Residents of Kitson Town in St Catherine are alleging that men purporting to be plainclothes police attacked and injured a teenage girl and assaulted her mother and sister during an operation to remove illegal light wires on Tuesday.

Reports from residents who spoke to Observer Online were that the men came into the community alongside Jamaica Public Service (JPS) workers, after several previous visits, and attempted to enter a property.

“They keep going into people’s yards without permission… they went in the lady’s yard, she was telling them to come out and they [hit] the lady’s daughter in her face, burst up her face and her mouth,” a resident explained, indicating that the teen had to go to hospital after.

Video footage of the incident shows two men attempting to load a woman into an unmarked van while another in a grey shirt stands nearby. One of the men, seen wearing a Jamaica Constabulary Force hat, appears to be armed with a gun.

Also seen is a teen wearing a red t-shirt with streaks of blood running down her nose. This youngster was identified by the resident who spoke to Observer Online as the teenage daughter of the mother being manhandled into the van.

“They tried to go in [her] mother’s yard,” the resident said again, indicating that expletives were shouted by the men and the girl responded in kind.

“That’s when he hit the little girl in her face and mash up her nose and mouth, and the mother got involved,” the resident said.

In the video, the plainclothes men can be heard saying, “Go in the vehicle! Go in the van!”, as they take turns shoving the mother in an attempt to get her into to vehicle, at times holding and dragging her, with their hands in the band of her shorts.

One of the plainclothes men, wearing a blue shirt, attempts to get the residents to stop videotaping them while insisting that the community members are “obstructing” his work.

When residents, including another of the woman’s daughters, get close to the men, the armed man in the JCF hat draws his gun and instructs the community members to move back. Before that can happen, the grey-clad plain clothed man grabs the second daughter by her t-shirt, and they struggle off camera as more irate residents rush into the fray. The man grabs and shakes the woman by the blouse, exposing her breasts, before pulling what appears to be a handgun and pointing it at her and then into the air. An explosion is then heard.

“That is really crazy! They are crazy! Something needs to be done about the situation,” the resident told Observer Online of the incident.

The mother of the child indicated that she and her daughters have been charged with various offences including indecent language and assault.

She alleges that her left jaw, breast and hand were bruised during the scuffle while the younger daughter’s nose is feared broken as they await X-ray results.

When contacted by Observer Online, Police indicated that they were not aware of the video.

Meanwhile, Winsome Callum, Director of Corporate Communications at the Jamaica Public Service was working to confirm whether a team had been dispatched to Kitson Town that day. However, she indicated that it was regular practice to pair policemen with JPS teams.

“We work every day in communities all across the island to remove illegal connections. That is something that is ongoing and routine because of the persistence of electricity theft, and yes we get the support of the police when we go into communities because our team members have been threatened and sometimes exposed,” she said.

The mother said the plainclothes men did not identify themselves as lawmen.

“They don’t identify themselves, they just drive in and start cut [wires] and pick up,” she said.

Stealing electricity from the JPS grid is a crime punishable by law, and affects paying customers.
When queried about why residents of the community were stealing electricity from the grid, the woman claimed they had not been outfitted with meters.

“The JPS wire runs from the main right through phase one and two but they say they know nothing about it they say it’s illegal,” the woman said, adding “people get their light wires, put it up on the post and put in their meter box, but they still cannot connect to their house… at the end of the day we are still not getting any meters, so everyone is throwing up their little wires.”

The woman alleged that the servicemen who removed the wires were not just taking them down, but coming around often and making a business out of it – reselling the wires to the same community members for up to J$20,000.

She also pointed fingers at the Housing Association of Jamaica which she said is responsible for handling the sale of land in the area. While acknowledging that residents who paid up were provided with their titles, the female resident alleged that they had been sold land with no provisions for electricity and water, and no proper provisions for waste disposal in some areas.

She complained bitterly about the poor state of the road which she said deterred taxi drivers from travelling in the area. This, the resident claimed, was paired with what she described as regular harassment from JPS and police.

The JPS has the legal authority to remove any wires illegally attached to its infrastructure.