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
I'm fascinated with this part of Jamaican history, seeing that I was born in volatile 1970 Kingston..and have vague and vivid memories of this era..I recalled Massop's death in '79, I was only nine, poisoned flour, the likes of Starky & Hutch, Michigan and Smiley toasted about them in one of their songs..George Flash and Tony Brown, 2 PNP political enforcers who exiled themselves to Cuba after the JLP victory in the 1980 general election..Love your editorial..keep it coming..
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