Roadblocks hamper movement

HUNDREDS OF motorists had to retreat hastily after confronting several roadblocks mounted by angry residents who ensured they stayed mounted yesterday.

The roadblocks which police say were mounted between late Sunday night and early yesterday morning, have so far resulted in the death of one lawman whom police say was burnt alive in his Toyota Mark II Grande motor car after he attempted to go through a roadblock in East Kingston.

While a number of persons at the scene of the roadblocks yesterday did not know why they were blocking the roads, a majority of them said they were doing it to support the residents of West Kingston and said they were calling for Prime Minister P.J. Patterson to call elections or "step down."

Huge boulders, old gas cylinders, flaming logs, rusted car shells, zinc sheets, broken glass, loads of household garbage and other debris, littered roads in Stony Hill, Barbican, Greendale Spanish Town, Red Hills Road, Whitehall Avenue, Olympic Gardens and several other areas.

"Nuh go dung deh go tek no picture, yuh wi get shot," advised one resident of Barbican Road.

"A secure we a secure wiself from the man dem who plan fi come up here wid the shooting. A just protection this. Who out, stay out, who in stay in," said one resident of the Red Hills Road community.

The mood was tense in the Duhaney Park Plaza where about 10 persons waited at the grills outside K's Pharmacy while several police vehicles breezed pass with blasting sirens. The sooty front windows of the Shoppers Fair Supermarket and the Photo Max store showed the damage left by hoodlums who attempted to loot and destroy the shops early yesterday morning.

Customers waiting for their prescriptions to be filled at the pharmacy, were clearly inconvenienced by the owner's decision to lock the iron grills to the pharmacy's entrance and serve them through a small opening.

Though it appeared to be for security reasons a representative of the pharmacy said, "this is my personal thing, you will get nothing to write in the papers tomorrow."

One woman who was among the several persons stocking up on grocery items at the Shoppers Fair Supermarket said she was not going to come back out on the streets until the "war" is over.

"I wouldn't know this sort of thing, (roadblocks) would happen in this neighbourhood (Washington Gardens). I am going home to lock my doors and grills until this is over," said the woman who had abandoned work for the day.

In Central Village, St. Catherine, along the Mandela HighWay, gunshots barked in the distance from the Ideal Betting Company where several residents watched as motorists attempted to manoeuvre their way around debris blocking the highway.

A squad of policemen armed with handguns and assault rifles swooped down on the area and ordered the closure of the betting shop. The owner however refused and tempers began to flare. He felt the police were abusing their authority in telling him to close his store and "lose" business. The police soon left him to tend to other business.

A few moments later the police began frisking individuals in the area at random. They accosted a shirtless young man with a grey knapsack and removed a knife from it. One man who was shouting insults and urging the police to leave the area while shouting that "nohbody nuh fraid a dem," was chased by a lawman and slapped in the face several times with a rifle. The man who fell to the sidewalk was also kicked by the officer.

A crowd of several men women and children shouting "police brutality!" had by this time swarmed the police in a bid to release the man. The police ordered them to leave the scene, to no avail.

One policeman became so overwhelmed by the crowd that he picked up a huge stone and flung it at a young man who scurried away. Unable to keep the crowd under control, the residents were teargassed.

The man who was beaten by the police officer was still screaming when several police officers hauled him to the police jeep.

It was approximately 12:35 p.m. and the temperature in the Stony Hill Square had risen to near boiling point. Scores of persons were either standing guard or just observing the situation in the area as they turned back vehicles and maintained several well-mounted roadblocks.

Business activity in the area was virtually non-existent with the exception of the Good Hope Hot Spot Bar, where several men and a few women were enjoying a few drinks and each other's company.

"A bare lie dem a tell pon wi,' shouted one man, "nobody up yah so nuh fire nuh shot pon the police, a bare fat stone and bottle dem get."

An elaborate stone wall to which residents say they will soon add cement was constructed across the Golden Spring Road in Stony Hill.

"We need some justice. The Prime Minister not saying anything about the killings in West Kingston, him have to step down, wi tired of it," said Daphne Enid a resident of Stony Hill.

"If Mr. Patterson don't call elections and step down, the war not going stop. It just a begin," said another woman."

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