By Lloyd Williams,
Senior Associate Editor
(Following is the second of a two-part series on the dons of the inner cities. The first instalment appeared yesterday).
IN DOWNTOWN Kingston, many a businessplace pay protection to the dons, in cash and in kind.
So pervasive is the extortion racket, that from time to time, men posing as "bearers", use the names of dons to collect goods or money from business people. But woe be unto the impostor if the real don finds out that "the messenger" has attempted to use his name to deprive him of his "taxes". If the "messenger" is caught, the don skins him alive.
Business people who hesitate to pay the don's demands will be reminded that the area is very fire-prone and that if a fire occurs, it's the people from the nearby inner-city communities who might have to help to put it out, so it's in their best interests to co-operate. If they remain adamant their shops or stores could be held up or burgled.
Owners of buses having their base in downtown Kingston have had to pay daily for their safe passage. If they don't, their buses are liable to be robbed. A bus owner said he didn't mind paying for "the better organised" protection of his buses and crew downtown, as opposed to the situation on Red Hills Road where "nobody was in charge...and with every little boy coming around to collect money" from the buses.
The don is conspicuously charitable to people in and around his community. He contributes generously to football clubs and other sporting events. He sends children to school, buys books, uniforms and other school supplies for them. He puts on seasonal treats for them. He gives people money, lends them money, pays their bills. He pays for funerals. And he is generous to many others -- especially to women. The people in the community are beholden to their don.
John Brown (not his real name), flies into a rage when he is asked to account for the generosity of the dons. He describes as "bull crap, rubbish and compounded foolishness," any suggestion that "any don is generous."
"If they were running legitimate businesses," he argues, "there is no way they could afford to be giving away money like that.
"How can a don afford to give so much money to several hundred school children and to so many other people so often? He collects from business people, usually on the pretext that he is putting on a treat for children. In one day he collects $500,000. He spends $100,000 and puts the remaining $400,000 in his pocket; everybody is happy. That is basically what it is -- extortion, criminal activity -- not generosity.
"If a don makes a big drug shipment, netting him several million dollars and he spends $1 million in the community, it touches a lot of people. They are beholden to him."
Surprisingly, some dons seem to look after their friends far better than they take care of their close relatives. Some, while seemingly splurging on many in depressed communities, often neglect their own mothers, sisters and brothers who live in obvious want in the inner cities.
The entourage
The don always has dozens of men around him and some people have to relay messages to several of his lieutenants before getting to speak with him directly.
No don worth his name ever travels alone. Invariably he is surrounded by a large "crew" which he uses to gain unhindered access to any place or person. It's not unusual to see dons travelling in 15-, 20- or 30-vehicle motorcades. Which law enforcement patrol, save maybe for Senior Superinten-dent Reneto Adams' Crime Management Unit, is going to think even once about accosting a don in those circumstances, however serious and numerous the complaints that may be pending against that don?
"You wonder who these people are", a retired police officer said. "And you wonder where their wealth comes from, that they need that sort of protection. And protection from whom and from what? These are the things that we have to face."
The don has his pick of women in the community, many gravitating to him for money, the notoriety of being one of the don's women, for protection. And it is the women in the communities who are usually most vocal in defence of the dons who outfit their children for school.
"But therein lies a problem," an inner-city resident explains. "They believe they should get any woman they want. They want the best, not those who are easily available. Some of them are perverts. So a don or his friend sets his eyes on a young girl; and it doesn't matter whether she is 13 or 14, 16 or 17. He takes over the little girl, 'sponsoring' her at school and he feels this gives him automatic ownership of the child.
"If the girl resists the advances of the don or his friends, she will have to leave the community if they don't have strong roots there, or as sure as fate, she will be gang-raped, the family will be hounded out of the community or their house will burn."
On the other hand, it will be certain death if any man is foolhardy enough to rape the don's woman.
If the don or his friend wants to acquire a house or a businessplace in his garrison community, the owner has little choice but to sell at the price -- if any -- being offered. And no significant cocaine or ganja business, credit card, cheque forgery or car-stealing racket goes on in the community without the knowledge or approval of the don.
In the Corporate Area, the bigger dons all have posh houses in leafy suburbs, but they go daily to the inner-cities where they may have grown up. That is where their bread and butter is; that is their power base; that is where they feel safe; that is where they are accepted, recognised.
There is an inherent danger in being a don; the inner city is where he goes for protection. That is where they act out their godfather roles, hold court, listen to grouses, peel off bank notes, swill champagne, whiskey, Dom Perignon or Alize and buy their followers Red Stripe beer or Guinness stout.
Punishment
The inner city is the don's office and headquarters. That is where he does business. He maintains a strict separation between his office and his residence. Not even his most loyal "soldier" dares go to his residence to see him without his expressed invitation. The punishment would be swift and serious. To the don, preservation of the quality of his neighbourhood is paramount. So many of his neighbours, if they see him at all, would be led to believe that he is like any other "businessman" in the community with an office or legitimate enterprise to run downtown.
A man slaps a woman, the victim's mother complains to the don downtown; he deals with it there. A man robs a woman of her handbag, grabs her chain or breaks into a motorist's car in the inner city. That is where the don issues instructions to find the culprit. That is where he dispenses swift and brutal justice, sometimes personally. The don is feared. He can do anything to his enemies, with apparent impunity. Whoever he does not want in the community must go; he will tell the police about their illegal activities, or deal with them personally. If he says they must go, they have to leave. If they miss their deadlines, their houses could burn or they could die.
The don is flamboyant. Some pattern their lifestyles to a tee, off Mario Puzo's "Godfather". The don attracts attention by his dress, his SUVs, his Lexus, his Mercedes Benz; his Ford 150 pick-up truck; his "trailerload" of women; by the bashment events he attends.
His associates are important politicians, big police officers and other big dons. People in the community who do not agree with the don's criminal activities don't go to the police. They will tell you they fear that whatever report they make will get back to the dons and quickly and the life of the informant would be endangered.
The don is imitated. "A lot of little boys want to call themselves don," a senior police officer says. "Others fight and scheme and cut throats to be identified or associated with the don. They gravitate to the don, bring him news, bring him women. For some it's enough just to be able to wash the don's car, or run some little errand for him."
Dons come with big egos. There is no docile, passive don; they are always aggressive men, and some are well-known for assaulting people who oppose them on the slightest issue. More often than not, their arrogance is exceeded only by their brutality and their ruthlessness. The don is dictator. As accuser, police, judge, jury and executioner in his garrison, he imposes his own "rule of law" which always is outside of the law that Government Ministers so glibly implore law-abiding citizens to observe. The don dispenses swift justice.
"Their justice is swift and brutal. That's how they keep their power," says an intelligence source who has been shadowing dons and other underworld figures for years.
Assault and intimidation
On Tuesday, January 25, 2000, two political factions turned up at Gordon House -- the Houses of Parliament -- Duke Street, Central Kingston, to give support, in their fashion, to their leaders and to their parties.
A don, apparently still heady from previous misguided media notoriety, his head not made any clearer by Red Stripe beer, and bolstered like all bullies by the mob behind him, takes umbrage to a freelance photo-grapher doing his lawful job outside Gordon House -- taking photographs of the two factions gathered there.
The don orders his goons to grab the photographer. They take away his camera under threat of bodily harm, take out the film and destroy it. This, in the presence of several heavily armed policemen -- senior officers included.
But the don went further. While a videographer from either Special Branch or the Military Intelligence Unit was photographing the scene, the don dared him to "come down here (the Beeston Street end) and take any picture if you bad."
But dons and even lesser minions have been known to assault policemen in the presence of their party bosses.
Wrong signal
The leadership of the PNP, and of the JLP, would do well to recall what the late Prime Minister Michael Manley had to say at a news conference at the Jamaica Conference Centre on March 15, 1992 when he announced his intention to resign as Prime Minister and as president of the PNP. He was asked if there was anything he had done during his administration that he regretted. He said the biggest mistake of judgement he ever made was to have attended the (gun salute) funeral of (PNP badman) Winston "Burry Boy" Blake, because it sent the wrong signal to people he (Mr. Manley) was a role model to.
