Yooooo wah gwaan fam. Leroy here calling from the BX on my 15-minute break at Logan, I am literally eating a bodega sandwich as I type this, and I have to put DOWN the sandwich because I JUST SAW THE JAMAICA NEWS.

Listen. LISTEN.

THEY CHARGED JAII FRAIS. THEY ACTUALLY CHARGED HIM.

Yo.

YO.

Remember yesterday when I told y’all they were holding Jaii Frais in custody and the judge had to tell them to charge or release him by 6PM? Well — THEY CHARGED HIM. Three charges. Wounding with intent. Shooting with intent. Possession of a prohibited weapon.

The man got shot AT A PARTY. And now they’re charging him with shooting. This is the twist. THIS IS THE TWIST.

Okay okay okay — I am going to try to be fair here. Because my auntie raised me right. And my girlfriend says I talk too fast when I get excited. So let me slow down.

If the gun was NOT LICENSED — and that’s what “possession of a prohibited weapon” means — then I understand the charge. Jamaica law is Jamaica law. You can’t just have an illegal firearm and shoot it, even to defend yourself. I know this. I went to law class for one semester at Bronx Community College before I dropped out to work full-time at Logan and that was enough law school for me but I LEARNED that much.

BUT.

But but but.

The attorney — Isat Buchanan, shoutout Buchanan AGAIN, this man is like the Denzel of Jamaica law — Buchanan said the message being sent is that your options in a high-crime country are to “give your life so your family can bury you.”

And that hit different.

Because I think about my cousin Sean in Portmore, right? Sean works security at a hotel. The hotel was robbed twice last year. Sean does not own a licensed firearm. Sean has been trying to get a license for two years. Sean’s application is still being reviewed. If Sean is attacked tomorrow at work — what exactly is Sean’s legal option? Run? Sean is 48. Sean has a bad knee. Sean cannot run.

I don’t have answers. I have a sandwich. I’ll go back to the sandwich.

SOMEBODY STOLE THE HURRICANE RELIEF???

Okay but this one.

THIS ONE.

Some man in Brampton — Varinder Dhillon — STOLE A WHOLE CONTAINER OF HURRICANE MELISSA RELIEF SUPPLIES that Jamaicans in Canada had put together to send home after the hurricane destroyed half the island last October.

A WHOLE CONTAINER.

Clothes. Food. Blankets. Medicine. Packed by diaspora families who could not fly home. Packed with LOVE. And this man drove a transport truck to the storage facility at 5 AM and stole it.

Bro.

BRO.

And here’s the part that BROKE me — the police said he’s ALREADY ON PROBATION FOR SIMILAR OFFENSES. This is not even his first container. THIS IS NOT HIS FIRST CONTAINER.

I was in Brampton last summer. I went to see my cousin’s wife’s brother. He lives off Queen Street East. We went to Albion Mall. We ate at a Jamaican spot and I got oxtail that was almost as good as my grandmother’s. Brampton is A JAMAICAN CITY in Canada. And THIS MAN knew what was in that container. He knew who it was going to. And he took it anyway.

I hope the Canadian court does not just slap his wrist. I hope the court understands what that container MEANT. My auntie Margaret in Manchester — her roof blew off during Melissa. She spent four months with tarp. FOUR MONTHS with tarp. The supplies in that container were the tarp-removal. They were the “okay, we will get through this” from a cousin in Toronto who loved her.

This man stole that.

Lock him up. Lock him up and throw away the key. And put his face on Jamaican WhatsApp so everybody in the Canadian diaspora knows never to do business with this man again.

TWO CHILDREN

And then — and I don’t even know how to write this — a family in Spanish Town LOST A CHILD in a house fire, and then on the night they were preparing the memorial, the SECOND CHILD died. Of the same fire. Fourteen years old and a sibling.

My chest hurt when I read this.

My own son is thirteen. My sister’s oldest is twelve. I cannot — I will not even imagine it.

I am going to send money to a fund for that family today. If anybody is reading this and knows what fund is legitimate, message me. I’ll post it. If we can get ten BX Jamaicans to each put in $100 that’s $1,000 for a family that has lost everything.

This is what we do. This is how it works. Jamaica falls, diaspora gets up. Even when Varinder Dhillon is stealing containers, the rest of us are still sending what we can.

THE TRIPLE THREAT ON SMALL BUSINESS

Cordell Williams at the YEA is saying small businesses are getting crushed — fuel up, shipping up, people cutting back. He is 100% right.

My cousin Nadine runs a roti shop in Half Way Tree. She called me Wednesday because her gas bill this month is FORTY PERCENT higher than last month. FORTY. And the price of her rotis cannot go up because her customers are the same working-class people who also got hit by the fuel price. So Nadine is eating the cost. Nadine is losing money on every roti.

This is how small business dies in a currency squeeze. Not in a dramatic moment. In forty dollars a day for six months until the shop closes.

My recommendation to everybody reading this in the diaspora: if you have a family member running a small business in Jamaica right now, CALL THEM. Ask if they need help covering rent this month. We are the shock absorber for the island when things get hard. Let us be the shock absorber.

LAST THING — SASHAE SHAW THE FISHERWOMAN

Gleaner article about Sashae Shaw — 30-year-old from Portland — who was studying psychology before COVID, reinvented her life, and is now a commercial fisher pulling yellowtail out of the sea.

You know what? Good. GOOD.

Yamaica needs more Sashaes. And the Jamaican men need to get used to the idea of women with boats. This is 2026. Women is CAPTAIN now. Women is fishing. Women is running the business.

Sashae — if somebody forwards you this — on behalf of all your male cousins in the diaspora who ever said “fishing is man work,” we apologize. We were WRONG. We were wrong yesterday, we are wrong today, and we will try to not be wrong tomorrow.

Catch your fish. Feed your family. Lead the way.

Alright my break is up. Gotta go back to the tarmac. If anybody has info on a legit relief fund for the Spanish Town family — post it in the comments, I’ll amplify.

ONE LOVE.

— Cousin Leroy, BX