A vile attack on the Jamaican State

jamaicaobserver editorial:



The obviously co-ordinated strikes on four police stations in West Kingston by criminal gunmen yesterday represent a vile attack on the State that this newspaper strongly condemns.

That the lumpen gunmen also torched one of the police stations -- that in Hannah Town -- and fired on policemen who were clearing roadblocks in West Kingston demonstrate their utter disregard for law and order, and flies in the face of the very responsible and tolerant approach that the police have so far taken in their effort to execute an arrest warrant on Mr Christopher 'Dudus' Coke.

Based on police reports that gangsters from other communities outside of Kingston and St Andrew have gone into Tivoli Gardens, supposedly to give support to Mr Coke and his defenders, it is clear that his tentacles spread far and wide, and his influence is very strong.

But that influence, we maintain, resides with the minority of Jamaicans, and as such the majority, law-abiding among us need to make a united stand against the terrorism that these riffraffs seek to unleash on the country.

It is against that background that we endorse the limited State of Public Emergency that has been imposed on Kingston and St Andrew by the Government.

While we support the measure giving the security forces additional powers of search and arrest, we caution the law enforcers to utilise these powers with responsibility. For just one case of abuse of a citizen will erode the gains the security forces have made over the past few days with the way they have handled this extradition matter.

However, we urge the security forces to use this opportunity to clean up the mess that has stained this country for too many years. And in doing so, they need to ignore the politicians -- on both sides -- who have more than proven to us that they have no idea, if any desire, to deal effectively with crime.

May 24, 2010

jamaicaobserver

Bahamas Blog International

Jamaican court to rule on US extradition request

KINGSTON, Jamaica (Reuters) - Prime Minister Bruce Golding has asked Jamaica's courts to rule on a US request for the extradition of an alleged leader of the Caribbean island's notorious Shower Posse drug gang.

The government is resisting US demands that it hand over Christopher "Dudus" Coke, citing what Golding has described as unauthorized wiretaps and other problems with evidence against him.

The Shower Posse has been blamed for hundreds of killings in the United States, and Coke is wanted on US arms and drug trafficking charges.

The premier told a call-in radio program on Wednesday night that he had asked Justice Minister Dorothy Lightbourne to send the eight-month-old request before a judge for a decision.

"I have instructed the justice minister to make an application to the court to seek a declaration to determine whether or not there was a breach of the law or the (extradition) treaty," Golding said.

Coke is a member of the ruling Jamaica Labour Party and holds considerable sway over Golding's volatile constituency in the inner-city district of West Kingston.

In its annual narcotics control strategy report issued last month, the US State Department criticized Jamaica's handling of the Coke matter and said pervasive public corruption was a major barrier to improving the country's counter-narcotics efforts.

"Jamaica's delay in processing the US extradition request for a major suspected drug and firearms trafficker with reported ties to the ruling party highlights the potential depth of corruption in the government," the report said.

Vivian Blake, founder of the Shower Posse, died of natural causes in a Jamaican hospital last month, about a year after returning from a prison term in the United States.

Coke is believed to be the new head of the gang, named for its alleged practice of cutting down rivals in a hail of gunfire in the cocaine wars of the 1980s.

April 2, 2010

caribbeannetnews