Stephanie Elliott, Gleaner Writer

Policemen move in to clear a burning barricade as protesters mounted roadblocks and demonstrated against the weekend killing of four alleged gunmen, virtually shutting down the Clarendon capital, May Pen, yesterday. - Nathaniel Stewart/Freelance Photographer

MAY PEN, Clarendon:

The south-central town of May Pen was gripped by an uneasy calm last night after a day when angry mobs, protesting the weekend killing by police of four alleged gunmen, blocked roads, forced businesses to close and drove vehicles from the streets.

At least eight persons, including one woman, were arrested for offences ranging from breaches of the anti-litter law to assaulting an officer and disobeying the police.

"Things have returned to normal," Constable Odeale Mulgrave, the Constabulary Communication Network's liaison officer for Clarendon, said late yesterday. "People are now moving about freely; all the major thoroughfares are open."

According to Mulgrave, a strong detachment from the Special Operations team in the nearby parish of Manchester, as well as cops from the Mobile Reserve and Flying Squad, was in May Pen helping local police to maintain order.

"We have enough police personnel to deal with the situation," he said.

After the incident early Saturday, when they shot dead the four men in the Clarendon town of Chapelton, allegedly during a gunfight, police had declared themselves vindicated that they had cut down criminals. There were no protests or claims of extra-judicial killings, as was often the case during such incidents, senior Clarendon officers said.

Among those killed on Saturday was Anthony 'Trimble' Bennett, who was wanted for, among other crimes, the August 10 murder of a Clarendon taxi driver, Patrick Mason.

But shortly after 10 o'clock yesterday morning, the certitude of the police turned topsy-turvy when protesters took to the streets, particularly in the communities of Farm and Effortville, where the four alleged gunmen were said to be from, ordering businesses to close and street hawkers to abandon stalls. Buses, taxis and private vehicles hustled and then inched their way out of town as barriers were thrown up and set on fire.

In some areas, protesters marched with placards proclaiming the innocence of the slain men and formed themselves into human roadblocks.

However, some business persons opted to remain closed and sent home their employees.

Aldo Brown, president of the Clarendon Chamber of Commerce, said millions of dollars in commerce was lost in the town, calling the effect on business "huge."

Four hours after the protest started, with the police having removed roadblocks, things were returning to normal. However, by then, people had had enough. Most firms decided not to reopen despite assurances by Deputy Superintendent of Police Cleon Marsh that it was safe to to do so.

Meantime, Brown said the Clarendon Chamber of Commerce was pushing ahead with its initiative to install surveillance cameras along the May Pen business strip although no timetable had been established. Chamber representatives recently visited the British city of Manchester to view surveillance cameras in operation.

"From experience it has been shown in developed countries (that surveillance cameras) serve as a means of identifying criminals and, as such, might serve as a deterrent to criminals here," he said.