No Night Services Since March: A Manchester Bishop Says Gang Warfare and Curfews Are Crippling His Church

• Bishop Calbert Spence of Broadleaf Church of God says his church has been unable to hold night services since March
• Police have not allowed crusades or road marches because of intelligence on gang feuds
• Weekend curfews in the area start after 6pm
• Police say curfews cover a string of Manchester communities along the Williamsfield-Melrose and Mandeville-Newport corridors

A church leader in Broadleaf, Manchester, says a feud between gangs is crippling his congregation’s work, especially its evening services, the Jamaica Observer reported.

Bishop Calbert Spence of the Broadleaf Church of God spoke at the Manchester Peace Coalition’s World Peace Day event in Mandeville. “I represent the community of Comfort and it is currently under curfew. On a daily basis our main challenge has to do with gang warfare,” he said. “The truth is as a community we are unable to have night services from about March of this year.” He said the church had also been unable to get police approval for crusades and road marches because of the intelligence the police held.

“On weekends, it is early lockdown, any time after 6:00 pm,” Spence said, adding that during the week people might be able to stay out until about 8pm or 9pm. “It is gang-related, where the youngsters are at war with each other, so I think at any moment you might just get the information that someone is killed.” Constable Tamecia Scott, who leads the Broadleaf Police Youth Club, said police youth clubs and neighbourhood watches were being used to build safer communities, and blamed much of the violence on scamming and a “get-rich mentality”.

Superintendent Odean Dennis, head of the Manchester police division, said curfews were being kept in place along the Williamsfield to Melrose corridor, including Comfort, Royal Flat, Land Settlement and Broadleaf, because of gang feuds. Communities along the Mandeville to Newport corridor, including Brokenhurst, Old England, Barnstable, Albion, Green Street, Richmond and Knockpatrick, also remained under curfew, while it had been lifted in Ellen Street and Greenvale.

Curfews tell buyers and renters something important about an area. A church that cannot open at night has lost part of the use of its building. For households, weekend lockdowns from 6pm limit work, business and social life. For anyone considering property in the Mandeville area, the list of curfew communities is worth reading carefully, and lifting of curfews, as in Ellen Street and Greenvale, is worth tracking. When churches, youth clubs and police succeed in bringing back normal evening life, homes and land in those districts become more desirable again.

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