jamaica

Watch Video of America Giving Aerial Support to a Jamaican Massacre

John Cook · 05/02/13 11:29AM

Two years ago, the New Yorker's Mattathias Schwartz documented the brutal massacre Jamaican security forces undertook when they entered the notorious slum Tivoli Gardens to arrest—at the insistence of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency—drug kingpin and local hero Christopher "Dudus" Coke in 2010. They didn't find Coke, but they managed to kill 73 civilians in what the Jamaicans claimed was a pitched street battle with Coke's partisans. After it was all over, they found six guns.

How Homeland Security Helped Jamaica Massacre 73 Civilians

John Cook · 12/14/11 01:45PM

The New Yorker has just posted Mattathias Schwartz's excellent piece in last week's magazine on the disastrous raid to arrest Jamaican druglord Christopher "Dudus" Coke. At the DEA's insistence, Jamaican authorities reluctantly raided Tivoli Gardens, the West Kingston slum Coke ran as a de facto governor, two years ago. Coke didn't turn up, but Jamaican police officers killed 73 civilians, many of them allegedly in cold blood. A Department of Homeland Security surveillance plane was overhead the whole time.

Jamaican Drug Lord 'Dudus' Coke Arrested

Max Read · 06/23/10 12:12AM

Christopher 'Dudus' Coke, the Jamaican gang leader whose Kingston neighborhood was put under siege by authorities last month, resulting in 70 deaths, was arrested on Tuesday. Jamaican police will reportedly turn him over to the U.S. for extradition. [ABC]

Jamaican Drug Lord's 'Shower Posse' Fights Back

Jeff Neumann · 05/25/10 05:23AM

Security forces stormed drug lord Christopher "Dudus" Coke's hideout in Kingston today as violence spreads, with the BBC reporting at least one solider dead and "bodies lying in the streets." The US wants him extradited on drug and weapons charges.

Jamaica Bans Jamaican Music

Hamilton Nolan · 02/23/09 10:43AM

Finally, the Jamaican airwaves are safe for Coldplay tunes: the government there is banning music about sex, or violence, or arson, or... basically all music.

Columnist: Slavery Was Awesome!

Pareene · 08/13/08 01:12PM

"Slavery was good for the black man." This real column comes not from a neo-nazi pamphlet or the editors of the National Review, but from The Jamaica Observer, which is apparently less like our own Observer and more like a really contrarian Jamaican Slate. You will not see a finer example of conventional wisdom-upending this year. Take it away "freelance writer" Michael Dingwall! "Those of us who continue to see the millions of blacks who died crossing the Atlantic and the displacement of what we had in Africa as proof that slavery was a bad institution don't understand the mechanics of human development and evolution." Wow. This is just like when Alumbrados Illustrated published that essay on how the Spanish Inquisition wasn't so bad. He goes on!

Banksy's Face

Hamilton Nolan · 08/07/08 01:19PM

The image on the left is a portrait by UK artist Mister Aitch (which we brought you last week along with several awesome action photos), showing semi-anonymous street artist-to-the-stars Banksy in profile, dressed as the Queen of England. The image on the right is the actual photo of Banksy from which the portrait was drawn. A tipster sent us the full photo-which, as far as we can tell, is not currently published anywhere-which is part of a set of photos taken of Banksy at work in Jamaica in 2004. The much-hyped "only known photo" of the artist is taken from this set. But after the jump, we have two more photos from that set, including one of the mystery man's face in profile: