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... this New Yorker guy did a superb job 
Pulitzer prize material..
Some highlights for me:
He lived it...
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This is one lucky Brooklynite.. he met the Judge, Jury & executioner...and survived to tell the tale
People reported seeing US paramilitary types in an armored convoy in W Kingston... Tac Ops where the video was analyzed was probably in the area..
Pulitzer prize material..Some highlights for me:
He lived it...
I lived in and around Tivoli for about three months, reporting this story. Residents, government officials, and sources close to the police there told me that the killings occurred in two waves. The first took place in the morning, while the security forces were rounding up residents and gaining control of the neighborhood. The second began in the afternoon, when police started conducting house-to-house searches for weapons and gunmen. Some used tissue swabs to test residents’ hands for traces of gunpowder. Often, the question of who was a gunman and who wasn’t was decided on the spot. If an unarmed man’s claims of innocence seemed unconvincing, the police might kill him.
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This is one lucky Brooklynite.. he met the Judge, Jury & executioner...and survived to tell the tale
“What are you doing in Tivoli Gardens?” a policeman asked George Lewis, a portly middle-aged man who installs wood floors in Brooklyn. He was visiting Jamaica and had come by a friend’s apartment on May 24th. He and the policeman were sitting, Lewis remembers, in the living room. The policeman had his rifle pointed at Lewis’s chest.
It’s guys like you bringing in the loads of guns,” the policeman said.
“I’ve always been a law-abiding citizen,” Lewis said, trembling. Moments before, he had heard gunfire from the apartment next door. A second police officer leaned in, looking shaken, and asked what to do with the bodies. “Tie a sheet around them and carry them downstairs,” Lewis’s interrogator said.
“I’m the decision-maker now, you hear?” he continued. Lewis told the policeman that he had a nephew in the Army. The policeman asked for his name and phone number. Lewis wrote them on a slip of paper. He placed it on the coffee table, next to his American green card and his Jamaican passport.
“Call him,” the policeman said. Lewis could not get through. He began to pray.
The policeman looked at the slip of paper. “You all right,” he said. Lewis believes that he recognized the nephew’s name.
It’s guys like you bringing in the loads of guns,” the policeman said.
“I’ve always been a law-abiding citizen,” Lewis said, trembling. Moments before, he had heard gunfire from the apartment next door. A second police officer leaned in, looking shaken, and asked what to do with the bodies. “Tie a sheet around them and carry them downstairs,” Lewis’s interrogator said.
“I’m the decision-maker now, you hear?” he continued. Lewis told the policeman that he had a nephew in the Army. The policeman asked for his name and phone number. Lewis wrote them on a slip of paper. He placed it on the coffee table, next to his American green card and his Jamaican passport.
“Call him,” the policeman said. Lewis could not get through. He began to pray.
The policeman looked at the slip of paper. “You all right,” he said. Lewis believes that he recognized the nephew’s name.
The statement said that U.S. law-enforcement officers had not made “operational decisions” during the incursion, and emphasized Jamaican responsibility. “The video material was not viewed in the Embassy,” a State Department spokesperson said. “It was viewed at a tactical-operations center, and I don’t have the location of that.” When asked whether there were U.S. officials at the tactical-operations center, the spokesperson said, “I don’t know. I can’t clarify that for you.” A D.E.A. spokesperson said, “We were absolutely not involved on the ground in any of the operations.”
But parts of the D.H.S. report appear to contradict that assertion. The plane was assigned “at the request of and in support of the Drug Enforcement Administration (D.E.A.) Kingston Country Office,” the report reads. “Surveillance support is needed to increase officer safety.” Later, spokespeople from the State Department and the D.H.S. said that this referred solely to Jamaican officers
But parts of the D.H.S. report appear to contradict that assertion. The plane was assigned “at the request of and in support of the Drug Enforcement Administration (D.E.A.) Kingston Country Office,” the report reads. “Surveillance support is needed to increase officer safety.” Later, spokespeople from the State Department and the D.H.S. said that this referred solely to Jamaican officers
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