Dancehall Fans Puzzled Over Security Minister’s Vow To Capture “Unruly Gang” Members
National Security Minister Dr. Horace Chang stated yesterday that he, along with the Police and military, will be doing everything in their power to capture members of the “Unruly Gang”.
The ‘Unruly Gang’ that the Minister referred to, is not Popcaan’s Unruly music collective, which includes a record label and enterprises in concert promotion, but rather a group of miscreants based in St. Catherine, home of the notorious Klans and One Order Gangs. On Friday, during a press conference at the Office of the Prime Minister, Dr. Chang had declared that with a state of emergency now underway in St Catherine, the gang members responsible for the upsurge of violence in the parish, would now be uprooted and made to face their judgment.
“These gangs embedded in the community – whether Unruly or One Order, and many others out there – we will find them, dismantle them and remove the criminal elements from our communities,” Chang had stated.
One Popcaan fan, in responding to the Minister’s statement on Facebook, appeared perplexed. “Den wah popcaan have fu duh wid dis war? Why Unruly name a call up,” was the question from the bewildered woman.
The St. Catherine-based ‘Unruly Gang’ appears to have been in existence from as far back as 2009, and according to police reports back then, operated from Portmore Lane and later Washington Mews and other areas of Portmore.
In July 2017, they were also named among 190 gangs operating in 12 parishes within Jamaica.
In January this year, the apparent confusion between Popcaan’s Unruly Gang music ensemble and the St Catherine-based criminal enterprise came became evident, after the Forever artist tweeted that he was languishing in immigration in England after “gang leader and firearm allegations had popped up against his name”.
“I would like to know why someone with authority in Jamaica send information to England immigration that I’m a gang leader and I got charge with firearm, this is not cool at all from my own country, why I have to be sitting in immigration for over 3 hours??” Popcaan had tweeted at the time.
Hours later his attorney Bert Samuels had declared that Popcaan was not detained in the UK, and described the myriad of woes, the Dancehall superstar had been encountering, including red flags against his name which results in him being held in immigration, whenever he visits the UK, as “embarrassing, defamatory and scandalous”.
According to Samuels, Popcaan had been going through this annoying routine for the “past three to four years”. He had also explained that as usual, after the checks were made, Popcaan was allowed to go about his business in the UK, as always happens when he is kept in immigration.
“Everytime that Popcaan enters the UK he is kept in immigration for three hours or more on the basis that there is a red flag with the allegations that he named out in his tweet,” Samuels had told The Gleaner newspaper.
“Those allegations are totally false. Popcaan has a clean record in Jamaica. At no time has Popcaan ever been charged with anything to do with a gun. It is embarrassing that this information originates from Jamaica. It is defamatory and scandalous. It has implications for his ability to travel elsewhere in the world frontally,” he had added.
Popcaan had also engaged the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment & Sport, asking in a subsequent tweet: “@Babsy_grange I try to ask for your help with this before, Why people from my own country fighting Popcaan and telling lies about me and sending it to other countries?? I don’t know what cause but it needs to be off my name.”