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Stay out of Manchester, police chief warns criminals
BY GARFIELD MYERS Editor-at-Large, South/Central Bureau myersg@jamaicaobserver.com
Sunday, August 01, 2010
CHIEF of police in Manchester Superintendent Lascelles Taylor says there is hard evidence that some criminals and shady characters seek refuge in the parish and other "quiet places" when the "heat is on" in their locations.
For them, he has a simple message: "Don't come to Manchester."
Supt Lascelles Taylor
Supt Lascelles Taylor
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He and his team reinforced the point during and in the aftermath of a recent major operation in communities around Mandeville.
More than 300 people were detained and "processed" during the two-day operation, with the great majority being speedily released. However, the police held on to 28 young men -- who were said to be "of interest" -- for further questioning and in some cases formal charges.
Taylor said "a number" of those 28 were found to be originally from crime hotspots, such as Western Kingston, Eastern Kingston, Clarendon, St Catherine, and Montego Bay, St James. In one case, a young man produced a "receipt" to show he had been detained and released during the late-May security force operation in Tivoli Gardens and the wider West Kingston.
"I tell him that Manchester is not a place for him to stay, so I send him off back to Kingston," said Taylor.
Two other men found hiding in Greenvale made their way to Mandeville on the basis of friendships they had formed with vendors who travel to Coronation Market in West Kingston on a weekly basis.
Lottery scammers from Montego Bay were also among those rounded up, he said.
Taylor said that in addition to major operations, the police were proactively seeking to prevent the movement of criminals into the parish through ongoing checks at border entry points, as well as routinely on the highways and byways.
"Anyone who come to Manchester and can't give an account as to their business here will have to explain to the police," he said. "If you live here, you must show us. If you have business here, you must show us. But you can't just come to Manchester for no reason at all... You have to explain yourself."
Taylor is urging citizens to co-operate with the police when they are stopped and searched, or temporarily inconvenienced.
"What we are trying to do is keep the community safe," he said, while he voiced satisfaction at what he said was the positive reaction from people in communities, such as Greenvale, following the recent operation.
Taylor believed police proactivity had borne dividends with people feeling "safer" even though there is much that remains to be done.
The murder figure for Manchester up to mid-July was 17 compared with 18 for the same period last year and Taylor noted that three of the murders emanated from gang feuding at a Trelawny construction project, at the Troy Bridge on the border between the two parishes, while a fourth was a mob killing of a crime suspect.
His biggest concern involves house break-ins and robberies, especially of laptop computers and cellphones in the large university, college and high school community in and around Mandeville in particular.
Taylor complained that the job of the police was made especially difficult because in some instances householders do not give enough thought to their own security.
In some cases, he said, owners of large houses -- often returned residents -- leave to go abroad without telling their neighbours or the police.
"When they return, they find their homes have been broken into. We are saying if you know you are going to travel, tell your neighbour, tell the police so we can be alert to the danger," he said.
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/...minals_7841848
BY GARFIELD MYERS Editor-at-Large, South/Central Bureau myersg@jamaicaobserver.com
Sunday, August 01, 2010
CHIEF of police in Manchester Superintendent Lascelles Taylor says there is hard evidence that some criminals and shady characters seek refuge in the parish and other "quiet places" when the "heat is on" in their locations.
For them, he has a simple message: "Don't come to Manchester."
Supt Lascelles Taylor
Supt Lascelles Taylor 1/1 More than 300 people were detained and "processed" during the two-day operation, with the great majority being speedily released. However, the police held on to 28 young men -- who were said to be "of interest" -- for further questioning and in some cases formal charges.
Taylor said "a number" of those 28 were found to be originally from crime hotspots, such as Western Kingston, Eastern Kingston, Clarendon, St Catherine, and Montego Bay, St James. In one case, a young man produced a "receipt" to show he had been detained and released during the late-May security force operation in Tivoli Gardens and the wider West Kingston.
"I tell him that Manchester is not a place for him to stay, so I send him off back to Kingston," said Taylor.
Two other men found hiding in Greenvale made their way to Mandeville on the basis of friendships they had formed with vendors who travel to Coronation Market in West Kingston on a weekly basis.
Lottery scammers from Montego Bay were also among those rounded up, he said.
Taylor said that in addition to major operations, the police were proactively seeking to prevent the movement of criminals into the parish through ongoing checks at border entry points, as well as routinely on the highways and byways.
"Anyone who come to Manchester and can't give an account as to their business here will have to explain to the police," he said. "If you live here, you must show us. If you have business here, you must show us. But you can't just come to Manchester for no reason at all... You have to explain yourself."
Taylor is urging citizens to co-operate with the police when they are stopped and searched, or temporarily inconvenienced.
"What we are trying to do is keep the community safe," he said, while he voiced satisfaction at what he said was the positive reaction from people in communities, such as Greenvale, following the recent operation.
Taylor believed police proactivity had borne dividends with people feeling "safer" even though there is much that remains to be done.
The murder figure for Manchester up to mid-July was 17 compared with 18 for the same period last year and Taylor noted that three of the murders emanated from gang feuding at a Trelawny construction project, at the Troy Bridge on the border between the two parishes, while a fourth was a mob killing of a crime suspect.
His biggest concern involves house break-ins and robberies, especially of laptop computers and cellphones in the large university, college and high school community in and around Mandeville in particular.
Taylor complained that the job of the police was made especially difficult because in some instances householders do not give enough thought to their own security.
In some cases, he said, owners of large houses -- often returned residents -- leave to go abroad without telling their neighbours or the police.
"When they return, they find their homes have been broken into. We are saying if you know you are going to travel, tell your neighbour, tell the police so we can be alert to the danger," he said.
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/...minals_7841848
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