Kingston Mayor, Senator Desmond McKenzie, says he is clamping down on extortion.  But adherents of the opposition Peoples National Party (PNP), most of whom earn their livelihood providing security and other services, see his decision as political, in closing an illegal bus park at Church Street in downtown Kingston.

Compounding the already complex issue of extortion, its roots and reaches in downtown Kingston, the roughly 30 bus operators plying the Kingston and St. Thomas route, who are caught in the middle, say it will cost them more to park at the Darling Street bus park, where men from Tivoli Gardens, the mayors political enclave, are demanding $400 per trip. 

Prior to the closure of the Church Street bus park, the bus operators said they paid $500 each week in fees.  These fees covered costs to hustlers, mainly from the PNP-controlled areas in the eastern end of the city, who earned their livelihood loading buses, cleaning the bus park and providing security.

 According to the operators, the move to the government bus park at Darling Street is costing $200 daily for parking fees, plus $400 per trip to enforcers from Tivoli Gardens and other JLP-aligned communities.  This, they say, is the standard fee for buses plying rural routes, which terminate at the Darling Street bus park.  

The PNP adherents, who earn a weekly income from the bus operators, do not view Mayor McKenzies decision to close the Church Street park as enforcing the rules, but instead, as an act of political victimisation against them.  Those making the claims charged that the income base of the JLP supporters, some of whom capture and use state land to operate illegal car parks in the western end of the city, remains intact, while their source of revenue has been cut off.

Apart from the illegal car parks, where shoppers pay up to $100 for parking fees, hustlers from the JLP political enclave are paid in both cash and kind by higglers selling at Coronation Market and other markets in the western end of the city.  The thugs also control the extortion racket operating on the southern side of downtown Kingston, stretching from Coronation Market to Breezy Castle in the east, where scores of businesses are said to be paying extortionists. 

Calls by the security forces for reports of demands from extortionists have fallen on deaf ears, as players contend that the official security forces cannot match the level of security provided by the enforcers. 

Officially, extortion is a crime for which offenders can be imprisoned.  But for hundreds of youths living in politically volatile communities in downtown Kingston, it is way of life.  This is how they earn their livelihood.  And it becomes a matter of turf for supporters of either of the two major political parties in these areas.

Although supporters of the JLP enjoyed the fruits of the closed Church Street bus park, most of the beneficiaries were from Tel Aviv, Smith Lane and other communities supporting the PNP.  Checks by the Sunday Herald revealed that the beneficiaries were organised in order to share the spoils in an orderly way.  Men from each community are assigned to work on different days of the week loading buses, cleaning the park and providing security.  Several higglers who sell items like bag juices, cigarettes, water and other items, also earn their livelihood from the hundreds of passengers using the facility daily.

Residents see McKenzies actions as part of his political intentions to contest the next General Election.  McKenzie is interim JLP caretaker for the Central Kingston constituency, represented by the PNPs Ronnie Thwaites.

Among those holding this view is Tel Aviv community leader, popularly known as Pepsi.  The 45-year-old Pepsi told the Sunday Herald that persons unknown to him threatened to kill Mayor McKenzie, saying they were representing Pepsi, a charge that he denied.  They also reportedly told the mayor that if he did not reopen the bus park, vendors at the Pearnel Charles arcade would have to pay $500 each. 

Pepsi was adamant that Tel Aviv was not only being targeted unfairly, but has also been dragged into the latest *lo**y flare-up between warring factions within the JLP stronghold in the constituency. 

Residents in Tel Aviv traced the infighting to internal conflicts triggered by a move engineered by the late community activist, Franklyn Allen, alias Chubby Dread, to unite communities seven years ago.  The move, according to Pepsi, received support from GraceKennedy, which provided economic support.  

But some elements in the JLP areas reportedly saw the move as an attempt to weaken the party politically.  As a result, some youth in Southside were accused of switching political support from the JLP to the PNP.  This was said to have been the start of a *lo**y internal conflict.  Some of the accused youth took refuge in Tel Aviv, where they are still residing.

Chubby Dread was killed in New Kingston outside the popular Asylum nightclub.  Some JLP supporters, including his son, believe his own people killed him because it was felt that he was getting too soft and was influencing the men to join the PNP.  His son has since taken over the leadership of one of the gangs in the community, which are battling for supremacy, resulting in a series of tit-for-tat killings.  

For now, the guns have gone silent for the umpteenth time in several years.  Following a meeting on Friday with Commissioner of Police Hardley Lewin, the leaders on both sides agreed to make efforts to keep the peace.  Later today, meetings will be held in Southside and Tel Aviv as follow-ups to the meeting with the commissioner.  But residents on both sides are not sure that the peace will last.