Daniel Thwaites

LESTER LLOYD COKE, aka Jim Brown, died under circumstances no novelist's heated imagination could have concocted. No sooner had extradition beenordered for the Tivoli Don but on February 23, 1991, he was dead. EPG Seaga had a number of funerals to attend, for soon after Coke's demise, his son, 'Jah T' Coke was dead.

Another high ranking member of the Shower hierarchy, Richard 'Storyteller' Morrison, is now behind bars in the United States. You would have thought it could get no more bizarre. But interesting times are still ahead, as Vivian Blake will probably put a new twist on the story of the political connections to Coke and his Shower gang.

Vivian Blake, Coke's friend and ally, also became subject to extradition proceedings. And despite a letter circulated over the signatures of Ms. Babsy Grange, and others, arguing that Blake could not get a fair trial in the United States, the Minister of National Security and Justice allowed the proper action to be taken unhindered. Strangely, Paul Burke supported the campaign against extradition.

Now, after years of pleading innocence, Vivian Blake admits his guilt. Under the agreement to co-operate with the federal prosecutors, the hundreds of killings indirectly linked to him, will not be taken into consideration during his sentencing. Prior to extradition, Vivian Blake was defended with some amount of passion. According to his promoters, every imaginable human right was being traduced by his extradition. Will they reverse their positions and decry his wickedness now that he has pleaded guilty?

The Gleaner reports that he has pleaded guilty to racketeering and cocaine charges. The Associated Press report speaks of the Shower Posse being responsible for some 1,400 killings at the height of its power in the 1980s. In our own capital city, and more and more in the towns and hamlets of this small island, we are still suffering from the reverberating after-shock of the cocaine menace unleashed here and abroad. The crack-heads are still wandering the lanes, and the guns and violence inevitably accompanying that trade are now part of our national fabric. Still, silly songsters lionise the cruel deeds of these merchants of death.

It was only a few months ago that a wave of penitential fever hit some of our most undistinguished compatriots. The public became briefly excited by the possibility of our very own 'Confessions of a Jamaican Opium Eater'. It did not materialise. The penitents did not beat a straight path to the police to confess their wrongs. They did not speak plainly to the public, explaining their wrongs and begging forgiveness. No. They toyed with the matter for political purposes.

If Vivian Blake sings, it is potentially the most explosive story of the last decade in this country. He is in a peculiarly privileged position to clarify the scope and extent of political connections to Lester Lloyd Coke and the wake of hellish brutality left by the Shower Posse.

The AP report speaks of the Posse being named for "showering people with gunfire". There must be many a nervous stomach churning at the news of Blake's deal with the Feds. It is all so very interesting. Sing, Vivian Blake. Sing!