed its correct mantle in normal policing and security issues.”

As a result, Bent said, residents have gained more confidence in the police, making more reports of criminal offences.

For decades, Tivoli Gardens has been regarded as the island’s most notorious garrison community, whose residents were under the rule of iron-fisted gangsters. These thugs, allegedly led by former enforcer Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke, were the judge, jury and executioners for suspects of crimes committed in the community.

On June 4, 2010, weeks after the operation, security forces found what they described as torture chambers deep inside the community. These narrow, isolated dwellings were fitted with nooses from which alleged violators of the community “order” were hung by their arms and beaten with baseball bats.

During the same search, the security forces also discovered at least one shallow grave, which, after exhumation and DNA testing, revealed the skeletal remains of 32-year-old District Constable Paul Bartley, who had been gagged, his limbs bound, and put to kneel before being executed.

Investigators said they found one 7.62mm shell-casing, the type of ammunition used in the AK 47 assault rifle; one 5.56mm shell casing, the type used in the M16 assault rifle; and two 9mm shell casings.

Post-mortem examination revealed that Bartley had been shot in the head, neck and back.

Residents who watched as police moved to and from the burial site claimed they were unaware of its presence.

While the statistics were not immediately available, Bent said there has been an increase in the reports of domestic crimes, especially rape, since the security forces’ operation in West Kingston.

“Specifically, the rapes and carnal abuse; we have seen a dramatic increase in those numbers, and we are saying that it is because of the confidence (in law enforcement) that those reports are coming to the police,” said Bent, noting, however, that there are still some uncooperative residents.

“There will be some persons who will have lifelong animosity because of loss of life and property, and we try, at times, to help heal those wounds. But, we are seeing significant changes in the persona of most of the residents,” he insisted.

Retired Deputy Police Superintendent Hugh Bish — who was reassigned from the post of divisional head a month before the Tivoli Gardens incursion — tried to dispel rumours that residents, prior the security forces’ action, were directed by officers at the Denham Town Police Station to the area dons for settlement of conflicts.

Bish said that residents, instead, shied away from making reports at the Denham Town Station as they feared being branded as ‘informers’, a label that could have cost them their lives.

“Is only the hardcore criminals that have a problem with the police. The regular citizen and police never had any problem, really,” he said. “But, because of the criminals, the regular people would kind of hold a distance from the police. Other than that, there was a good relationship between the police and the residents,” he continued, noting that the police were still very active in several clubs and social activities in the community, just as they were prior to the operation.

Wayne Bartley, president of the Tivoli Gardens Youth Club, gave a less optimistic account of the relationship between residents and the police.

“It up and down, because you have a time when it good, and another time… but is just them (police) PR (public relations) team that walk around in the community,” he said. “They are really the ones who go ’round and really talk to the people and develop a relationship,” said Bartley.

Former Clarendon College High and Tivoli Gardens football star Dennis Hutchinson, a resident of the community, concurred.

“It is divided. Some people still hold on to the (gangster) system that was in place before, some are glad for the police presence and want them around, while you have a set that don’t really care,” said Hutchinson.

“I think that most of the people want a little more freedom. Most of the complaints come from persons who are not able to keep parties and those sort of things,” he continued. “People don’t want to comply with the process set out by KSAC (Kingston and St Andrew Corporation), and getting permits to keep parties. They want the opportunity to turn on their music and play it as they like, and some people feel they are still under bondage because of that.”

As for the grievances that relatives of persons who were killed by the security forces last May may be carrying, Hutchinson explained: “It is dying a natural death, but one and two people still talk about it, they still express how bad they feel. You still hear people saying that the operation was not a good idea and that it could have been handled better,” he said.