(Jamaica Observer) – Police and soldiers were kept busy on Tuesday clearing roadblocks mounted in the Corporate Area and St Catherine in protest against the new tax package, especially the $8.75 cess on each litre of gasoline, imposed by the government last week.
Police in the St Andrew South Police Division found themselves with a second problem on their hands – the murders of three men – in addition to responding to several violent protests in sections of that division.
Police identified the dead men as 19-year-old André Goldson, Shamony Jackson, 21, and 38-year-old Orlando Gordon, who they said were shot dead in the Whithfield Avenue, Diamond Road and New Haven communities, respectively.
Homicide investigators said none of the murders were linked to the tax protests.
They, however, confirmed that a female motorist was slashed on the arm and her cellular phone stolen by vandals during a protest at the intersection of Molynes Road and Washington Boulevard.
A student travelling in a public transportation vehicle was also robbed of her school bag and the vehicle destroyed by stone-throwing protestors, the police said
“We came out here about 8 am on reports of gunfire and persons throwing stones. We came and saw the car set ablaze, but the persons quickly dispersed when they saw us,” a senior officer from the Hunt’s Bay Police Station told the Observer.
The police spokesman said people arrested during the protests have been slapped with several charges, including the obstruction of traffic and destruction of property.
On Tuesday, there was thick black smoke from an old motor car and debris which were set on fire by protestors on Molynes Road in Kingston, the Jamaican capital.
Police said their efforts to contain the protest were, however, more tedious along Washington Boulevard, also in the city, as the protestors replaced roadblocks as soon as they were cleared. Some watched patiently as firefighters removed the debris while police and soldiers stood by, only to replace them as the security forces moved on.
The police also cleared roadblocks in the vicinity of the Police Commissioner’s Office on Old Hope Road in St Andrew; Spanish Town Road in the vicinity of McKoy Lane; Mandela Highway near the community of Central Village; the Twickenham Park main road; and on Brunswick Avenue in Spanish Town, Jamaica’s old capital.
