Water Resources - Rainwater Harvesting Proposal

Make rainwater harvesting compulsory

By Chris Tufton

Sunday, March 03, 2013

The following is an edited version of a presentation to the Senate last Friday by Senator Dr Chris Tufton on a motion he moved calling on the Government to develop a policy mandating rain water harvesting systems for future residential developments. The motion was accepted by the Senate.

WATER shortage is a critical issue facing our island annually. This is caused by a combination of factors, including drought conditions at certain times of the year and the lack of water storage, processing and piped infrastructure to retain and distribute this precious commodity from rain, aquifers, rivers and streams.

Globally, the availability of potable water is attracting increasing attention as a critical human rights imperative. Scientists have identified global warming, pollution, population increase and poverty as some of the main reasons for unequal access to this important commodity.

From the perspective of business, safe fresh water is critical to drive industry and commerce and the cost associated with securing this commodity has also impacted business efficiency and final cost to consumers.

Predictable droughts

Jamaica suffers from predictable drought conditions at different periods during a typical year, and this is projected to get worse over time. With consistency, each year the Government has had to implement measures to provide this scarce commodity during these times. These measures are never adequate, as evidenced by disgruntled residents who express frustration for the lack of this precious product.

Call-in programmes and demonstrations are not unusual as means of public protests. However, there is also silent suffering and long-term impact on human and national development. Water shortage has caused children to be absent from school and parents to be absent from work.

Contaminated water

Adequate and clean water is fundamental to human health. When water is scare, water-related illnesses are more prevalent. Largely because citizens don't have enough and are forced to either go without for long periods or consume from contaminated sources. This is a challenge the world over.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2008, more than 3.4 million people die each year from water, sanitation, and hygiene-related causes, with 99 per cent of those deaths occurring in developing countries.

In 2012, a WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme concluded that 780 million people lack access to an improved water source, approximately one in nine people.

On July 28, 2010, through Resolution 64/292, the United Nations General Assembly explicitly recognised the human right to water and sanitation.

The Resolution called on countries and international organisations to provide support for capacity-building and technology transfer to help countries, in particular developing countries, to provide safe, clean, accessible and affordable drinking water and sanitation for all.

Jamaica's position

As a country we are failing to adequately prepare ourselves to provide this human right.

Like the rest of the world, and based on global warming projections, Jamaica's level of rainfall is projected to decrease within the next two decades, some may argue, alarmingly so. Jamaica's rainfall predominantly occurs in the wet months of May, August, September and October.

Currently, the long-term average annual rainfall in Jamaica is approximately 1,900 millimeters. But according to the World Bank Group, Jamaica's monthly average rainfall in the period of 2020 to 2039 could decline significantly, thereby having a dramatic impact on our water resources.

Currently 84 per cent of the island's water resource is underground sources. If the average rainfall decreases in the island, then so will the predominant source of the island's water supply. Our own vision 2030 projections are predicting that climate change is expected to have a major impact on the island's ground water as rising sea levels will increase the salinity of coastal aquifers.

Limitations of the NWC

A typical single-family home, between three and five persons, is estimated to use 3,000 and 5,000 gallons of treated water per month, according to the National Water Commission (NWC). On a daily basis the NWC supplies around 190 million gallons of water to approximately two million people across the island. However, the NWC is unable to properly meet the water demand for a number of reasons.

Firstly, nearly a third of the country's population doesn't have access to piped water. And where piped water exists, due to limited catchment, storage, processing and distribution infrastructure, water lock offs are routine during certain times of the year. Secondly, NWC has major operational challenges largely due to lack of resources. The commission's infrastructure is old and has not kept pace with population increases.

Today, 60 per cent of NWC water does not generate any revenue stream. Half of that quantity is classified as social water and the other half is wasted in distribution due to old leaking pipes. The NWC has a master plan, but no money to implement it. Given all these reasons, I am not convinced that we can depend on the NWC to solve the country's water challenges in totality. In fact, given budget limitations and projections of reduced rainfall, it is imperative that we find other approaches to compliment, if not replace, our dependence on the NWC.

Rainwater harvesting systems

For all these reasons, as a country, we must come to terms with our current and future water needs and look at all the possible ways to practise sustainable approaches to secure our water need for domestic use. Given that we are a small island with relatively predictable rainfall each year, we can benefit from a more structured programme for rainwater harvesting.

Others like us who are similarly challenged are doing this. It makes sense for us to learn from them and do the same.

A rainwater harvesting system consists of three basic elements: a collection area, a conveyance system, and storage facilities. The collection area in most cases is the roof of a house or a building. The effective roof area and the material used in constructing the roof influence the efficiency of collection and the water quality. The water ultimately is stored in a tank or cistern, which should also be constructed of an inert material.

Depending on the catchment system, there can be issues about how safe this water is for drinking, so rules would have to be put in place to guide this process. Reinforced concrete, fiberglass, or stainless steel are suitable materials which are popular choices here for roofing. It is also important to note that rainwater harvested for domestic purposes can be used for so many other things around the house -- cooking, washing, cleaning, for example.

Countries in the region such as St Lucia, Turks and Caicos, Bermuda, and Barbados all have compulsory rain harvesting systems to assist in addressing their domestic water needs.

In the case of Barbados, the Government mandated, effective January 1, 1996, all new residences in the country to construct water storage facilities if the roof area or living area equals or exceeds 3,000 square feet.

Funding proposal

Some countries in recognition of the costs, but also the importance of this initiative, provide incentives for build out of rainwater harvesting systems.

In the case of Barbados, a rebate of $0.50 per gallon of installed tank capacity, up to the equivalent of 25 per cent of the total roof area, is given as an incentive by the Barbados Water Authority.

Given our financial constraints, we may not have the capacity to offer that incentive.

I would like to propose that as part of the consideration for this new policy, Government takes a look at property taxes rebates for a limited period of time to offset the additional costs for installing a rainwater harvesting system.

This could be administered by the parish councils (PC) which would verify, build out, and approve time-bound rebates from property taxes, say over three years. The PCs should have a vested interest in promoting better water management systems throughout the country, since they are burdened with trucking water during times of drought.
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/pfversion/Make-rainwater-harvesting-compulsory_13761729#ixzz2NoWTzDiC

Civil War In Jamaica - Curly Locks

More from The Observer on the Jamaican civil war period.

'Curly Locks' went from church to a life a crime

BY KARYL WALKER Sunday Observer staff reporter walkerk@jamaicaobserver.com

Sunday, March 16, 2008

This series of articles is not intended to lionise or glorify the acts of criminals but to put a historical perspective on criminality in Jamaica, with the hope of shedding light on why the country is now teetering on the edge of lawlessness. Of significant note, as well, is the fact that the subjects of these stories die violently and very young.

FOR the residents of the borderline community of Wilton Gardens, popularly called Rema, life during the People's National Party (PNP) reign of the 1970s was treacherous.

The community was the first line of defence against marauding political enforcers from the neighbouring area of Arnett Gardens who were intent on rooting out the staunch Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) supporters who stood out like a sore thumb in the PNP-dominated South St Andrew constituency.

Political clashes involving combatants bearing guns, machetes, knives, stones and other implements of war were commonplace, so too were incidents of firebombing of homes on or near to the troubled Seventh Street borderline.

But despite numerous firebombings and other attempts to dislocate them, the residents of Rema managed to survive the repeated onslaughts and retain their political identity throughout the PNP's eight-year rule.

One young man who evolved into one of the most dreaded fugitives and political defenders to prowl the tough communities of St Andrew South and West Kingston during the 1970s and 1980s was Howard Hewitt, popularly known as 'Curly Locks'.

For almost a decade his name drove fear into the hearts of cops, his enemies and even those who lived in the very community (Rema) he protected and ruled with an iron fist.

Curly Locks did not rush head on into a life of crime, as he was once an ardent churchgoer who walked the straight and narrow. He was not born in Rema, but relocated there with his mother and grandmother following the bulldozing of New Town, which is now a swathe of land close to the Old Remand Centre known as 'No Man's Land' which lies between Denham Town, Craig Town and Jones Town.

Hewitt was identified as a child with potential for art and was reportedly encouraged by his teachers at the Jones Town Primary School to pursue a career in art.

But life had different plans for Hewitt, a teenager of Indian extraction, when his family moved into the community in the early 1970s. During that period, the political enforcer who ruled Rema was known as 'Push Wood', and persons who lived in the community at the time say it was Push Wood who coerced Curly Locks into a life of crime.

"Curly Locks was a Christian but from Push Wood see him and start tutor him, him bruk out. Him start out by teaching 'Locks' to ride a bike then, as time passed, the Indian start admire the life and take up the badness," one resident of Rema said.

In the months following a peace treaty brokered between politically warring factions in the capital, armed political enforcers from both sides turned their attention and energies to staging daring bank and payroll robberies in various sections of the city.

Their favoured mode of transport were Honda 354 and Honda 50 motorcycles. Powerful handguns, revolvers, machine guns and M16 rifles were also part of the bank robbers survival kit. During the years leading up to the 1980 elections, arsenals of guns and ammunition flowed into the island through the island's porous coastline and the unseeing eyes of corrupt and fearful customs officials.

Lured by the glamour and ill-gotten gains of the bank robbers in the area, Hewitt put down his Bible and joined their ranks. It was then that he was given the moniker, Curly Locks, which had nothing to do with him being a rastafarian, but because of his 'straight' Indian hair.

The gangster quickly learnt that dishing out death and other forms of cruel punishment with impunity was the formula to gaining notoriety in the criminal underworld.

One of his first brushes with the brutality of life in a political garrison came during the attempt by the government to evict residents of Rema for the non-payment of rent. On February 2, 1977 government bailiffs, police officers and an angry mob of 'Junglists' converged on the Seventh Street border and attempted to 'chase out' the Rema residents under the watchful eye of member of parliament, Anthony Spaulding. Spaulding's Ministry of Housing had a year earlier, approved the eviction of tenants for the non-payment of rent. Despite efforts by some cops on the scene to disperse the invaders, the mob, which included several gunmen, stormed the community.

The besieged Rema residents were outnumbered and, according to a man who claimed to be a resident at the time, Push Wood and Curly Locks both used cunning to fend off the attackers.

"Push Wood and Locks dress up in red and black and join up with the Junglist dem. When them go inna the building them start stab man and push dem in corners inside the buildings," the man said.

Eight people were reportedly killed by the 'Rema defenders' , resulting in the abortion of the eviction attempt by JDF soldiers who trained their weapons on the armed invaders who came scurrying out of the building with their hands above their heads. One man was killed after he failed to stop and hand over his weapon to the soldiers.

Dressed in a bush jacket and knitted cap, a defeated Spaulding left the scene.

Commenting on the botched eviction attempt, retired justice Ronald Small, described the incident as 'a horrible stain on this nation's history'.

With the death of Push Wood, his second in command, Curly Locks grabbed the leadership reins of the Rema 13 gang. Included among the ranks of the fearsome gang were men known as 'Bigness', 'Pearl Harbour', 'Little Jack', 'Stealer', 'Mutt', 'Peazy', '39', 'Riley', and 'Bobo Charles'.

The gang was known to stage multiple robberies, and each member was sometimes armed with two guns or more, police said. Many persons inside Rema and outside the garrison community met their deaths at the hands of the Rema 13.

But Curly Locks' lust for blood earned him the respect of his counterparts (Claudius Massop and his successor, Lloyd Lester Coke, better known as 'Jim Brown') from Tivoli Gardens.

There are many stories about his cruelty. For example, Curly Locks, in a jealous rage, was reported to have shot and injured one of his women, before impregnating her sister months afterwards. When the woman was eight months pregnant, Curly Locks, ended her life.

He was also known to take on police patrols single-handedly.

Senior Superintendent Calvin Benjamin was one cop who came face to face with the dreaded Curly Locks.

Residents of the area say Curly Locks surprised Benjamin, who was a young policeman at the time, and a colleague as they walked along Fourth Street in the community.

Benjamin confirmed that the gunman was brazen in his attack.

"He opened fire at us, and it was a miracle that no one was injured. He was really bold," Benjamin told the Sunday Observer.

Curly Locks was sentenced for armed robbery and, after his release, managed to travel to North America and Europe, where he reportedly shoved a man off a building before hightailing it back to Jamaica, where he continued his life of crime.

But like many before him, Curly Locks lived by the gun and died by it.

His demise came at the hands of a young enforcer from Tivoli Gardens with whom he had a dispute inside the garrison community.

The enforcer, known as 'Paper Man', had refused Curly Locks entry to a yard where Jim Brown was handling the weekly issuing of cheques for casual work to persons in Tivoli Gardens, Rose Town and Rema.

Paper Man, not knowing that he was dealing with the Rema don, reportedly called Curly Locks an 'insipid coolie boy' and threatened to thump him in his mouth, before chasing him away from the entrance to the premises.

Curly Locks left the scene and returned with a .357 magnum revolver and after a brief scuffle reportedly pistol-whipped Paper Man, dislodging his right eye. Paper Man's life was spared after Jim Brown and other top Tivoli Gardens enforcers rushed in an diffused the situation, all the time explaining to Paper Man that the 'coolie boy', was in fact the notorious Curly Locks.

Weeks later, Curly Locks was ambushed and shot as he rode his Honda Motorbike in West Kingston. The triggerman was a one-eyed Paper Man, who would two weeks later be cut down by police bullets.

This is the final instalment in the Jamaica's Most Notorious series.

Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/pfversion/133579_-Curly-Locks--went-from-church-to-a-life-a-crime#ixzz2NoNQOenm

Civil War In Jamaica - Jim Brown

From The Observer - histories of the civil war period in Jamaica, 1975-1982. I am always curious about comments such as the ones at the end of the article from Jamaicans who say they knew nothing of the things talked about in the article. I traveled in western Kingston numerous times from 1979 into the early 1980s and saw Jim Brown's name in graffiti all over the place. It was hard to not be aware of him.

Jim Brown honed his skills during the politically turbulent 1970s

BY KARYL WALKER Sunday Observer staff reporter walkerk@jamaicaobserver.com

Sunday, January 27, 2008

This series of articles is not intended to lionise or glorify the acts of criminals but to put a historical perspective on criminality in Jamaica, with the hope of shedding light on why the country is now teetering on the edge of lawlessness. Of significant note, as well, is the fact that the subjects of these stories die violently and very young.

AFTER the demise of Tivoli Gardens enforcer Claudius Massop, who died in a hail of police bullets, and his chief honcho, Carl 'Byah' Mitchell, who succumbed to a drug overdose, an opening was created for Lester Lloyd Coke, popularly known as 'Jim Brown'. He stepped in to fill the breach left by the two men just before the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) landslide victory at the polls in 1980.

Although he was known by the name 'Jim Brown', Coke's original moniker was 'Ba Bye', and those who knew him say he was a tough, no-nonsense type of man, who fought tooth and nail for his party's honour.

Like Massop, Coke was nabbed by agents of the state, thrown behind bars and slapped with a murder charge. After a few months in jail, Coke was freed after the main witness to the murder was slain.

It was after his release from jail that Coke shed the moniker 'Ba Bye' and took upon himself the nickname 'Jim Brown', after the hall of fame American football player.

It is said that Coke honed his skills as a steel-nerved and feared enforcer during the politically turbulent 1970s, when the rules of engagement in politically volatile areas like the neighbouring constituencies of Western Kingston and South St Andrew demanded that the enemy be pushed back.

This scenario provided the perfect breeding ground for Coke and others of his ilk to evolve. Coke was responsible for keeping his political rivals, who would wish to attack his community and inflict violence upon its citizens, on the back foot.

Coke, like many before him, was the product of a divisive political system charted by early politicians.

But unlike Massop and Mitchell, Coke was wily enough to wean himself off political largesse and, perhaps, can be described as the first political enforcer to free himself from the economic shackles foisted on him and others of the same ilk by political power brokers.

After the JLP victory in 1980, Jamaica, which was one of the major suppliers of marijuana to the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, evolved into a major transshipment port for the deadly drug, cocaine. The JLP had chosen to join the US side in the Cold War, and at that government's behest, embarked upon a major ganja eradication campaign.

The anti-marijuana initiative caused an economic fallout among the growers and traders of the illegal crop and forced drug traffickers to seek alternative means to make their money.

Cocaine commands a much higher market price than ganja and proved the perfect foil for drug traders who diverted their skills to satisfying an overwhelming demand for the drug, especially in the United States.

It was during this time that Coke, along with his confidante, Vivian Blake, developed a massive drug-running empire, with bases in Florida, New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Chicago and other parts of the US.

United States federal authorities would be jolted by the brutal dispensation and modus operandi of the Jamaican gangsters, among them the Spanglers Posse - bitter enemies of the Shower Posse - whose original members hailed from Matthews Lane and other nearby areas affiliated to the People's National Party.

The Shower Posse, so called because of their penchant for spraying their enemies with bullets, were so feared by their rivals abroad that the US Government was forced to launch a massive counter offensive aimed at destabilising the gang.

The Spanglers Posse were no less brutal, and the political violence which had been bred since the 1940s played itself out in the streets of North America. That gang was also a target of police investigations.

While Blake was the brain behind the empire, Coke provided the brawn and, in the process, gained enough wealth to ignore the feed in the political trough which was dispensed in too little amounts by political representatives.

But his wealth did not mean that he would lapse in his political duties.

In 1984, Coke reportedly led a team of men from his stronghold of Tivoli Gardens into Wilton Gardens, also known as Rema, then a JLP-aligned community run by orders from the bosses in 'Garden' (another name for Tivoli).

For years Rema was regarded as a sort of bastard cousin of the more developed and powerful Tivoli Gardens. But Rema had itself spawned fierce street warriors who were hardened in the art of criminal warfare by their daily experiences living in an area which was the first line of defence against PNP thugs who launched repeated attacks from Arnett Gardens.

A disagreement between persons from Tivoli Gardens and Rema prompted Coke and his gang's foray into Rema. When the gang left, seven men lay dead.

Soon after, police arrested Coke and charged him with seven counts of murder. But Coke was again freed after no one came forward to testify against him.

On the day of his release, heavily-armed men celebrated by firing a barrage of gunshots in the air directly in front of the Supreme Court, sending police officers, court staff and members of the bar scampering for cover and cowering in fear.

Coke was held high by the crowd and carried back to his fortress in Tivoli Gardens.

Soon after, then prime minister and member of parliament for West Kingston Edward Seaga, along with other JLP officials, visited Rema and appealed to the residents to 'let bygones be bygones'.

With his legal troubles in Jamaica behind him and his political connections rock solid, Coke now had time to continue his illegal quest at wealth creation.

In 1986, federal authorities in the United States reported that the Shower Posse had spread their wings to over a dozen US cities and were raking in a substantial portion of the 25 per cent of the billion dollar illegal drug trade that Jamaican gangs earned.

But as the Shower Posse grew in stature, so did the federal investigation into their activities, and in November 1988, 53 Shower Posse members were arrested in New Jersey on drug distribution charges.

A month before, a federal grand jury indicted 34 members of the Shower Posse, including, Coke, Blake and Blake's two half-brothers, Errol Hussing and Tony Bruce.

Coke managed to remain a free man until the beginning of the 1990s when international police investigations began closing in on the Shower Posse.

Richard 'Storitella' Morrison, a leading posse member, was 'captured' in Jamaica by US authorities and illegally whisked abroad to stand trial.

In February 1991, Coke was arrested by local police and locked up at the General Penitentiary, now called the Tower Street Adult Correctional Facility, after the US Government requested that he be extradited to that country to answer to murder and drug trafficking charges.

Coke's bid to acquire a special leave to appeal was rejected by the United Kingdom Privy Council and after a year of legal wrangling the writing was on the wall.

While Coke languished in prison, his son, Mark Coke, also known as 'Jah T', was shot dead as he rode a motorcycle along Maxfield Avenue on February 2, 1992.

Jah T was in the process of preparing for a memorial dance in honour of Claudius Massop when he was killed.

The killing of Coke's son sparked a new round of political bloodletting and, in the weeks that followed, shootings occurred in Hannah Town, Arnett Gardens, Denham Town, Rose Lane and Matthews Lane, prompting then prime minister Michael Manley to call for a meeting with Seaga. The violence also sparked a march by a group of churches through the affected communities.

But the violence would also spread abroad.

The Florida-based website, www.emergency.com, posted this report in August, 1992.

Miami, FL - A drug gang war that started in Kingston, Jamaica, early in 1992 may have recently spilled over into the streets and bars of Miami. Reportedly, an early Saturday morning nightclub shooting of twenty-two (22) people involved members of the Jamaican "Shower Posse". Gang Crimes officers of the Broward County Sheriff's Office say that the nightclub killings may have been retribution for the February killing of Mark Coke, a leader of the Jamaican "Shower Posse" drug gang. The "Shower Posse" supposedly gets its name from the "shower" of lead it shoots at rival gangs.

An agent of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms says that Saturday's shootings "had all the earmarks" of a Jamaican "Posse" hit. Special Agent Joe Vince was quoted by the United Press International as saying, "the posses are the most vicious organised crime group in the United States today". Capt Al Lambeti of the Broward County Sheriff's Office said that the shooting was a "...perfect textbook example of how the posse does business".

The younger Coke's murder was rumoured to stem from a dispute between Shower Posse members and members of the Black Roses Crew, which was then led by William 'Willie Haggart' Moore, who would eventually be killed, at a weekly dance called 'Beachline' held at the Hellshire Beach in St Catherine.

Popular dancer, Gerald 'Bogle' Levy, was reportedly doused with alcohol during the dispute which was diffused by police officers who were on the scene.

Three weeks later, the very day his son was buried, Coke was burnt to death in a mysterious fire inside his cell.

Unconfirmed reports suggest that the notorious gangster committed suicide because he realised that he would be handed over to the US authorities, but this claim has been refuted by others who say his death was as a result of a botched escape attempt. Still others say Coke was murdered to keep him from spilling the beans to the Americans.

Responses

Just wanted to say carry on the good work of informing Jamaicans of our past and how it shapes our present and future.... I missed a few of your articles and the archive on the Observer website does not allow access to same.

By any chance do you have a link to a blog with all the articles... if not.. consider doing one.

Thanks

Courtney Bowen

ridim1027@yahoo.com

Mr Walker,

I myself left Jamaica in 1974, and before I left I would hear mention of some of these names. I knew they were thugs but that was the extent of it. Some of the names I never heard of until I came to the United States and met people from some of those communities and the media. They never got into details like you did in your articles. As a matter of fact, I was at a house party in the 70s and there was a woman there with one of these notorious men's name tattooed on her arm.

These articles that you write are very informative, especially to those of us like myself who were ignorant to what was really going on in Jamaica in that time period. It's a kind of history that people from Jamaica and their offspring should know about, as strange as it might sound. I think you should compile these article in a book and publish it. I just wish that there were pictures to go with these names. I wanted to see what they looked like. What about their relatives, I wonder what was their reaction? These young thugs should learn from those that preceded them. When you live by the gun you also die by the gun.

I have learned a lot from your articles. all I have to say is, my brother, please continue publishing these articles. I look forward to reading the Observer on line on a Sunday. Thanks for the information.

PReid1@nyc.rr.com

Hi,

I am a Jamaican living in Toronto and I wanted you to know that I am impressed with your series. I think you are doing a great work by researching the roots of our garrisons in Jamaica. You are not afraid of exposing the faults of both political parties for being involved in the gang development and you do a great job of acknowledging the place these gangsters in our society, both as enforcers and protectors.

However, if there is one aspect of your article that I would like to critique would be the structure and flow of the story. In reading your article it seemed a hodge podge of facts were put together, but I did not see a chronological order nor flow of events from paragraph to paragraph. To me it seemed you ran with an idea, finished it and realised there was another idea to input so you just threw it in the next paragraph. For your next article I would hope you put together a better flow, but thanks for the education. It is an important topic to discuss.

Regards,

Interested Torontonian

waynekash@gmail.com

Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/pfversion/131835_Jim-Brown-honed-his-skills-during-the-politically-turbulent-1970s#ixzz2NoKT3mcM

Civil War In Jamaica - 1975 - 1981 - Claudy Massop

From The Observer - histories of the 1970s civil war in Jamaica -

Claudius Massop: Feared political enforcer

BY KARYL WALKER Sunday Observer staff reporter walkerk@jamaicaobserver.com

Sunday, October 28, 2007

In the 1970s when political turbulence threatened to shake the core of the nation, a number of political enforcers and henchmen came to the fore. It was an era when political representatives armed their constituents and used the strong arms and ruthlessness of the political enforcers to bring out voters and ensure that constituents toed the line.

One of the most infamous and feared of the political enforcers of that decade was the Tivoli Gardens don, Claudius Massop.

Massop had risen through the ranks of the criminal underworld to become one of the most feared names in western Kingston.

In 1976, a state of emergency was called by the then prime minister, Michael Manley, in the face of rising political tension.

Supporters of then Opposition Leader Edward Seaga's Jamaica Labour Party and Manley's People's National Party engaged in a bloody political struggle which began before the 1976 election and ended after the JLP won the 1980 election.

While the violent political atmosphere had its genesis in conflicts between the parties from as early as the beginning of the two-party system in the 1940s, political violence spiralled out of control in the 1970s.

Five hundred persons, including Massop and other prominent members of the JLP - among them present government ministers Pearnel Charles and Olivia 'Babsy' Grange - were accused of trying to overthrow the Government and were detained, without charges, in the specially created Gun Court detention centre at the Up Park Camp military headquarters.

Massop was released when the state of emergency was lifted in January 1977. At the time he was 29 years old, and immediately became the top henchman in his home base of Tivoli Gardens.

Police records show that Massop had a long history of run-ins with the law.

He was arrested on several counts of murder, illegal possession of firearm, shooting with intent, driving without a driver's license and perjury.

However, Massop was only incarcerated once for illegal possession of a firearm.

In Tivoli Gardens, Massop was known to be a tough enforcer who was not afraid to discipline anyone who fell out of line, and is remembered for his strict, no-nonsense attitude.

One elderly woman who claimed to have lived in Tivoli at the time of his reign in the criminal underworld described Massop as an easy-going individual who never went out of his way to harm anyone.

"He was a nice person who anyone could approach, but he did not take kindly to rapists and petty thieves and dealt with them rough," the woman told the Sunday Observer. "He was the one who set the real order and discipline in Tivoli Gardens. 'Claudie' Massop was also our protector and he defended the community from attack from our enemies in Matthews Lane and other PNP areas."

However, one former cop described Massop as a heartless killer whose political connections sometimes rendered police officers powerless to apprehend him.

"That man was no saint," said the ex-cop who spoke on condition of anonymity. "There are many who have felt his heavy hand and have suffered terrible human losses as a result. I was a constable at the time and was part of a patrol that came under heavy gunfire in the section of West Kingston where he reigned. In those days, rifles and submachine guns were just getting into the wrong hands and we did not have bulletproof vests or such big guns. We did not see who was actually firing at us, we got intelligence afterward that it was Massop and his cronies. One of the cops in the patrol wet his pants."

But as time passed and Massop matured, he made moves to organise a peace initiative between Tivoli Gardens and the hotbed of Matthews Lane, which was then ruled by PNP enforcer, Aston 'Bucky Marshall' Thompson.

As leaders of their respective communities, both men organised meetings and negotiated a peace which became official on January 9, 1978 when Massop and Marshall met at the intersection of Oxford and Beeston streets, the official line of demarcation between both communities, and signed a peace treaty according to a report in the Daily Gleaner in February 1979.

"Mr Massop, a JLP supporter, and Mr Aston 'Buckie' Thompson, a PNP supporter, made history at Beeston and Oxford streets in West Kingston on January 10, 1978 when they renounced political violence and called on their supporters to "put away your guns and channel your energies into building your communities," the Gleaner report stated.

After the signing of the peace treaty, street dances, which were often the targets of vicious gun attacks, were held without incident in sections of the volatile constituency.

Both enforcers were also responsible for organising the famous One Love Peace Concert which featured Bob Marley and the Wailers and a host of other reggae acts at the National Stadium in April 1978. It was Marley's first performance in Jamaica since he embarked on a self-imposed exile after narrowly escaping with his life following a gun attack at his Hope Road base.

During the concert, Massop and Marshall were called up on stage by the late Jacob Miller in a symbolic peace gesture.

Marley also brought the house down when he invited Manley and Seaga on stage in a historic move to call for peace between warring political factions.

Eight months later, Massop's life would be snuffed out by policemen's bullets at the age of 31.

Massop, 21-year-old racehorse trainer Lloyd Fraser, also called 'Nolan' of a Tivoli Gardens address, and Trevor 'Hindu' Tinson, a Jamaican who lived in Canada, were killed by a large contingent of heavily armed policemen on the evening of February 4, 1979, at the corner of Industrial Terrace and Marcus Garvey Drive.

The men were returning from a football match in Spanish Town in a blue and white Morris Oxford motorcar, bearing licence plates NE4800.

Police reported that they signalled the vehicle to stop and Massop disembarked from the vehicle and fired two shots at them.

The police said they returned the fire and Massop, Tinson and Fraser were cut down while the other two men made good their escape.

A Police Information Centre report published in the Daily Gleaner stated, "The man wearing the white hat jumped from the vehicle with gun in hand and fired at the police. Several members of the party returned the fire, hitting the man in the white straw hat and two other occupants of the car. The fourth man escaped.

The police also alleged that after the shooting had stopped a .38 Smith and Wesson revolver with two expended rounds and three live rounds were taken from the man wearing the straw hat who was later identified as Massop.

The police reported that the gun was stolen from a security guard at a meat mart in downtown Kingston and that a search of the area turned up a book containing the names of the entire staff of the Denham Town Police Station.

Massop was shot 40 times, Tinson 20 times while Fraser received 10 gunshot wounds. Pictures of his lifeless body showed multiple gunshot wounds, suggesting that Massop was shot while his hands were in the air.

But while the cops reported that they had killed the infamous Tivoli Gardens enforcer and his cronies in a shoot-out, eyewitnesses and the fourth occupant of the car, taxi driver, Samuel Evans, painted a different picture and accused the cops of extra-judicial killings.

Days after the incident, Evans told the Gleaner that the car he was driving was trailed from the causeway in St Catherine all the way to the fateful intersection by three cops on motorcycles.

He said the cops signalled the vehicle to stop and he complied before the cops ordered them to alight from the vehicle with their hands in the air. The men also complied with the policemen's demand, Evans said at the time.

The policemen, Evans said, then searched the men and the vehicle before an officer gave the order to 'kill'.

Evans said a hail of bullets then flew from the cops' guns and he managed to escape by scampering across an open land at Marcus Garvey Drive and diving into the sea.

Massop's wife, a fashion designer, also complained bitterly that her husband was killed in cold blood and made a stink over the fact that police had refused to allow an independent pathologist to be present when an autopsy was being conducted on Massop's remains.

Almost a year after the fatal shootings of Massop, Tinson and Fraser, a warrant was issued for the arrest of four policemen involved in the incident.

The policemen, who were charged with three counts of murder, were acquitted after a three-week trial in the St Thomas Circuit Court in December 1982.

Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/pfversion/128764_Claudius-Massop--Feared-political-enforcer#ixzz2NoJfb98G