Ross Sheil and Howard Campbell, Gleaner Writers
MATTHEWS LANE area leader, Donald 'Zekes' Phipps, remained in custody yesterday as police continued investigations into his alleged involvement in the murder of two men in west Kingston over a month ago.
Phipps' lawyer, K. Churchill Neita, said he did not know how far the police investigations had progressed. "I've been trying to communicate with Senior Superintendent Calvin Benjamin to hear what's the position but to no avail," Mr. Neita told The Gleaner yesterday.
Mr. Neita said that when he visited Mr. Phipps yesterday, he was in good spirits. "He's alright, he's okay," Mr. Neita explained.
The attorney said his client was arrested by the police at around 11:00 am Wednesday, shortly after leaving the Half-Way Tree Resident Magistrate's Court to answer charges of illegal possession of 26 rounds of ammunition and two pounds of marijuana. The ammunition, contraband and pharmaceuticals were discovered during a police raid at Zekes' Matthews Lane store last October.
Wednesday's search yielded a M1 machine gun and two magazines which contained ammunition.
NON-PARTISAN FORCE
Yesterday, Deputy Commissioner of Police Mark Shields said the arrest of Phipps was evidence of the police working as a professional non-partisan force.
He repeated his call for an end to garrisons and the culture of donmanship.
Speaking to The Gleaner, DCP Shields argued that there was no difference between a People's National Party (PNP) garrison or a Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) garrison. He stressed that the detention of the PNP-affiliated Zekes, should counter claims of partisanship following recent focus on the JLP-affiliated Tivoli Gardens ,as the source of the gunmen responsible for the police killings.
"There are garrisons on both sides (JLP and PNP), it is a lie to deny their existence on one side and make accusations of their existence on the other. And I would like to stress that as an 'incomer' I have no side to take," said DCP Shields.
"We are prepared to go into any garrison to police with neutrality and we will go wherever there are crime and criminals. We will police professionally and go anywhere on the island and we shall show no fear no favour."
Admitting his "limited experience", he said, "people in the garrisons are living in terror." "They are seeing their daughters forcibly taken by the dons for sex. There is this perverse idea of 'justice' and kangaroo courts that some see fit to excuse. All of that is unacceptable in a democratic society," said the deputy commissioner.
