AS a child, I heard many conversations in my home about politics and political violence. One of the discussions centred on Michael Manley and his alleged affiliation with noted criminals. The relationship with Winston “Burry Boy” Blake and George “Feather Mop” Spence was discussed many times, this particularly after Manley took both of these thugs along on an official trip to Cuba.

During one of these hot debates I listened in on, I heard one of the ‘wise men’ say that Michael Manley has no choice, as the real power lies with men like Burry and Mop.

I remember, when I was older, the public outcry when Permanent Secretary Edward O’Gilvie was murdered, and later the actions taken by the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) when the Cuban Government refused to hand over George Flash and Anthony Brown.

As an adult, I recall both men returning after all the fanfare and well over a decade had passed and the People’s National Party (PNP) was back in power. The case went to dust. Many said the Government dared not take their case to trial and the fugitives’ return was planned.

I can recollect in the 1980s when Christopher “Dudus” Coke’s dad, Lester Lloyd Coke and his thugs drew Jerome White out of Darling Street Police Station in western Kingston and shot him dead on the steps, this because of a traffic incident. I recall that when Coke was acquitted his cronies gave a gun salute outside the Supreme Court.

Stranger than that, I recall Prime Minister Edward Seaga attending Coke’s funeral soon after. However, not so strange, I recall Seaga losing the general election later on.

I recall with equal disgust the police at Central Police Station having to put the PNP area don for Matthews Lane, Donald “Zeeks” Phipps, on the balcony to address his people to quell a riot caused by his arrest. Needless to say, we all recall the JLP Government’s support of Dudus Coke by attempting to block his extradition to the United States of America (USA) in 2010.

I have my own memories of needing a truckload of police to examine the crime scene for a trial in regard to a fatal shooting incident in Tivoli Gardens in the 1990s. And my experience when I was trying to recover Caymanas Track’s assets from their off-track in Tivoli, where an emissary had to be sent to Dudus to get permission for the engineers to enter. This was granted with the stipulation that, “Jason can’t come.” The blasted nerve!

My reason for this history lesson? To demonstrate that we were under gang domination for almost 40 years. This reign of terror ended in 2010 when the State — in an attempt to execute an arrest warrant on Dudus — participated in a police/military operation that has been dubbed the Tivoli incursion.

This operation was different, not just in its execution but also in its permanent effect. It ended the gang domination of Jamaica. There are still dons, but none wield the power of the men I mentioned. There are still garrisons, but none like those that existed prior to the operation. The names still exist — Matthews Lane, Tivoli Gardens, Arnett Gardens. But, the police can go into any of them if they desire.

Why though? What was it about the Tivoli operation which was so profound that even a decade later no real garrison exists that the police can’t roll into?

Some say it is the body count. Some say that the end of so much gang leadership had a domino effect. To be frank, I am not sure. My theory is that they realised what the armed forces were capable of. But that alone could not have done it, although the politicians seem to fear the gangs less now than they did then. This is not to say that the dons are powerless.

There is no hard-core ghetto seat about which the candidates in the just-concluded general election did not have to have dialogue with the dons. If they did not, they would not have won. However, I am sure they did not want to. But this is politics.

I am sure Donald Trump will talk to Ku Klux Klan members before the presidential election. They are a big Republican support group. When John Gotti, the Mafia don, was alive and in charge he was often seen with political figures. In other countries, it is the warlords who back political candidates.

However, we have changed. Often not appreciating where we are is not remembering where we were. This is the formula for returning to gang domination in the near future. We are not free from gang influence, but we are no longer dominated by gangsters. The Tivoli operation is the reason.

The system of occupation under the zones of special operations or the states of public emergency further weakens the gangs. It may not remove them as I would like, but it makes them less powerful.

The end of gang domination occurred by accident. The operation was not carried out to accomplish that aim, but it did so anyhow. Let us hope the next step — the end of the gangs — will be a planned and coordinated effort. After all, we can only receive a limited amount of divine intervention and dumb luck.

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