STEP 1: take 200 police, give them big guns; ply them with “whites”, let them loose and pray God help us! A garrison is people, so talk of “dismantling” (take apart) may reprise “Chainsaw Massacre” but it is the wrong idea. Still, shedding “legal blood” and tough love will help. But what are the lessons from the Tivoli action? Check these!

Lesson 1. Give criminals notice so they escape. The assault on Tivoli is an unintended consequence of Bruce’s acts to hinder due process and help his pal. He dithered. Dudus scooted and despite his indecision the security forces acted but they were too late. To invade Tivoli was an afterthought; he was between a rock and the US, and had no choice.

Lesson 2: If you kill many, people “tink yuh serious”. Scorecard: the police kill 72 and criminals kill one! This did not touch organised crime. We saw no heavy weapons, drugs, or wanted men. But for Bruce’s meddling, Dudus’s case would be ending and we would have no rift with the US! Tivoli’s body count is not about fighting crime — it’s politics. The 73 bodies are the price we pay for one man who screwed up, to crawl back into Obama’s good books.

Lesson 3: The taxman can get all dons as the US did Al Capone. Send them a tax levy and when they dispute it, income and assets will emerge. Seize Dudus’s assets to pay for loss of life and property and freeze all assets as they fuel crime!

Lesson 4: Let foreigners pay for our crimes. The plan to raise US$1b on the back of 73 corpses is brilliant! Which psycho thought it up? Make it retroactive to January so we get US$10b for the 750 murdered! Cabinet told us to sacrifice for the debt and we gave up billions to JDX. Minister Shaw now borrows for a corrupt garrison slush fund – no studies, or budgets. Is it cynical to kill 73 people to beg cash for ghetto projects? They don’t get it! It’s not about money, it’s about changing hearts and minds! Please, no more debt for us!

Lesson 5: Cabinet must not reward lawbreakers. Tivoli was a “Grass Yard” squatter area, yet it has two PMs as MP since 1962, massive benefits and it usurped the patrimony of others. No settled constituency was this fortunate or made our lives as miserable as these usurpers. Rebel people must no longer get a bly over law-abiding ones! Minister Holness is the JLP hope and soon-to-be prime minister. Sir, do not be sucked into old corruption! You know middle class is not house and car! We study, work, school our kids to get there; let Tivoli do the same! Many legacy districts settled since 1836 have no light or piped water, and voters must punish all rural MPs who sell out constituents to back this Tivoli plan! Eddie took Tivoli from “Dungle” to a showpiece. He built his power base on transients, shaped its values to his whim and it proved an ungrateful monster! No legacy district (with many poor people) is a garrison, or has dons and all garrisons are built on transient, disoriented people — on sand! No more privilege for Tivoli. They got a lot, give other poor areas some blessing now! The boisterous urban poor must not be favoured above the patient rural poor. We must not reward threats and violence! Bless the police!

Lesson 6: Donors must give to civil society. They must not give government as it feeds political patronage and corruption! NGOs must lead Tivoli’s transformation. Tivoli must come back to Jamaica –ßnot we to them! To decant the values embedded by Eddie and Bruce, Tivoli needs Father Ho Lung, NGOs, police and the public defender, not money!

Lesson 7: In the taxonomy of habitable space a ghetto is not a garrison. Our ghetto people “come from country”, squat and demand “house and land”. Jews had no country and were sent into ghettos. They had faith and self-reliance. They educated their own; made shoes, furniture, clothes; wrote books, baked bagels; trained musicians, writers, Nobel winners and inventors — their enemy was outside. Our people chose ghetto life — zones of squalor, fear, illiteracy, dependence and criminals — our enemy lives in the ghetto! Let’s depopulate Tivoli. Go “back to country” and produce! Check the Gleaner from 1962 to now and see how Tivoli mash up our brand every few years. For 48 years they lived at our expense and use it to flog us! Let’s give another constituency the blessing for a change!

Lesson 8: The security forces need tactical kit and training. Let’s borrow money for this. Tivoli is a concrete cul-de-sac; easy to defend, hard to breach. Their MP is PM and Commander in Chief (too much power for Bruce), torn between Dudus and his nation, so our forces are hamstrung. What were their goals? Was it an intelligence-driven, surgical action? Did they try to negotiate? Overnight, did they station a marksman with a L1153A night vision sniper rifle (kill range 1.5 miles plus, bullet speed 2,000 mph) on a Marcus Garvey feed-mill tower to cover the south exits? Did some abseil from a helicopter to the rooftop and launch pepper bombs or sound grenades through windows, fluster the enemy prior to action and so save lives? Still, kudos to Commissioner Ellington and his brave men; now on to phase 2 action! What’s the plan? By the way, were the 60 guns and 12,000 bullets from the JCF Armoury? Where is the satellite phone? It’s not over yet!

Lesson 9: Tivoli needs a Truth and Reconciliation forum — at community level and led only by the public defender. The case for restorative justice is made. Members of the community were complicit with dons in hurting other members over decades. Let’s bare the facts — not for prurient curiosity — to see remorse and forgiveness given, as only then will Tivoli heal. The degree of garrisoning varies. Tivoli is hardcore, others are “garrison lite”, but you can’t exorcise community hurt and personal pain with money; only

by truth, remorse and forgiveness. Big up those who told me of things I do not fully believe or understand. I feel you across the water! May the Force be with you! Stay conscious, my friend!

Addendum: David Cameron, the UK’s Conservative PM has just appointed Labour MP, Frank Field, as his consultant on poverty. His charge is “to think the unthinkable” and focus on “the time people spend in deep poverty, the gap between those in deep poverty and mainstream Britain, the problems of multiple deprivation and what keeps people trapped in poverty.” I commend this job and the cross-party approach to our Cabinet!

Dr Franklin Johnston is an international project manager with Teape-Johnston Consultants, currently on assignment in the UK.

franklinjohnston@hotmail.com