Where the bullets fly and why

The Inner Circle song made popular by the American reality show COPS asks the question ‘Bad boys bad boys Watcha gonna do, watcha gonna do when they come for you?’ and the answer from the Shower Posse of Kingston Jamaica seems to be ‘unleash hell’.

Last week saw 73 civilians killed and 35 wounded as well as the deaths of 4 members of the Jamaican security services and over 500 persons arrested. What sparked the bloodshed in Kingston? An arrest warrant for Michael Christopher Coke (aka Dudus, aka Presi, aka President, aka General, aka Shortman, aka Omar Clark and aka Paul Christopher Scott) the leader of the Shower Posse gang and a man subject to an extradition request from the United States on charges of drugs and firearms trafficking.

Initially requests for extradition were denied by Bruce Golding, Prime Minister of Jamaica and leader of the Jamaica Labour Party however this led to a degree of tension in relations between Jamaica and the US and subsequently on the 17^th of May an arrest warrant for Christopher Coke was issued. In response on the 23^rd of May members of the Shower Posse attacked 4 police stations in south west Kingston in the process managing to loot and burn one of the stations out.

In response the Jamaica Constabulary Police and the Jamaica Defence Force launched a 1,000 man raid into the Tivoli Gardens area of south west Kingston, a dense area of public housing and a stronghold of the Shower Posse. The ensuing battle left civilians trapped in their homes as armed gang members fought battles with police and soldiers, battles which led on the 24^th May to a state of emergency being declared in the capital.

By the 25^th the security forces had breached barricades set up by gang members and were fighting deep inside the Tivoli Gardens slum with fighting spilling over into neighbouring areas. By the 26^th the police claimed to have over 500 people in custody and there were severe problems with people being trapped in their homes and usually poor sanitation and water access conditions being compounded by roaming gangsters burning buildings and looting.

By the 27^th the situation seemed to be under control; as is to be expected, some sympathetic to Coke took a dim view towards the conduct of government forces in pursuit of Coke whilst others praised them, Coke of course for some being something of a hero as he has a reputation for community charity giving out food and helping with the educational and medical needs of the area in general. However the one thing missing from the raids was the arrest of Coke, but by the 28^th it was reported that an attorney representing Coke was in negotiations with the US Justice Department over the possibility of Cokes surrender, in the week since it seems no fresh news about these negotiations has come to light.

But this situation is not as clear cut as drug dealers are bad guys and government are good guys. Prime Minister Golding has been reported as being an associate of Coke, a claim which he strongly refutes, but ABC News report that unnamed officials have said that the US views Golding as a business associate of Coke whilst The Independent newspaper has called the Shower Posse an annex of the Jamaica Labour Party, of which Golding is the leader.

Adding fuel to the fire is the fact that Golding is alleged to have contracted the powerful US law firm Mannatt, Phelps & Phillips to lobby on the government of Jamaica’s behalf over why the US should not extradite Coke. After all Coke and his gang are very influential in Goldings constituency of West Kingston. Golding came out early last month as admitting to sanctioning contact with the law firm but only to work on behalf of the Jamaica Labour Party and not for the government itself. As a result however he offered to resign, an offer the Party Executive rejected and the political result being Golding caving in to demands for the extradition of Coke.

The drug gangs it seems are deeply tied into the political system of Jamaica with the Jamaica Labour Party and the opposition People’s National Party both using gangs to help set up ‘garrison communities’ of seriously poor areas under the control of the gangs assuring block voting and safe seats for both parties.

Tivoli itself was built as a public housing project in the mid-60s by then Jamaica Labour Party PM Edward Seaga. Seaga had a slum inhabited by supporters of the PNP destroyed and in its place new housing was built for party loyalists some of which being gunmen the party used to intimidate voters. As a result so was set the pattern of neighbourhood development for supporters and its affiliated gangsters when whichever of the two parties were in power.

However if it seems the gangs have suddenly fallen out of favour due to the heat generated from the US extradition request and the Mannatt, Phelps & Phillips scandal, then according to the Jamaican Finance Minister Audley Shaw the cost to the Jamaican government of eradicating its slightly unique form of grass roots party campaigner will be a severe one; the estimated cost being $1 billion USD, which would be nearly 20% of the nations annual budget. Though crushing the gangs would have the knock on impact that security is good for the economy, as a January 2004 study on the ‘Impact of Crime on Business and the Investment Climate in Jamaica’ found that annually crime cost the economy $143 million USD.

The trouble being that whilst the current situation may have dictated that the parties move against their gangster allies it would remain to be seen just how willing the political system of Jamaica is to fight against corruption and though economically an end to the gangs would be in the interest of the country as a whole, the guarantee of support the gangs afforded to their parties along with the promises of delivering votes and, as perhaps it could be speculated, some drug money profit into the party coffers, means that the temptation could possibly be very strong to allow a new Christopher Coke to take the place of the old one. That is of course if Christopher Coke ever actually surrenders anyway.