Barbican
Road,
Eastern entrance of Jacks Hill gas station. Nothing could stop the
"party" of a demonstration happening at Jacks Hill Texaco.
Jacks
Hill Road,
Southern entrance of Barbican road from Jacks Hill, with the now
famous meeting point of the gas station on the right.
Hope
Road,
Looking East North East, up Hope Road, towards Kings House, where
the UWI and UTech students demonstrated.
Hagley
Park Road,
Hagley Park Road, heading down towards Spanish Town Road. These
scenes are indicative of the state of the entire road.
Hagley
Park Road,
Approaching the intersection, with Waltham Park Road.
Waltham
Park Road,
At the intersection, with Hagley Park Road, it is impassable.
Hagley
Park Road,
Heading down to three miles, with road blockers have been busy as
well. These photo's merely represent less than a tenth of the roadblocks
we saw along the way..
Hagley
Park Road,
Children playing in the road, wanting their picture taken, as they
play on the now empty streets.
Hagley
Park Road,
Approaching the Three Miles Roundabout. The police, along with PWD
vehicles, and heavy construction equipment, are clearing the roads.
Cockburn
Road,
This long road on the right, just before Three Miles presented a
lone reminder of the unrest the day before.
Spanish
Town Road,
Where there is smoke, there is fire. Sure enough, like the tensions
around the city, this smoldering pile flared up as we watched.
Spanish
Town Road,
This road was many time blocked on one side or the other still.
We were forced many times to drive on the wrong side of the dual
carriage way, to make our way towards Nelson Mandela Highway.
Spanish
Town Road,
This bus no longer has a mileage problem. It's owner won't be worrying
about gas prices for a while. The financial, physical and geographical
extent of the damage is unbelievable.
Spanish
Town Road,
Strange place for a chair? When next will you be able to have a
seat on Spanish Town Road at 4:00pm on a work week? Hopefully no
time soon!
Geddes
Refrigeration, Spanish Town Road,
Tanks from Geddes Refrigeration were used to block the road. I wonder
if there is anything in those tanks?.
Unimotors,
Spanish Town Road,
The pattern of the tanks on the road was quite interesting. Throughout
all of the mayhem, the Jamaica flag still flies high, and proud!
Praises!
Spanish
Town Road,
Not all demonstrations were destructive, and not all Jamaican were
demonstrators. Here we have a friendly residents cricket and football
game - on Spanish Town Road! Hmmm, where's the boundary Lara?
Riverton
City Dump, Spanish Town Road,
This picture does not begin to tell you the extent of this fire
- about sixty feet long, and all four lanes wide! Amazing! Luckily
for this ambulance, the roads were clear.
Nelson
Mandela Highway,
The juxtaposition of the sign with the "break" in the
road, and the "breaks" we had seen in the system all afternoon,
was too good to pass up. Yes Ronald McDonald, we had more than our
fair share of breaks today!
Lloyds
Hardware, Red Hills Road,
The rage that motivated the mob to turn over this parked flat bed,
and then torch the establishment must have been a sight to behold.
Thank goodness they were gone when we got there. This was no demonstration,
but rioting, looting and plain civil disobedience.
Red
Hills Road,
Not content at torching the building, overturning the truck, but
all the windows in all nearby building were broken; and not just
the ground level ones either.
Red
Hills Road,
Once the centre of pomp and fashion in Kingston, the Red Hills strip,
with turntable, was reduced to rubble. There were HUGE fires in
the street every 100 feet (30m). The asphalt was still hot enough
to be splashed up onto the car as we drove through.
Shortwood
Road,
Not just vehicles, but BROKEN vehicles were used to block this road!
These vehicles were broken straight through the chassis and each
piece used individually to block sections of the road..
Grants
Pen Road,
This road was still totally blocked from the Barbican side. The
history of the area, along with the fateful killing of the pregnant
woman here, made this an intimidating stop.
Grants
Pen Road,
There was a tense calm, as people watched us go up the road, interrupting
their cricket game to get in, and then aagin to get back out. The
side roads were completely blocked as well.
Grants
Pen Road,
A view you will see nowhere else - the blocked Grants Pen Road,
from the Grants Pen Road side! Local "support" was neccessary
to get these photos without incident.
Shortwood
Road,
A Gas Riot "Toll Bridge" was alerting it's collectors
to the presence of the Police. A camera and a "Press! Press!"
was enough toll to let us through. Martinis wasn't the only building
torched on his road though.
Shortwood
Road,
There seemed nothing short about this road today. This Audi 500
will never feel the purring of it's engine; engine and all had been
torched.
Club
Martini, Shortwood Road,
Once a favourite spot for pool sharks, and go-go girls, Martini's
is no more. From the road, you had a clear view of the sky, straight
through the building..
Alcadia
Pharmacy, Shortwood Road,
A favourite scene from the television, the extent of the damage
was not made clear there. The inside of the pharmacy is a total
wreck, there will be "No Reading" from THAT magazine rack.
There was extensive damage to the entire plaza, with even a Doctor's
office being looted and destroyed!.
Shortwood
Road,
The chicane by Allerdyce was blocked. Again the contrast of the
pristine sign, along side the debris in the road was startling.
Acadia
Drive ,
Our largest difficulty of the day - our toll collectors were adamant
on being paid - Press or not! Some lovely women parked behind us
distracted them enough for us to make a relaxed pass through their
block.
Barbican
Road,
The peace and calm, an almost eerie calm was torn through by the
lengths people went to create pandemonium. The indomitable Jamaican
spirit walks through, and moves on.
Knustford
Boulevard ,
Police stationed outside of Finsac while the unrest continues. Perhaps
there was a plot to distract them enough to destroy the building?
The looting continues as we sacredly protect our white elephant.
New
Kingston ,
No pictorial would be complete without the mandatory pictures of
the incessant helicoptors overhead. HOW much million US$ again?
Half
Way Tree,
Our attempts to bring you the Womans march to Half way tree were
fruitless. Let's leave at there were thousands of people there,
and no easy vantage point to bring home the size of the crowd.
We
made it home safely. I hope that these pictures appease your curiousity
in some small way, as taking them did mine.
Peace
Mike
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