Senior JP declares volatile Grange Hill safe to live and do business
by Albert Ferguson/Gleaner Writer · The GleanerWESTERN BUREAU:
Yvonne Thorpe-Sonlin, president of the Grange Hill Zone of Justices of the Peace, says that thanks to the recent crackdown against criminal gangs by the security forces, the rural community is now a much safer space to live and do business.
“The decent citizens who live in Grange Hill far outnumber those who display unacceptable behaviour,” said Thorpe-Sonlin, who was speaking during an appreciation function to honour three retired policemen recently at the Grange Hill Baptist Church. “Things are not as bad as they were years ago or as they have been in the earlier part of this year.”
According to the senior justice of the peace, Grange Hill, which erupted into violence earlier this year as the notorious King Valley gang and the Ants gang, which are both based in the community, engaged in a bloody turf war, which resulted in several persons being shot and killed, is now free of hostility.
The Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) had to send in strong reinforcement as even the students from the community became targets for the marauding gangsters, many of whom would walk around with rifles in broad daylight. However, after several fatal confrontations between gangsters and the police, the community has gone quiet.
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“It is not all that bad…. . Grange Hills is not as bad as people on the periphery would want you to believe,” said Thorpe-Sonlin. “Grange Hill is a community like any other that has good and bad experiences, but at present, the good here in this community are outnumbering the bad.”
Carlington ‘Tommy’ Godfrey, who had emerged as a much-feared gangster and had laid siege on Grange Hill, where he engaged the police in several gunfights, was killed in an alleged gunfight with the police on September 6, ending his reign of terror and bringing back some semblance of peace to the community.
Earlier this month, the commanding officer for the Westmoreland police division, Superintendent Othniel Dobson, told the Westmoreland Municipal Corporation that the police efforts at tracking and apprehending wanted men and persons with illegal firearms was finally reaping much success.
SEVERAL ARRESTS
According to him, the collaborative effort of the Westmoreland police, and other formations from Area One, and the military has resulted in the arrest of several known gangsters and the seizure of illegal firearms.
Warren Lyttleton, the People’s National Party councillor for the Grange Hill division, said the work of the police has allowed his constituents to walk around freely, especially since the demise of Godfrey.
“On behalf of the concerned citizens of the Grange Hill division, I am expressing our appreciation for the work that you and your team of policemen and women are doing in the space,” Lyttleton told the police.
Assistant Superintendent of Police Jordane Allen, the Zone Three commander of the Westmoreland Police Division, told the residents that the police will increase their presence in the community to ensure that the gangsters can no longer dominate the space.
“We will increase our operational activities to ensure that persons who contribute to disorder in society are arrested and brought to justice. We will increase our business engagement and our community walkthroughs so that we will have more interaction with you, the citizens,” Allen said.