A New Ruler Rises
Having just buried his older brother and lost his father, Christopher Coke took place at the head of the besieged family empire. At the young age of twenty-three, Coke fought off rival groups that thought they could take advantage of the recent losses. Thrust into the leadership position, things seemed to come naturally for Coke. Having grown up in the family business no doubt played a part in that.
As he consolidated his power it was as if the older Coke had never died. Drug shipments to the United States continued and American guns and money were sent back to Jamaica to supply Coke’s Shower Posse, which, according to American prosecutors, also went by the name “The Presidential Click”.
In an excellent piece in The New Yorker Mattathias Schwartz writes: “Coke does not appear menacing—he is five feet four inches tall, with a round baby face—but his dominion in Tivoli Gardens was absolute. His organization, known to residents as “the system,” had its own penal process, including a jail, magistrates, and executioners. Coke’s code was simple—“No robbing, no raping, no killing”—and his justice stringent: teen-age thieves had one hand broken, rapists were beaten, anyone foolish enough to persistently dissent was exiled or killed. (…) Residents went to Coke for tuition, legal aid, business loans, food, and medicine. The rest of Kingston scrimped to afford Jamaica’s electricity rates—as much as twelve hundred U.S. dollars annually, in a country where the gross national income per capita is about seventy-five hundred dollars—whereas in Tivoli ninety-nine per cent of the electricity arrived free of charge.”
Just like his father before him, Christopher Coke received protection from the Jamaican Labor Party, now run by the new Prime Minister, Bruce Golding. While armed men guarded Tivoli Gardens, Coke had arrived at the same point his father had a decade earlier. Unfortunately for him, the similarities did not end there.
In My Opinion This Man has done more for his people than Mr.Obama does for the hood,you dont see Barack in the hood trying to help nobody and he once organized in the projects in Chicago.but Here He goes after this man thats using the drug buisness to provide lights gas food clothing and education for his people where he come from,seems like Obama could learn a few things,and also why has Obama not created a equal employment Bill for Ex Offenders since 70% of this Countrys prison population,and convicted felons are black?
Yeah he did a lot for his people. But he became the fall guy for the war on drugs