Res­i­dents in dif­fer­ent neigh­bour­hoods in Mor­vant say the preva­lence of vi­o­lent crime, cou­pled with fears of an im­pend­ing gang war, has placed them on alert.

How­ev­er, rather than sim­ply call­ing for more ro­bust polic­ing, they are urg­ing au­thor­i­ties to in­tro­duce com­mu­ni­ty-based so­cial in­ter­ven­tions to dis­cour­age young peo­ple from turn­ing to crime. They are al­so ap­peal­ing to war­ring fac­tions to end the blood­shed.

Last week, Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Roger Alexan­der con­firmed that law en­force­ment was mon­i­tor­ing gang ac­tiv­i­ty in Mor­vant, nam­ing sev­er­al peo­ple whom he de­scribed as hav­ing no re­gard for hu­man life.