News Ticker!
Sunday, April 29, 2018
Barrett Town Badman Bowza Battles Battalion in the Bay
A man on the police most wanted list, was shot dead during a massive operation in St James, the parish where an Enhanced Security Measures has been imposed. Dead is Nico Samuels o/c "Bowza","Shabba” or "Brutus” of a Jenkins corner, Barrett Town address also in St James. He was shot, whilst two policemen were injured in a fierce firefight in the upscale community of Hatfield, Ironshore, Montego Bay in the parish on Saturday, April 28. He had been on the police most wanted list for a 2017 triple murder in Barrett Town, St James.
The two police officers, who were part of a team that went to apprehend the fugitive, were shot and injured during the reported shootout that lasted according to varying reports, from two to five hours, police sources have reported. One of the two policemen injured in the shooting is said to have been seriously hit. The police stated that Samuels is a former member of the dismantled “Ski Mask Gang” which operated out of Barrett Town. Samuels it is said was a member of the “Ski Mask Gang” but broke ranks after the gang leader and other gang members went to his home in Barrett Town and killed his mother minutes after they set her afire. It is also alleged that his grandmother was also shot and injured during the said incident. The Barrett Town District, Jenkins corner had been paralyzed by the terror wielded by Samuels according to residents.
Reports are that approxiamately 1:45 p.m., members of a police team, acting on information went to an apartment located in the vicinity of Sugar Mill road in Iron Shore to search for the fugitive, to effect an arrest on Samuels and another man wanted for and in connection to the 2017 triple murder.
Further reports are that upon reaching the premises, they came under heavy gunfire from two men, one of whom managed to escape in bushes. The other man who was later identified as Samuels. According to eyes witnesses Samuels entered private property, where he held persons hostage challenging the security forces in a battle of kill or be killed. He continued to fire on the police and had them pinned down for over an hour. During the confrontation, the police Corporal was shot and injured, and they had to radio for backup.
They were then joined and supported by several joint military teams who locked down the environs, circumference and perimeter of the house, however Samuels proceeded to barricaded himself inside and engage the lawmen in a gun battle that ensued for hours. Samuels was eventually fatally shot in evening and when the shooting subsided, he was found dead in a pool of blood in a room littered with clothes, two 9 mm semi-automatic pistols along with several live rounds taken from his person.
Audio recordings of intense gunfire purportedly in Hatfield have been disseminated via social media and traditional media houses Saturday evening. Photos showing what appears to be his body are being circulated on social media. There are also pictures purportedly of the house with several bullet holes and broken windows. Residents living in the communities of Barrett Town and Lilliput, are now breathing a sigh of relief as this notorious killer and some of members of his gang have now ceased, desisted or are deceased.
We want to hear from you! Send us a message on WhatsApp at 1 (876) 312-3672
#breakingnews
Sunday, October 25, 2015
21st Century Crime Fighting: CRIME APP
Users of a Jamaican Crime App could potentially report an ongoing crime with the push of a button. A package of information including the location of the crime, photo, video, audio, and text description of the crime are sent to authorities immediately. The application also allows for users to report crime ANONYMOUSLY so that they may continue with their busy lives knowing that with a push of a button, police will know and have everything to pursue the criminal. Ordinary users become the eyes and ears of authorities. Submitted issues could be displayed on the city's map, so citizens are aware of crime hot-spots.
There are often tense situations when calling the police is not an option. There are other times when inconvenience or fear of reprisal prevents one from reporting an incident, featuring the ability to take a photo, record video and audio, and provide a description of the incident, citizens could be assured that their phone has the capability to alert family, friends, and the authorities at the push of a button, should a threat arise.
The application would be especially useful to high school and college students, who often find themselves walking back from class late at night, or the victim of sexual assault. What is key, is that the App would empower the average citizen and ordinary bystanders, to report crime instead of ignoring it.
Local law enforcement organizations are expected to tailor their services to suit the citizenry it intends to serve and protect. In today’s world, everything is going mobile… why not crime prevention? Jamaica's local authorities need a 21st century make-over when it comes to reporting and preventing crimes.
Now... while mobile apps are the most obvious example of how organizations are responding to the public's demands. With reduced budgets, there is no denying that making sure public services and information can be delivered via a mobile phone in an accessible way, whilst keeping up with changes in technology is a hard task... there are a variety of projects of this nature in action today all across the world in a variety of nationalities and municipalities, many of them using OPEN SOURCE options.
Once again... it is therefore incumbent on our relevant ministries and national constabulary to explore these options earnestly and zealously. For a truly user-centered digital application, adapted to the needs of local communities can quickly and affordably achieved, as well as possibly effecting much change and altering our social climate. We must now think local and act global!
Tuesday, October 01, 2013
Mitchel and Jamaican People's Stress
Sooooo..... BAAAAMMMM! 2:30pm Saturday afternoon. Paradise becomes abuzz with activity, residents scampering to cell phones, "weh dem deh, weh dem deh?" "Tek dung di line!" At the same time here comes one flock of residents taking a variety of unpopular routes, escaping and avoiding the JPS disconnection teams, who have in tow the long arms of the law. It is also alleged "one white lady weh look like di ooman who own JPS pon di TV did dih deh."
After the moments of flurry and outbursts of fluster and frustration and utter confusion, "nuff" ole me, decided maybe I should take a look in Bread Lane, site of what seems to be the police action and scene of quite a few arrests. Mothers and Grandmothers in police custody, young women and a "baby father." And here is where my head ache starts. The police are man-handling the baby father, who is in possession of his child at the moment.
Now I happen the particular child and new here mother was not in the vicinity at the moment, I also knew the baby father was not a resident of the community but was babysitting and staying in what is his woman's family yard. So technically he is being arrested for a crime he hasn't committed. And att the same time the police while jostling the youth is insisting on trying to palm of the baby off to any arbitrary community member so that he can carry through his arrest by any means necessary. Even if it means he has not left the child in proper or legal custody of an official guardian or family member.
Here is where I made the unfortunate mistake of pointing out to the Police man who I gleaned goes by the name Mitchell, that he is a bit to eager to carry out the arrest without following proper or due procedure and that he can't just give the baby to a passerby. This is when the ass loses his cool. and screams at me "Yuh a fool, aye Rasta bwoy leff di place before mi tek a rock and mash in yuh head side, yuh know nutten bought rights? a stir u come fi stir up supm, cause a problem... a soon kick yuh and nuh stop kick yuh till bend up."
This is where I pause look at him, gaze intently, for I have met rude police men, but this man tops the list as the worst offender and most moronic. In holding his gaze, I see when his certainty breaks, for I am not moving , nor am I intimidated. So eventually I reply, "Lick who?"
To which he retorts with another expletive filled tirade. Then I say to him "Yeah I know my rights, but is like you nuh know them!" he then trys to make an explanation for dealing with the baby father and the issue of the child in the way he is, at the same time still eating up himself and badding up an explanation. At which time I turn to leave...
As I turn to leave, I can see his friend with either the oozy or mini-k/or 16 swinging round his neck like one of Flavour Flave's oversize pendants, is incensed that I haven't cowered, become a coward and completely capitualted with fear. While I a walking away, the Po-Po whom I shall call Gun-pendent is walking me down. When I turn round to meet him, he is already grabbing my left arming and turning me. Now thank Selassie that I have a PRESS ID, which is the first thing that greets him when he spins me, it stalls him. He is now taken aback, and I start chuck more ID's at him.
To which he responds, "Stop! Yuh seem like a educated yute, yuh couldn't have so much paper and nuh have eucation, so hear wah, we a do we ting, and we nuh need no trouble so jut gallang weh yuh a go, go dung deh so and nuh come up yah again, caah u seem like a trouble yuh waan start."
Mitchell then asks him as I am going away... " A who him?" T which Gun-pendent replies "NOBODY!"
So there it is like slaves, we have limited access to resources, police come and arrest on premises without warrants, squatters, landless, dispossessed, and baddup brutalized and pushed around. 21st century slavery I say.
Monday, June 24, 2013
Minister of Freakonomics: Lisa Hanna!
Wednesday, May 01, 2013
Are We Independent? Montegonian Exclusive
YannickPessoa@yahoo.com
Saturday, April 27, 2013
Montegonian Editorial Exclusive: POLITICIANS CRIMINALISING JAMAICANS
Wednesday, January 07, 2009
2008 Review: The International Year of Fluffy
Greetings Montegonians where ever you roam. Welcome to my 2008 Year in Review. Now what a year it was. Death, crime, dying, scamming, economic collapses, economic meltdowns, a half black president, Wall Street collapses akin to Jericho, oil crises, oil prices, sliding dollars, kidnappers in Jamaica, bizarre rape crimes, the fading away from the spotlight of the notorious homo duo (2), Pirates on the high seas in Somalia, Bolts of Jamaican Lightning, Olympics, the usual decade itch to start thinking up a new Armageddon this time it isn’t y2k but 2012… we also had another lackluster year from a different political party than the PNP this time around, we had Mavado and Kartel ascend to the posts of Bounty Killer and Beenie Man… guess who is the Doctor Fish (he who switches, and by the way Mavado won Sting OK… don’t let the media fool you), we had inflation as usual and women jostling for the helm of America, Bush was shoed and booed, and of course I am none the richer.
Montego Bay continued another year and continued her epic struggle to not be the second city, in sports, we followed Tappa on a miracle that almost pulled us to the world cup, and we watched as St. James High a.k.a. Seior School become school kings of the west and though we never copped the Olivia Shield here in the west we gave the Jamaica the best underdog story in a while. Only to be beaten by our own over confidence and of course Kingstonian antics and hubris. The city tore apart at the seams as murders reeled and men brought the blood bath to Sam Sharpe Square. I didn’t see much of Dr. Chang, who for another year has showed us he has no solid plan and approach to the city, so too our Mayors and councilors out west. On a civic and municipal level, we have been treated to a fair and bizarre bazaar of non-ideas, half baked plans, a tradition of simply “tradtionality” and methodology; we’re just doing what has been done, holding meetings and acting busy.
Last year time magazine gave Mr. Obama the prestigious title of person of the year. Errrrrrrrrrr wrong, I disagree completely. I think person of the year goes to FLUFFY, who ever she is where ever she is, and I’ve been a fan along time, Ok. So let me plug a line, all the lovely fluffy women of Mobay unnu can link me (joke, mi nuh waan get no beaten). Yeah, but on a serious note, this was a serious year for the resurgence of the buxom and busty and rubenesque and rotund women. I saw news feature where model agencies started seeking plus size women, a documentary I watch even noted a brand of modern porn they labeled BBW; Big bodied women. Hmmm, then if you perused the social networks, the facebooks and hi5s you’ll have noticed a surge of women or profile titles saying, Fluffy or Fluffy to the world or Fluffy to the flipping universe, whatever status the Diva had a few years back, Fluffy ‘tief it.’ I’ve even seen hybrids a species known as the Fluffy diva, Fluffy was so popular this year I even had a minor debate in a lunch line with a man who was protesting Fluffy’s return, and lamented how “him nuh deh pon that”, “well me deh pond at” no pun intended. Last year women embraced their fat sexuality and their bodies for what they were, or just a hit back at all the years of rib jutting hip poking “Victoria can’t keep a secret” models. Yup in ’08 one of the more positive things was that while crime escalated so did women’s weight from anorexic to fluff, and what can I say, it makes me happy. Whoever figured out the formula for saving women’s self esteem can you please work on crime next please?
Personally, last year for me was terrific in terms of entertaining myself with fluffy eye candy, but on the real it had been a difficult if not grueling year, watching friends die, and people suffer, and general economic decline, it didn’t do wonders for my psyche at all, but I’m glad it’s over, and I hope all the Fluffies stick around in 2009 and I hope we can leave crime and tragedy behind us. Ladies and gentle people 2008 is behind us, STEP IN TH E FUTURE, I’m waiting for you there. “Oh and mek sure unnu carry Fluffy when you a step, caah mi nuh waan see no bag a man inna mi future.”
To you and yours, all the best for the New Year: May the Lord preserve thee from evil, may he preserve thy soul, and may he preserve thy going outs and coming ins from this time forth… Selah!
Yannick Nesta Pessoa
yahnyk.blogspot.com
yannickpessoa@yahoo.com
Ps. Pssssssst Fluffy yuh can e-mail me enuh! (Mi know mi go get beaten now)
Threnody
~Seal: Prayer for the Dying
“Those who are dead, are not dead, they're just living in my head”
~Coldplay: 43
Good Afternoon, Good Evening and Good Morning, I hope you'll be still enjoying the lovely weather when you get a chance to read this, be huddled at that seat at the shop, or sombrely warming up to that shot of JB which you'll be happy to have excuse to drink, “A Wedda, A Wedda! U nuh see seh time chilly.” Or maybe you're on your verandah, I hope the breeze doesn't hamper your reading too much, but where ever you are I beg and beseige thee, take a very solemn walk with me, a path some of you maybe vaguely acquainted with, some of you not so acquainted with. Our scenario today reminds me of a Stephen King series I read named The Dark Tower. It is a tale of a Gunslinger, who has seen all his friends die and seen his country and his lovers, home and family dessimated and is on the chase to reach a place called The Dark Tower, to defeat a Red King and call out the names of all his fallen friends and reset or restore the order to things. And some things stood out in that book for me and one was an expression he used frequently to describe the changes that he saw took place in his world, and it was this “The world has moved on.” He never said from what, but it was from the point he had marked as the better years of his life.
Now death and loss are things I've always known of, however in my early twenties I realized that I was ill-prepared for it. Because I never realized that as early as 19 and 20, so many of the ones I knew would be gone, and I've come to realize that I have lived under the naïve belief that me and all my friends would grow old, but now I know better. This year I've had to learn of death all too intimately.
A threnody is a song or hymn of mourning composed or performed as a memorial to a dead person. The term originates from the Greek word threnoidia, from threnos (lament) + oide (song). Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European root wed(uued or ooed)- (to speak) that is also the forefather of such words as ode, tragedy, comedy, parody, melody, and rhapsody. And that is what this article is gentle people all across the land. My Threnody for Paradise Lost. I don't know if it is because we are in a leap year or what but the tragedies this year seemed a many. It all start last year this time. Decemeber 7 to be exact, when a police battalion rolled through Paradise and killed one Cedric Thorpe, also known to many as Goosey. I had seen him, just an hour before, stood and spoke, then continued my journey downtown, by the time I had reached the top of Union Street, people were talking about a Goosey dead, and I paid it absolutely no mind, after I had just spoken to him, must be another one. By the time I was at Perry Street my phone was ringing of the chart, “Yuh hear she dem just kill Mankind!” That set the trend for the year to come, I would be standing out by Likkle Dread loitering before getting food when a friend of mine Homie's father would drive pass in his little red car as per usual, stop get a cigarette at the shop up the road, he would complain of not feeling well, and I would watch him drive off in his little red car, only to have a heart attack and crash less than 4 seconds later. He would drive off into a column and crash and die of heart complication. Just like that life will blindside you, and it is just earth runnings and the way of the world, and leaves us to wonder, what is man...
I would later have to watch my close parri, suffer through the loss of his mother. Then to bear witness to some kind of secret wars being waged in Paradise and watching innocent and young lives spin out and spill out in bloodshed, and then to not really know, what secret games and deeds they had played and been punished for. To watch the life of Sticky Bean get snuffed out for mistaken identity on a rainy day, to hear Bess a shopkeeper's life being wasted away at 6:50 in the morn while drinking tea, to get up the following morning to hear a pretty little girl you watch grow, offer proper council and advice when you could, Madeeks, get wasted away at the same taxi stand you and everyone whoe probably knew her, all before the age of 20. To then watch the spirit of a community die. Shortly after some respit from the urban prowl only to return and hear my good friend, a very spirited old man, very short thin and pixie like, full of verve and life a man that sat amongst thieves, murderers, weed heads, rum heads, youths, gun toters and average Joe's, a Roman Catholic at that, who would always be in spirited debates with me and my entourage about politics and God, and it was always good natured and never got bitter, no matter who we persecuted his belief or angle. His name was Dandy... and he lived by that name, he was always dandy. No one knows how Dandy real died, he just became ill, thin and died. In the space of 2 months that I had not really seen him, he just upped and died. Then there are Jerome (Amoy) and Gwangy (who the front page of the Mirror named Wong by some error in calculation or translation and they even gave him a career as a cane vendor). They gave away their life carelessly by persistent pursuit of bad things. But they were human, they had families and friends, some of whom I am very close to, I knew them. They died. Byron Balfour who I knew, he wasn't fond of me who wrote next to me in the Mirror write on the next page there, so close to me in some regard he died too. And my cousin/unlce on Tate Street... my fallen friends and soldiers are many.
Most days I feel like Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, weeping for all the sorrows I've seen in this world, all the lives we must touch and live to see shattered, for all those who curdle up on the street, under taxi stands and make the concrete jungle their posture pedic, for all my friends who have tossed way their lives to coke and now roam the town like ghosts for all that to die, for it has said, many more will have to suffer and many more will have to die, don't ask me why.
I close with a Peter Gabriel song “I Grieve,”
“it was only one hour ago
it was all so different then
there's nothing yet has really sunk in
looks like it always did
this flesh and bone
it's just the way that you would tied in
now there's no-one home
life carries on
in the people i meet
in everyone that's out on the street
in all the dogs and cats
in the flies and rats
in the rot and the rust
in the ashes and the dust
life carries on and on and on and on
life carries on and on and on”
Yannick Pessoa
yannickpessoa@yahoo.com
http://yahnyk.blogspot.com