Summaries

Synopsis

Aged 19, Laing joins the Police Force and is stationed in the ultra-violent Denham Town, West Kingston. Officers stationed there need a long- life expectancy. Armed with this knowledge and a .38 Police issue revolver, the enthusiastic Laing sets out to make a difference. He gains their trust by getting to know the people, the place, the politics and the problems that are unique and plentiful to this part of the island.Within five months, he is shot but manages to kill the shooter and remove his gun. Off work for three months, he returns to his patch, and the people realise that young Officer 3360 cares about them. Laing is the real deal, a policeman who wants people with low incomes to be able to live their lives in peace, free from the 'badmen' gunmen who take what little they have because they can.Laing places fear in the dark hearts of the gunmen. Some turn to sorcery to kill him, some leave the area, and others leave the island in search of less deadly law enforcement officers and softer laws. Only the coldest, most twisted remain and strive to be the man who 'Takes Laing's skull', elevating their twisted reputation.Laing, realising that the problem cannot be solved by killing, uses the power of music to mentor the youth and give some a way out of garrison crime culture. Using his own money, he hires recording studios, determined to provide them with a voice and a life before death.Twelve years of warring with gunmen see him with the title of the Policeman who has killed the most gunmen and removed the most guns from circulation, over 400. With 53 commendations, his reputation takes a hit when he is accused of the death of a friend and a groundless inference that he is involved in the drug trade. With the belief there is a plot to discredit and even kill him, Laing spends the next few months aware he is being watched and trying to work out who is behind the plot to discredit or kill him.The Secret Service has a file on him, and when a white middle-class commissioner is put in office, Laing is set behind a desk and back in uniform. Even then, he makes a massive weapons find but is ostracised for it by the commissioner, looking to oust Laing and diminish his reputation.With 20 of his best years given to the Force, it's time to re-apply for his job. His application was denied, and he was removed from the police service. He tries to fight this in the Courts but is up against the machine. They don't want him to cure the problem; contain it in West Kingston.As one resident of the Concrete Jungle remarked,'When Officer Laing was here to look after us, there was safety... but now robbing, rape and all the badness have returned. The politicians don't care about us, and the poets are silent. Isaiah Laing did and does care. He gives the poets a voice. How we wish that great man could return.