Fifteen students who attend schools in Kingston, St Andrew and St Catherine were arrested in October for possession of, dealing in and smoking marijuana.

The students were referred either for counselling or to do community service, Valeen Calder, assistant superintendent of police at the Com-munity Safety and Security branch of the Jamaica Consta-bulary Force, told The Gleaner.

Ten students, who were determined to be in need of care and protection, were taken in and placed before the courts.

This was done in accordance with the Child Care and Protection Act.

offensive weapons

Numerous offensive weapons, imitation firearms, a 9mm cartridge and cutting implements were among some of the items confiscated by the police during searches carried out in the schools.

Searches were conducted by the Safe Schools Task Force unit, a programme that is operated by the Community Safety and Security branch. School resource officers also formed part of the search teams.

“The Safe Schools Programme is an attempt to stem the increasing levels of anti-social and early criminal behaviour among students,” stated a release sent out by the branch.

The release also stated that such behaviour, in some instances, had led to fatalities in the schools.

Doran Dixon, president of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association, told The Gleaner yesterday it would take a combined effort from all parties for schools to once again become a place of safety.

Dixon remarked that parents, teachers and the police have a role to play in bringing the school system back to normalcy.

“Parents must supervise their children to ensure they leave home without weapons,” he urged.

He also called for teachers to be vigilant while on the job.

Items confiscated

Ice picks 73
Ratchets 311
Imitation firearms
12 Knives 166
Scissors 165
Lighters 90
Machetes 3
Sticks of ganja 10
Toy guns 16
Screwdrivers 10
Shotgun cartridges 1
Live rounds 1
Imitation magazines 1

Portmore Empire deejay Blak Ryno’s Thug Anthem (So Yardie Stay) has stormed into the RE TV Dancehall charts at #20, solidifying his status as the clear frontrunner in the Best New Artiste category. The deejay was in the streets campaigning last night and performed at Weddy Weddy and at Quad, getting major forwards for his songs, especially Mek Di Paper and Thug Anthem.

“Yea, the streets are really responding to me right now, the Empire is getting out there in a big way, I am getting crazy requests for shows all over the Caribbean and the US. The people love the music and I promise to continue making the hits,” Ryno explained.

He mentioned nothing of last night’s shooting incident at the Coppershot studios saying that he was an artiste and that is a ‘criminal matter that the authorities are dealing with’.

“Ah music me a pree, nothing else,” he said.

Last week, he performed at a Digicel stage show featuring the likes of Busy Signal, Lady Saw, Beenie Man and this weekend, he will be performing at the Canadian Link Up street dance in Cambridge on the outskirts of Montego Bay.

Early this morning, Bembe came to a premature end as Alliance selector Foota Hype plugged out Richie Feelings’ microphone and ended his set presumably because enough Mavado songs were not being played.

Reports reaching one876 is that Bembe ended at about 1:30 a.m. after a disgusted Richie Feelings packed up his CDs and left. Foota Hype then played a Mavado song, declaring ‘ah we run Kingston 8, no Kartel nuffi play in yah, we no business wid no media, we loaded!” and then passed the microphone to Boom Boom who declared: ’wah do some bwoy?’.

Earlier, patrons had had a good time at Bembe even though the crowd was smaller than usual. The weekly fete has been on the decline in recent weeks because of a combination of factors including pressure from the policemen enforcing the Night Noise Abatement act after constant complaints from residents of the area.

Dancehall fashionista Michelle ‘D’Angel’ Downer-Davis held centrestage at the launch of her latest video, Stronger, which was held in the Jonkonnu launch in the Hilton hotel in New Kingston on Wednesday. She arrived in a limousine and emerged to stutterflashes of several cameras and the glare of video cameras, before sashaying down the red carpet where her guests were waiting for her arrival.

The guests represented a melting pot of persons drawn from varying socio-economic groups and backgrounds, underlining the broad appeal of the female deejay. The event was attended by several dancehall personalities such as Beenie Man, Stacious, heavyweight producer Sonny Spoon, industry executives like Free People Entertainment CEO Cabel Stephenson, marketing maven Tameka Reynolds, dancehall trio Voicemail, UWI lecturer and cultural commentator Dr. Carolyn Cooper. The launch even attracted corporate movers and shakers like G Force brand manager Karlene Walters.

Ms. Walters, one of the night’s speakers, was particularly effusive in her praise for D’Angel, announcing that G Force’s sales had tripled since D’Angel had been contracted to be the face of the new campaign.

“Unbelievable. We’re in awe. She breathes, and sleeps the brand,” Ms. Walters said.

“I have never met anyone in the industry as full of passion, as determined and strong as D’Angel and I am equally proud to be a part of this event,” Ms. Walters said.

During her brief address, D’Angel described herself as being ‘strong like the Rock of Gibraltar’.

“Nothing in the world can break me, nothing can break D’Angel,” she said, before giving her own assessment of her favourite scenes in the music video which predictably revolve around her two year old son who makes an appearance in the video.

“Marco Dean taught me to be grounded and to be focussed and to have a sense of responsibility for this life that has been placed in my hands,” she mused.

Dr. Cooper also spoke briefly during the event. The effervescent Denise Hunt emceed the event admirably, injecting just the right amounts of good-natured teasing and witty barbs to keep the audience entertained throughout the night’s festivities.

Highlights of the event included the actual showing of the video which drews oohs and ahs from the assembled crowd, a taped message from long-time friend Delly Ranx who was absent because of a previous engagement, and a violently green outfit worn by Beenie Man. D’Angel’s husband, as expected, was the life of the event and was photographed showing Dr. Cooper how to do the Nuh Linga dance.

Vybz Kartel counteracted Mavado’s argument and levelled a few charges of his own as he dismantled his rival with a number of salient points during an ER interview earlier this week. He addressed the ‘bad mind’ references first.
“Ah we bring him to the world, ah we do five songs with the Barber, dem time de Killa no look pon him..ah we mek him feel like a star, and drive him up and down inna the Bimmer and mek people see him…him just bad mind Kartel ’cause dem see no matter what dem do in the Appliance, dem caan get out the Teacha, the Teacha is always striving,” he said.
During the interview he made several references to Mavado as ‘da dogface bwoy de’. He also denied that he had ever jerked chicken.
“Mi never trim nobody and we never jerk no chicken(laugh). Wi never come pon TV and tough up wi face and gwaan like wi a gangster, wi just know we ah authentic Jamaicans, and like all authentic Jamaicans, yu caan diss we so easy,” he said.
During the interview, Kartel showed his grasp of current world affairs when hailed Obama’s victory as a ‘striking contrast to Alliance defeat’.
“So me saying mi nuh muss know God, mi no say nothing no wrong, I know I am a sinner but when a man ah go tek up say him name Gully Gadd and Gully Gadd because yu a put yu name in the context of God. Tell the barber bwoy who say him intelligent and caan spell i-n-t-e-l-l-i-g-e-n-t, fi know say yu have to read before yu come a road come mek a total fool of yourself…if I walk out of here and die, I know I am going to hell but Jeffrey install the AC from last week,” he explained during one segment.
He asked Mavado if he had ‘ever done one passport yet? Buil’!”.
He also used the opportunity to promote his Vybz Rum and Daggering product lines. He promised that at Sting, he would ‘end a plan’ suggesting that the Sting organisers were in cahoots with Mavado.
Empire fans like Ricky from Grange Hill, Westmoreland have been celebrating the interview in no uncertain terms.
“Mi have the interview pon mi phone and mi walk around it and play it for all the Mavado fans mi know and laugh after dem, ah me say Empire to the world, Kartel ah di boss,” he told one876entertainment.com.

Former Portmore Empire member Deva Brat has voiced a diss song aimed at his former mentor and friend Vybz Kartel. The song calls Kartel a ‘Judas’ and makes references to Jeffrey Hype’s VK tattoo but it is clear that DB has lost a step or two during his incarceration and the song fails to deliver a knockout punch to the Teacha.

 
With Vybz Kartel’s help, Deva Brat vaulted into the spotlight and hit a number of major dancehall charts this year with Gussie Clarke before his incarceration on a double carnal abuse charge. The second charge was that he had sexually assaulted a 14 year-old girl in February of this year. The charges were eventually dropped on the first charge.
While in prison, the relationship between Deva Brat and Vybz Kartel after VK distanced himself from the abominable and disgusting allegations levelled against  Deva Brat. Deva Brat also began a media campaign claiming that he was the one who first came up with the name Portmore Empire and that Kartel had stolen the name and registered it.

Deejay Bugle is challenging the report carried earlier this week that he was booed during an RE High School tour event last Wednesday.

“That is not true, it never happened that way. Obviously, somebody nuh like and ah try fabricate something,” a disgruntled Bugle told 0ne876 editor Claude Mills last Friday.
Oneil of Voice Mail agreed with his friend’s assessment saying that he was not aware of any boos and he was onstage when it allegedly occurred. 

“Mi no know nothing of that, mi no get involved inna other people business, it never happened, when Bugle was performing, I never never see nothing like that,” Oneil concluded.

Bugle explained that not all students were enthusiastic about his refusal to sing a gun song as the rest of the artistes ‘vibed’ onstage, hence the perception that he was booed.
“The organizers played a riddim with pure gun songs on it, and the artiste ah sing other people song which is mostly gun song and the school ah get wild. We nah promote violence on the school tour, so a man fi use him conscience and know that it is not about forward and just low that, and do what you come fi do,” he said.
“So mi just wings back because mi never comfortable with pure gun songs, and the kids start call Bugle Bugle, and mi go up de and explain the reason mi no waan sing dem song de, and mi do Yes Man, and it never lock the place like the gun songs, if 1000 kids were there, 990 a sing and the rest boo, so how on earth anybody fi hear any boo.”

PJ Wright, organiser of the RE High School tour, also challenged the report in the media that Bugle was booed.

“If anything, it was just four persons booing or so, not enough to suggest that he did not perform well.”