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Arnett area leaders detained
Phang brothers, Roberts questioned
Observer Reporter (all rights reserved)
Tuesday, December 27, 2005



THE police yesterday detained three Arnett Gardens area leaders - brothers George and Andrew Phang and Shocking Vibes Crew CEO Patrick Roberts - in their continuing effort to break the back of the violence that has plagued the South St Andrew constituency of finance minister Omar Davies for the better part of two years.

Last night the Constabulary Communications Network (CCN), the police information arm, could not say if or when the trio would be charged, or for what crime.


Roberts (left) and George Phang . being questioned by the police

However, in June of this year, the police did arrest and charge Andrew Phang in connection with the death of a 13 year-old in 2004, saying he was among a group of men who had opened fire while repairing a road, when the girl was shot.

Also in June the police seized the licensed firearms belonging to George Phang, a long-standing Arnett Gardens area boss, and Roberts, a ruling People's National Party (PNP) candidate in the 2002 general election, to determine whether the guns had been used in recent crimes.

At the time neither was charged, and Phang, a long-time strongman whose attempted overthrow is believed to have triggered the violence in the community, insisted that he had "done nothing to be arrested".

Scores of people have been killed in the Arnett Gardens/South St Andrew area since the Good Friday 2004 murder of Anthony "Chuncie" Folkes, who had been distributing Easter buns in the community at the time of his demise.

But below the surface has been the convoluted street politics of Jamaica's inner-city communities and the muscling for leadership at street corners, areas and entire communities.
In the context of the streets, Phang, in his 50s and a substantial leader in Arnett Gardens since the 1970s, has shown both surprising longevity and a will to survive. He has received multiple gunshot wounds more than once.

Nonetheless, his hold on Arnett Gardens has become increasingly brittle. Young pretenders have challenged his leadership style, and in 2000, he lost the presidency of the Arnett Gardens Football Club to Roberts, whose Shocking Vibes recording studio and artiste management outfit has such dancehall acts as Beenie Man and Lady Saw.

In the 2002 general election, Roberts unsuccessfully contested the West Central St Andrew constituency for the PNP against the Jamaica Labour Party's Andrew Holness.

But despite involvement in inner-city politics inone of the capital's toughest communities, Roberts has not developed the rough-and-tumble image of the Phang brothers or other areas leaders, some of whom have been cut down in the past four years of intermittent feuding.