Mahogany Street Police Precinct assists elderly man

The Mahogany Street Police Precinct continues its stellar working in building the Lake Independence community by assisting the needy through a series of community outreach initiatives.  This morning, a team of officers, under the leadership of Sergeant Brent Hamilton, gathered at the home of Roy Rhodes, an elderly resident of the area, to renovate his humble abode.  Following a near-fatal accident in October of last year, Rhodes says he has been abandoned by his family.  When word of the dire straits under which Rhodes has been living caught the ear of the precinct commander, he gathered his committee and organized a plan to lend a helping hand.  Today, Rhodes was more than elated to have his home refurbished.

Roy Rhodes, Resident, Lake Independence

“A lady sometime ago asked me about a month and some weeks ago and so I said alright no problem. And she came back and said that Mister Hamilton will come and check it out and he did what he had to do. God Bless to all again and give them strength that what they do for me, they can do for someone else.”

Isani Cayetano

Roy Rhodes

“How long have you been living here?”

Roy Rhodes

“Oh about nineteen years ago.”

Isani Cayetano

“So you’ve come a long way in this neighborhood?”

Roy Rhodes

“Yes, a long way, a long way. Even when we came here, there was no street around here you had to come across here to get into this lot. So we were day between the sack and the bark. And you know you have to really survive.”

Isani Cayetano

“How much does this mean to you seeing that there are still members of the community who are willing to assist those who may be in need of assistance?”

Roy Rhodes

“That’s why I said that god bless and I hope they continue to do the best.”

Brent Hamilton

Sgt. Brent Hamilton, Mahogany Police Precinct

“Part of our police mandate for community policing is to try to do community services or any service that we feel someone in the community needs. It started by me having a meeting at the Mahogany Sub-Precinct with my community members from the Cadet Corp and myself with PC Jenkins. And we decided that we wanted to reach out to the community at any cost; it doesn’t matter who it is; it doesn’t matter which person needs the assistance. So they went out, we had about five persons and we chose the one that we think that needed it. And Mister Roy Rhodes was the one that we wanted to assist. Since his story became….last year in October I believe he got knocked down on Mahogany Street in front of Tow Tow and after that he was like left alone. From, what I gathered from him, his family turned their backs on him; when he was up, he used to help them and he lives like a day to day basically. So we decided that we wanted to help him and we had some people that wanted…to do this work, we had to pull some other people. So we had like Krem, It Store, Habet and habet, the Police Department, my boss, Mister Grinage and some of my community members and the police we all had this activity here.”

Isani Cayetano

“What is the extent of the repairs and what all is he getting today?”

Sgt. Brent Hamilton

“First of all I must say that our kids of our community in St. Martin’s De Porres, they did the food hamper. I have a hundred and twenty-five kids and all of them brought a can food for Mister Roy Rhodes. So that is what we did.”

According to Hamilton, there are several upcoming initiatives under the department’s outreach program.