JAMAICA Labour Party leaders yesterday slammed JDF boss, Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin, for his labelling of Tivioli Gardens as the “mother of all garrisons”. At the same time the Opposition leader, Bruce Golding, told criminals – including those accused of murdering three policemen within a nine-hour period last May – who may be hiding out in the community that he wanted them out of Tivoli Gardens.

“Wherever criminals are to be found, if it is Tivoli Gardens, if it is in Arnett Gardens, if it is in Cherry Gardens, the security forces not only have the authority, but they have a duty to go in there, to find them, to take them out, to arrest them, and charge them, and put them before the courts,” Golding told a meeting of his party’s Area Council One at the Tarrant High School in Kingston.

“That is my position and the position of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP)..”

Added Golding: “.And I want to say some more. If the persons who murdered those policemen and that security guard are hiding in Tivoli Gardens, I want them out of there.”

Tivoli Gardens is an enclave in Golding’s West Kingston constituency that is fiercely loyal to the JLP and has a history of conflict with the security forces.

The JLP and the community say that it is demonised and used by the ruling People’s National Party to stigmatise the JLP as a party of violence. Critics, however, insist that more than any other so-called garrison community in Jamaica, Tivoli Gardens is well-armed and run along military lines.

The old mistrusts emerged again last week when police and soldiers went to the community for what they say was a search for criminals, particularly those responsible for the May murder of the cops and the shooting up of the Cross Roads police station. The security forces say they were met with gunfire.

However, residents and JLP officials accused the police of abuse and indiscriminate shooting, including the wounding of two women who were part of a crowd with Golding.

The Opposition was also sceptical of a claim by the military that a blade of one of its helicopters was damaged by gunfire from Tivoli Gardens.

At a press conference last Friday, Lewin shot back: “. You can deny as much as you can, you can rationalise it as much as you want, Tivoli Gardens represents the mother of all garrisons.

“The garrison machinery is well-oiled, super-effective and to those in the business of creating and maintaining garrisons it must be the envy of all garrisons.”

But Golding said he needed no lectures from Lewin about garrisons, and quoted extensively from a speech he made at the Hilton Hotel on May 30 when he announced to his shadow cabinet plans of dismantle garrisons. He added that the Chief of Staff was using Tivoli as a scapegoat for the security force’s inefficiencies.

Lewin also warned those who shoot at JDF helicopters, saying there was a response that would make firing at the choppers “a dangerous undertaking for those who wish to do so”.

Yesterday the JLP leaders hit back at Lewin. The Opposition leader said the Chief of Staff had “wittingly or unwittingly allowed himself to become part of” the smear campaign.

“I am not here to sanctify Tivoli Gardens. Are there criminals in Tivoli Gardens, yes there are, but there are criminals everywhere, uptown and downtown, in town and out of town.there are even criminals in the army,” Golding quipped.

He said further that the JDF had reported that its helicopter was fired on, but did not say soldiers were firing hundreds of rounds recklessly into buildings and in the air. “Who was it that shot the helicopter?”

Yesterday Golding said he expected to see Lewin’s comments about Tivoli being “the mother of all garrisons” emerging in the PNP’s election campaign, particularly since every time an election was approaching the Tivoli bashing started.

“But I am appealing to the security forces – to the Commissioner of Police and the Chief of Staff of the JDF in particular – to stay focused on the job they were sworn to do – to be professional. Do not join the PNP in the Tivoli bashing crusade.,” Golding said.