By Glenroy Sinclair, Staff ReporterTHE BRUTAL killing of a 23-year-old pregnant woman in Tavares Gardens, South West St. Andrew, Monday night, has left some residents of that community questioning the effectiveness of a curfew imposed on the community for the past eight months.
The victim, Alethia Henry, who was three months pregnant, was shot in the head outside her gate shortly after 8:30 p.m. It is alleged that she was killed because the "shottas" or gunmen had branded her as a friend of the lawmen.
Residents said the incident occurred a block away from the Command Post set up in the area, and the killer(s) easily slipped past the handful of policemen manning the perimeter boundary of the community.
"This is a living testimony to show that the Government's crime plan has failed. How can you have curfew in a community
and gunmen killing people?" asked a resident who spoke with The Gleaner yesterday.
According to the residents, within the first two months of the curfew, they could not only see, but feel the presence of the police.
"They used to patrol, come every day and search, now they stop coming around. You are not seeing much of them again. Every day the few who are here are left idle. There are no social intervention programmes, the police need to go back to the drawing board," said a woman who identified herself as Charmaine Lee.
ABDUCTED TWO
Several weeks ago, residents said gunmen abducted two men in the area. One was stabbed several times and left to die in an open lot, while the other was stabbed in the throat but escaped and ran to the Command Post.
Prior to that, there have been sporadic shootings near the Command Post, in an area known as 'Village' or 'Low Rise'.
The citizens are claiming that since the absence of Senior Superintendent Hector 'Bingie' White from the curfew, the policies that were customarily enforced during the curfew have broken down. Nobody is recording the entry of persons going in and out of the community, or searching vehicular traffic. One of the officers in Payne Avenue told The Gleaner that the police were "being given basket to carry water."
"When this started, we used to have about 70 police per day, this number has dwindled down and one police cannot do 10 men's job. We just don't have the man-power," the sub-officer said.
The Gleaner understands that since the reduction of the number of police involved in the daily operations of curfew, several gunmen who had fled the area have returned and are now threatening those persons who have become friends of the police.
The Payne Avenue curfew has been listed among the Police High Command's successes.
