With criminals continuing to keep St Catherine in a headlock of violent crimes, deadly gang feuds and extortion, four ex-policemen believe the old capital could implode if the problems are not resolved.

Two are adamant that if left to fester further, a security operation on the scale of that which was mounted in 2010 in Tivoli Gardens to apprehend and extradite fugitive Christopher “Dudus” Coke to the United States is very much possible.

The former cops gave their assessment of the situation in Spanish Town a week after gangsters, on Tuesday, June 14, engaged in a brazen daylight gun battle in the market district that left three people dead and others injured.

The police, who said the violence was sparked by in-fighting in the One Order gang, responded by imposing a 48-hour curfew in several communities. The following day Prime Minister Andrew Holness, describing the level of violence unleashed on the town as a “national emergency”, declared a state of public emergency (SOE) in the parish.

The One Order gang, which has historically feuded with the Klansman gang, is headquartered in the Tawes Pen community and exercises control over the Ellerslie Pen, Dempshire Pen, Gordon Pen, Shelter Rock, Homestead, and Chambers Lane communities.

Roads at Chambers and Railway lanes were blocked by residents to prevent vehicles from entering with gunmen to carry out reprisals.

Against the background of those developments and Police Commissioner Major General Antony Anderson’s statement that there are 12 active gang conflicts in the town, retired Senior Superintendent of Police Calvin Benjamin told the Jamaica Observer that St Catherine isn’t under control.

“The SOE works, but as soon as the police pack up and move out, and the security forces move out, all the guys just come back. When the pressure is on, those who are not caught will just move out to a safe place and as soon as the security forces are out and things become relaxed, they’ll return,” he said.

“We all know that there are persons that are paying extortion. But when the police get the intelligence and go to them and ask, they all say they are not paying. The police know, but the [people being extorted] all deny it, so it continues,” Benjamin said.

He argued that as long as people keep paying extortion money, the criminals will continue to purchase the guns and crime will continue.

Benjamin also said that criticisms that police are afraid to enter the space and aggressively take control are unfounded.

“You have to realise that the security forces have their lives and they have families. Self-preservation is the first and foremost thing that you need to look at. I don’t know if they are afraid and I can’t say, but if you cannot protect your life, you will not be able to protect the citizens of Jamaica,” he reasoned.

Since the start of 2022, the police report that they have arrested 82 people for possession of illegal firearm, ammunition or both, and seized 59 illegal guns in St Catherine, an increase of 28 per cent compared to 2021.

As at June 15, the St Catherine North Police Division recorded 70 murders and 51 shootings, increases of 52 per cent and 76 per cent, respectively when compared to the similar period in 2021.

In the St Catherine South Police Division, 58 murders were recorded over the period, the same as last year, and 53 shootings were reported compared to 43 last year, an increase of 20 per cent.

Former Constable Mark Russell described the situation in Spanish Town as “tough”.

“The gangs and the criminals inside Spanish Town… the bigger they get, it is going to become more serious. With the Tivoli incursion, it stemmed from the extradition, so if one of those dons have to be extradited, then we can say that an incursion is possible. The criminals are not going to give up their leader because these people are loyal to their leader,” he told the Sunday Observer.

The Tivoli operation began on May 23, 2010 after gunmen loyal to Coke barricaded the community and fired on police and soldiers to prevent them from entering to apprehend him on an extradition warrant as he was wanted in the United States to face gun- and drug-related charges.

During the fighting Coke fled the community. He was eventually captured on June 22, 2010 in a police dragnet on Mandela Highway in St Catherine and extradited to the US where he is now serving a 23-year sentence,

Russell, in his assessment of the situation in Spanish Town, said he doesn’t believe that the gunmen there want to clash with security forces in like manner to those in Tivoli in 2010.

“Something extraordinary would have to happen. They don’t really want a war with the police and the soldiers. What they really want to do is collect extortion because to them, that is business. They are mainly at war with each other,” Russell said.

However, he made a grim prediction based on the events in Spanish Town.

“We are slowly heading down the path of total destruction because criminality has become a part of our culture. With every new generation, it just grabs a different group of youth to replace the ones that are either dead or in prison, to expand the gang activity and criminal lifestyle. The whole country is going to become one corrupt criminal space. We have to come up with emergency solutions and long-term solutions. The Government is not focusing on anything long term, they are coming up with short-term ideas that don’t work,” he lamented.

He also said that public silence is exacerbating the problem.

“If we leave it to police alone, they might have to do things that are unlawful because people are not talking. If nobody is talking, that means you have to take things in your own hands, and we don’t want to do that, we want to work with the citizens and with the law,” he said.

“The civilians are the ones who witness crime, so if they are silent, then how can the police investigate or even fight crime? There are good citizens, bad citizens and hypocrite citizens. The hypocrite citizens, they know everything and are the most powerful, but the criminal culture is getting so big that some people are related to the criminals. It might be a boyfriend, a father, a cousin or a brother. The criminal culture is spreading like a virus and eventually it will infect everybody,” Russell predicted.

Unlike Russell, ex-cop Clive Lawrence, better known as feared crime-fighter “Karate Georgie”, believes a massive security operation like the one in Tivoli is not only possible, but menacingly near.

“The rate at which these men are behaving now, trust me, they have the artillery, so there is a possibility. That is imminent. They (police) never expected the men to come in the town…you call that terrorism. When a man can come in the heart of the town with high-powered rifles and fire indiscriminately, that is terrorism. You have to call a spade a spade,” he said.

“If the criminals can be so brazen to go into the heart of Spanish Town and display the lawlessness, anything is possible. If they don’t get adequate security to man the outer parts of St Catherine, we will have a reoccurrence of that. St Catherine is a very large parish. I figure that maybe they don’t have enough police to man the entire parish and occupy all of the space. This is serious business,” he said.

Lawrence said 25 years ago, it could have been said that there was a handful of gunmen. Today, he said, the numbers have increased.

“The place is saturated with criminals — they are all over the place. The scammers invest in guns. What a Jamaica! We are in some serious problems,” said Lawrence.

Prevention, he added, is one commendable aspect of the SOE. However, he stressed that if police aren’t actively searching and finding the criminals, there’s a problem.

“It doesn’t make any sense. The SOE can’t be forever, so as soon as the pressure eases up, the men will go at it again. So you have to be going after the men. While the SOE can stem it in terms of prevention, how long will the SOE work for? You have to go for the men. You have to find them and bring them to justice in whatever form.”

Former Senior Superintendent Reneto Adams, on the other hand, told the Sunday Observer that St Catherine hasn’t reached the point of a grand security operation. He argued, nonetheless, that “simple policing work” is absent, which poses grave threats for the parish.

“The criminals are free to organise, get their weaponry, get their money, get their drugs, get their everything, and execute and implement their plans. They are not being disturbed. I don’t want to criticise the force, but I live in Spanish Town and I am yet to see policemen in the heart of all the criminal areas here, digging up the place and looking for the criminals,” said Adams who, during his tenure in the police force, was feared by criminals.

“Spanish Town has a history… when it ready it cool down. But it cools down only because they kill off one another and there’s nobody left to fight. They will cool off for a six months or a year to gather all their resources and then come and unleash mayhem on the public,” he said.

Adams said he doesn’t know if Jamaica currently has a police force that is willing to manage the crime situation.

“Their hands are tied behind their backs with all kinds of rules and regulations that they have brought forward to stifle the police actions when they are being implemented. The criminals in Spanish Town have more intelligence than most of the policemen and therefore, when the police are at a particular location, criminals have another 20 routes to which they can flee to, to hide from the police and go undetected. So, how will you detect crime?” he asked.

“I don’t see policemen going under house bottom anymore. I don’t see policemen going into tanks anymore and searching for guns. I don’t see that.”

Added Adams: “I have seen nothing happening in Jamaica that is beyond the task of the police. What is happening, as I know, is that these are not bad men. These are some little lunatics, some little uncontrollable mad boys, idle boys, wicked boys running up and down and making life miserable for the people. And they are all over the place.”