Laventille activist: 'You know who gangs are, so stop them'

While relatives of 16-year-old murder victim Jamal Charles remain mum on his shooting death, an activist and close friend of the teenager, Kareem Marcelle, has called on the government to clamp down on gangs, citing the decades-long turf war as the reason for Charles's death.

Marcelle said the authorities know who the gang leaders were, and need to do their part to bring them to justice.

“Police officers and ministers of national security past and present know the gangsters by name and by number,” said Marcelle. “They use their parliamentary privilege to list them, so they know who they are and what is going on.”

Marcelle said communities are doing their part by partnering with police and providing them with information, yet several people in power blame the members of the community and accuse them of protecting the gangsters who terrorise them.

“Several times a year you see gun raids and drug raids in communities like Laventille. Do you think they are operating on intelligence for that? They are working on information from informants in that same community.

"If Westmoorings and those places had the same kind of informants that communities like ours had, the issues of white-collar crime would have been solved a long time ago.”

Marcelle commended Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith for his work within the police service and in the field, but noted that even he is having trouble with corrupt officers.

“The commissioner is doing an excellent job in cleaning up the service, but the commissioner himself said police officers are leaking information to the managers of brothels, and he could only depend on his Special Operations Response Team.

"So if he cannot trust the police officers around him, why would the community trust the very same police?”

Marcelle is convinced Charles was a casualty of an ongoing turf war between rival gangs on Pashley Street, Laventille, where he was killed. He explained to Newsday that the turf war had been going on for more than 20 years, and in its beginning it was a battle royale between several gangs which had eventually been whittled down to two.

Charles, who lived in Beetham Gardens, went to Pashley Street last Saturday to take a bath, since his area had not had water for several days.

After a volley of gunshots rang out, the teenager was found dead on Morgan Lane, Pashley Street, wearing only a pair of boxers.

No one had been arrested in relation to his murder up to press time.

Sources told Newsday his family is still making funeral arrangements.