The Tribune

By RUPERT MISSICK Jr

HE’S been shot at least 18 times. He survived a shotgun blast to the chest and has buried many friends thanks to the gang violence that has rocked his community for years.

But today, former Border Boyz Gang leader turned community activist Valentino “Scrooge” Brown, is helping to establish a “safe zone” in his community that will allow tourists to venture “Over the Hill” as they once did in the 50s and 60s.

He sees economic independence as the only way out of a cycle of violence and crime for his community and is in the process of developing an indigenous heritage tourism plan that will make his section of Bain Town an attraction for the thousands of visitors who mull about a stone’s throw away on Bay Street.

But Mr Brown knows he can’t do this without guaranteeing the safety of the tourists he believes can bring economic empowerment to his people.

He is using his influence as a former gang leader to cull out a “safe zone” that will stretch from the top of East Street to Lewis and Taylor Streets.

“We are going to meet with the community to let them know what we are about and to come to an agreement where we can find a way to make some money off tourism and to have less crime,” Mr Brown said.

While it may be a clich� to say that the heads of criminal groups would make great leaders or CEOs if they just focused their attention on something positive, the statement rings true of Mr Brown who is now shepherding all of his talents into shaping a vision that would make the Grants Town area a veritable mecca for heritage tourism on New Providence.

After our time with Mr Brown, it was not hard to see why he once stood as one of the leaders of a group of young men – as he put it – that could be “lined up from the Police Barracks down to Hay Street”.

He is charismatic, intelligent, ambitious, determined and creative and if he is only able to accomplish 20 per cent of what he plans, it could drastically change life in his community for the better.

Mr Brown was one of the leaders of the Border Boyz with the late Nelson Cooper and Samuel “Mouche” McKenzie.

McKenzie was the only one of the three who died before he could turn over a new leaf. At the time of his death, McKenzie was considered one of the most feared and dangerous gangsters on the island.

He died in a hail of bullets in a drive-by shooting on Hay Street. The vehicle was later discovered on fire directly behind a primary school. To date no one has been convicted of his murder.

At the time of his death McKenzie was on bail for one of at least nine murders for which he was charged during the course of his life.

Mr Brown described McKenzie’s notoriety as being one crafted by the system.

“We grew up together. He only spent two years in prison for a drug possession, but every year he came in and out of prison on a murder charge – for about nine murder charges. He would be released after 16 months and then back in.

“But he was never sentenced for one. The system made him. His frequent arrests without convictions made him a folk hero in the community. I lived the same life and did the same things,” Mr Brown said.

But it was the violent death of another friend that changed Mr Brown’s life forever.

“I had a friend by the name of Keno Roberts and he gave me a .38 pistol and a .24 pistol that he stole from Bain Town. I had a pack of guys with me, about 30, and I gave one of the guns to one of my little friends and we went through this same corner and attacked some guys who were Gun Dogs staying by Cat Duval.

“We approached these guys and I stabbed a guy with a broken bottle all about his body, about four times, and my friend shot a guy in his shoulder,” Mr Brown said.

The men ran away, but they returned two days later. When they did it changed the now reformed gang leader’s life forever.

Mr Brown and a handful of his friends were walking through Wilson Street looking for a place to stash a shotgun they had stolen from a house. They saw a group of four men, who were among those they had attacked a few days earlier.

After a brief exchange of insults, Mr Brown said he heard nine shots from a gun coming in rapid succession.

“We took 20 steps and he was laying down and his brain was splattered on the ground,” Mr Brown said.

Mr Brown blames himself for Roberts’ death and feels that his young friend had reaped the seeds of what he had sowed two days before.

“This is why I tell young guys what goes around comes around. This is what I caused as a young man; it made me feel bad even though I was a rough guy,” he said.

While his zeal for gang life died that day, the anger of his enemies did not. They still pursued him and he was shot several times after that.

The Border Boyz rose out of the same toxic sociological brew from which many gangs around the world sprout – an unstable home, a lack of mentorship, feelings of hurt, neglect and a desire for love and companionship.

“Almost all of us were coming from families where mothers and fathers were either drug addicts or in jail. My father was in prison for 27 years and I used to watch my mother buy cocaine. With no leadership, we began creating bonds, loving one another, feeding one another. We became a pack of wolves,” Mr Brown said.

This situation is a never ending cycle, Mr Brown said. It cannot be crushed by simply policing the situation.

“All the murders you see today are the same murders you will see 20 years from now. If I killed someone and got a 20-year sentence I promise you before I left the streets I probably would have trained 50 or 60 young guys in the same mentality as I had. When I learned to shoot somebody, when I learned to rob somebody, they learned how to rob or shoot somebody. Whatever I learned, I passed on to the next generation,” he said.

Today, Mr Brown through his Hay Street Movement for Change, is working to establish a cultural centre that is intended to bring tourism dollars over the hill. He said the centre will double up as a training facility, teaching cultural trades to the children of the community.

The long-term vision also includes purchasing the old Morris Convenience Store and turning it into a training centre for adults.

The abandoned building was a busy place of commerce just over two years ago. Now it is a murder scene gone cold; shattered glass still marks the spot where a bullet pierced the body of Dario “Douby” Johnson, Valentino’s cousin. The building has been vacant since the fatal tragedy.

On the corner of Comfort and Lewis Streets, the Movement for Change also has its eye on a 6,000 square foot parcel of land.

The organisation envisions transforming the bushy vacant lot into a commercial village, so that existing entrepreneurs and graduates of the various training programmes can establish their businesses in the heart of the community. The commercial village will provide affordable space for small business owners.

• For more on the McCabe Project, and in-depth look into the causes behind crime in the Bahamas, visit www.facebook.com/mccabeproject, or www.mccabeproject.com.