ARNETT GARDENS HAS long been regarded as being part of downtown Kingston's 'ghetto', and one of the more violent and volatile areas of the region to boot. Death in various forms - mostly by the gunis an everyday story and 'area leaders' are the persons with powernot the police or the polticians.
So now there is - or will be a multimillion dollar housing project scheduled for Arnett Gardens, with 252 two and three-bedroom units scheduled for construction. Note the use of the word 'scheduled'.
This is important to note because although work on the project is yet to begin, there is already threats, deaths and violence in progress. Posses have split and new gangs formed, with reputed area leader George Phang and relatives even being warned to stay away from the
community.
Even more disturbing were statements from the police which stated that 'We have had several meetings with some of the key players...' which leads one to wonder why is it that if these key players are known, why is the situation allowed to continue unchecked?
Compromising with known criminals is never going to be the way out of the cycle of crime and violence which has areas such as Arnett Gardens in a death grip for far too long. Nor will politics be the answer, since it was one of the factors that led to the situation in the first place.
In other words, criminals should not be 'met with', they should be arrested. Crime should not be tolerated in any way, shape or form especially by those who are supposed to enforce the laws of the land.
