On Sunday a few (well actually alot of people) celebrated the birthday party of one of Jamaica's major criminal figures, the same figure who has been linked to having a Jamaica-wide criminal network of various gangs, and also the same person who has been linked to the reason for the USA's Diplomatic War with Jamaica that is currently taking place. However for reasons, so far unknown to the majority of the Jamaican public, following the birthday celebrations (which ended on monday) there was a shootout involving members of the police force and heavily armed gunmen. The battle that ensued lasted for in excess of 3 hours resulted in three policemen being shot and injured and two gunmen dead.

Even after the major shooting, the gunfire continued way into the evening and many businesses had to close early to protect their employees. Many school children who were unlucky enough to be on the road during the time period also found that their evening commute became one of fear for their lives, as they had to duck for cover as if they had managed to unluckily enter a war zone. Jamaica was truly shocked at this sudden outburst of violence which had occured.

Reading through the various news reports gives you a better idea of just how scary the situation had become. The gleaner reported that:

"Yuh si because a tight quarters mi inna, wi cyaa get fi fire back ... . Mi haffi jam di door, and ah dat gi mi likkle space fi start buss it back pan di bwoy dem," he said, pointing out that one of the alleged gunmen was wearing a bullet-proof vest.
....
Alert policemen, well positioned with weapons, appealed to curious residents to go home as they had received information of a plan by gunmen to launch an attack from all angles on the lawmen.
...

A policeman told The Gleaner that they had received word that no less than 35 well-armed men were advancing along Spanish Town Road to join the battle. The gunshots kept puncturing the air in Hannah Town and later, Denham Town joined in.
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Without warning, multiple gunshots erupted at the rear of the KPH, sending all scurrying, in search of a place to hide.

Reports from the Observer were also similar to that of the gleaner:

At the nearby Kingston Public Hospital (KPH), where the gunmen were pronounced dead and the injured cops admitted for treatment, police securing the facility had to take cover as gunshots rang out outside the institution's rear entrance. The incident sent staff, patients, reporters and dozens of residents who had converged to get word on the men's condition scurrying for cover.
...

Yesterday, the house where the two men were killed resembled a scene from a horror movie. Clots of blood covered the living room floor downstairs, and virtually every wall on the second floor of the two-bedroom structure had bullet holes. Bullets also damaged a television set and pieces of furniture on which blood-stained clothes were strewn about in one of the rooms.

Both papers also reported that though the policemen had identified the people who had died as known gunmen, the community members that were witness to the police shooting state that the police had acted brashly and had killed two of the gunment in their sleep. The weeping mother of one of the dead civilians also stated that he had only once before gone to a police station and was not in fact a bad man as the police had thought.

To me all of these clippings scare me because they bring a few things to light which many people probably had not paid attention to. First among these things in the scant disregard that the gunmen (this includes both policemen and civilians) had for the Kingston Public Hospital (KPH), as people who were at the hospital reported having to run in fear for their lives. Secondly is the effect of the earlier reported case of a policeman who was illegally selling police arms to the highest bidder; The fact that many gunmen were reported as wearing police bullet proof vests is one which disturbs me, as this could also mean that the gunmen also have uniforms available to them and in that case how can anybody know the difference between the two? The final thing for me that really shocked me was how willing people were to join into the "war" that broke out, even as people died there was continued weapon fire from many unknown assailants, and policemen reported seeing gunmen marching up towards the area to join into the violence. This is not something that I believe is to be taken lightly as this means there are people who are very much willing to die for their cause no matter if it is legal or illegal.

As people continue to speculate as to the reasons for the sporadic fire that ensued on monday, most of us are just happy to be alive and to have not been a part of the news reports. But truly something needs to be done to change the current situation for Jamaicans as I am pretty sure a war of an even greater scale could possibly break out at any minute and claim much more innocent lives.