GREEN ISLAND, Hanover — Gangsters are continuing their deadly feud in this western Jamaica district despite several measures implemented by the police to contain the ongoing criminal activity within the space.

Assistant commissioner of police in charge of Area One (ACP) Glenford Miller on Thursday named the Logwood area as one section of Green Island that has been impacted by gang conflicts for several months.

“Notwithstanding the operational activities and the strategies that the police have implemented in that space to try to keep persons safe, the criminals continue to find ways and means of killing each other,” said ACP Miller during an interview with the Jamaica Observer.

“As a result of that, we continue to impose strategies, [and] continue to have a presence within the Green Island policing space. We have to impose round-the-clock policing presence there to actually prevent the gangsters from shooting each other and claiming the lives of innocent persons,” added ACP Miller.

On Thursday, the police extended a 48-hour curfew in sections of Green Island which will last until Saturday at 6:00 pm. The curfew is an extension of a similar measure implemented on Tuesday.

But despite the implementation of the curfew on Tuesday, a man was reportedly fatally shot at his house in Logwood that night.

While ACP Miller was unable to give details on Tuesday’s killing, he said that police intelligence has suggested that there will be reprisals and counter-reprisals.

He said this was the reason the police applied for an extension of the curfew.

Noting that murders and shootings continue to be an issue in the parish, ACP Miller said measures implemented by the police are aimed at maintaining law and order within the area but they need the support of residents.

“Our intent is to ensure that persons are safe, and we want to reduce the incidents of crime. So, we are asking the citizens of Hanover to partner with us, help us, and tell us what you know. Help us to get rid of the criminality within the Hanover space, especially Green Island.

“We need to bring it back to a level where persons feel free and comfortable to live, work, do their business, and raise their family,” said ACP Miller as he charged that “the only way they [gangsters] can solve their issues and their problems is taking it out on each other with the use of a firearm.”

Since the start of the week, the parish has recorded three murders, two of which were committed in the Green Island police space.

ACP Miller explained that the two committed in the Green Island area were gang-related while the other, committed elsewhere in the parish, was the result of a domestic dispute.

Approximately 35 murders have been committed in the parish since the start of this year with the majority recorded in Green Island.

ACP Miller said the Ants Nest and Dam Road gangs are the two major gangs within the Green Island area and they have accounted for the majority of the issues.

“Notwithstanding, we would have apprehended several of the gang members but it appears as if they continue to recruit other persons within the community. They are getting support from other communities by virtue of what our intelligence is suggesting.

“And we are discouraging persons from being members or joining these gangs. It does not pay. So, we need the citizens of Hanover to speak to their family members, especially the young men,” encouraged ACP Miller.

The senior officer said several community outreach initiatives have been implemented by the Hanover police.

“Our community security section has gone in and also the divisional commander for Hanover had several of what we call walk-throughs, and community meetings with the persons there. We’re trying to see how best we can actually speak to these young men and actually reach out to them and actually try to discourage them in relation to them being associated or being members of these gangs.

“So, we are trying numerous means and measures to see if we can reach them, just to discourage them from being members of gangs. It is never our intention to see any member of the society lose their life — whether it be by gang violence or whether it be by situations where police officers would have gone to arrest some of these criminals and they would have confronted the police. That is not our intention,” said ACP Miller.

MILLER…the criminals continue to find ways and means of killing each other