CASPER
New member
KINGSTON, Jamaica – Before Jamaican security forces stormed into his poor West Kingston neighborhood, George Green got jobs and help with food bills from a fugitive slum boss. Garbage trucks left the cracked streets spotless.
Today, the walls of the Tivoli Gardens housing project are pockmarked with bullets and trash is strewn about after fighting between security forces and gunmen loyal to reputed drug kingpin Christopher "Dudus" Coke that left more than 70 people dead.
"I was safe before," the 48-year-old Green said after being frisked by soldiers who have taken over the complex. "Now, I'm scared just talking to you."
Prime Minister Bruce Golding's pledge to crush street gangs and replace their strong-armed rule with social programs for the poor has a hollow ring to it in slums where "dons" like Coke have long provided services and imposed a disciplined law and order the government could never achieve. Slum dwellers have a deep distrust of the police, whom they often see as agents of the country's elite.
Many Jamaicans also express skepticism that their two main political parties can wean themselves from their decades-old alliances with the underworld bosses.
Today, the walls of the Tivoli Gardens housing project are pockmarked with bullets and trash is strewn about after fighting between security forces and gunmen loyal to reputed drug kingpin Christopher "Dudus" Coke that left more than 70 people dead.
"I was safe before," the 48-year-old Green said after being frisked by soldiers who have taken over the complex. "Now, I'm scared just talking to you."
Prime Minister Bruce Golding's pledge to crush street gangs and replace their strong-armed rule with social programs for the poor has a hollow ring to it in slums where "dons" like Coke have long provided services and imposed a disciplined law and order the government could never achieve. Slum dwellers have a deep distrust of the police, whom they often see as agents of the country's elite.
Many Jamaicans also express skepticism that their two main political parties can wean themselves from their decades-old alliances with the underworld bosses.