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THE days of an inner-city community being ruled by an all-powerful don, who enjoys God-like status among residents, is over.
This, according programmes manager of the Kingston arm of the Peace Management Initiative (PMI), Damian Hutchinson.
Speaking to reporters and editors at the Observer's weekly Monday Exchange this week, Hutchinson said inner-city communities were becoming more splintered with every street or corner having its own leader.
"The concept of what we traditionally call a don is becoming extinct, because now we have communities becoming smaller and smaller," Hutchinson said.
"That sort of hierarchy has been significantly challenged over the last five years. Take a situation like Rockfort where we used to have one don controlling a large area and having political support. Now we have a situation where communities are becoming more carved out where each corner now has its own leader," Hutchinson added.
He said the same situation obtains in the communities of McKintyre Villa, popularly called 'Dunkirk', and Jacques Road, which runs off Mountain View Avenue.
"They (corners) have their own guns, their own leadership. You will have a community with six streets that have six different leaders and their own autonomy," he said.
Jacques Road is a community whose residents traditionally support the Jamaica Labour Party and has been known in the past to have deadly feuds with gangs based in the Jarrett Lane, Thorbourne Lane and Burgher Gully -- all communities whose residents support the People's National Party.
But as a result of the PMI's intervention, those bloody battles are no more. Jacques Road, a once solidly united community, began to self-destruct in the last few years. Police have confirmed that the Goodridge Lane, Board Villa, 63 and Bottom Jacques Road all have their own leaders and gangs who are at loggerheads with each other.
The PMI was formed by the former PNP government to assist the police in conflict resolution with a view to lowering the country's high homicide rate. Hutchinson said whereas in the past the PMI workers could find the don and hold discussions with him, their job has been made harder when communities become splintered.
"That is what is making our jobs more difficult," he said.
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/...s-dead_7960550
This, according programmes manager of the Kingston arm of the Peace Management Initiative (PMI), Damian Hutchinson.
Speaking to reporters and editors at the Observer's weekly Monday Exchange this week, Hutchinson said inner-city communities were becoming more splintered with every street or corner having its own leader.
"The concept of what we traditionally call a don is becoming extinct, because now we have communities becoming smaller and smaller," Hutchinson said.
"That sort of hierarchy has been significantly challenged over the last five years. Take a situation like Rockfort where we used to have one don controlling a large area and having political support. Now we have a situation where communities are becoming more carved out where each corner now has its own leader," Hutchinson added.
He said the same situation obtains in the communities of McKintyre Villa, popularly called 'Dunkirk', and Jacques Road, which runs off Mountain View Avenue.
"They (corners) have their own guns, their own leadership. You will have a community with six streets that have six different leaders and their own autonomy," he said.
Jacques Road is a community whose residents traditionally support the Jamaica Labour Party and has been known in the past to have deadly feuds with gangs based in the Jarrett Lane, Thorbourne Lane and Burgher Gully -- all communities whose residents support the People's National Party.
But as a result of the PMI's intervention, those bloody battles are no more. Jacques Road, a once solidly united community, began to self-destruct in the last few years. Police have confirmed that the Goodridge Lane, Board Villa, 63 and Bottom Jacques Road all have their own leaders and gangs who are at loggerheads with each other.
The PMI was formed by the former PNP government to assist the police in conflict resolution with a view to lowering the country's high homicide rate. Hutchinson said whereas in the past the PMI workers could find the don and hold discussions with him, their job has been made harder when communities become splintered.
"That is what is making our jobs more difficult," he said.
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/...s-dead_7960550
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