Henley Morgan hit the nail on the head

[Rudi]

it wasn't eddie that started garrisons...it was tony spaulding...

my propaganda is more acurate than yours...

Tivoli predates Arnette Gardens my friend. You are right about one thing though what you just posted was propaganda.

[Comment]

Who seh nutten bout first??? Nuh mi

Plus ALL political tribalist ah Vampiya...wedda dem name PNP ar JLP...

Eddie not the first...just the best

Try anedda attack cause dat juss get lick outa di park...easyeasy

In the process of building Arnett Gardens, Spaulding's political thugs and henchmen also chased out the original occupiers of the houses in Trench Town and replaced them with PNP diehards. The displaced inhabitants then found refuge in the hills of St Catherine in an area now known as Central Village and nearby Spanish Town.

Numbered among Spaulding's political enforcers were Winston Blake, popularly called 'Burry Boy' and his crony, George 'Feathermop' Spence.

At the time, the neighbouring community of Wilton Gardens, more popularly known as 'Rema', was fiercely loyal to the JLP, and frequent violent clashes highlighted the lives of the poor underclass that lived on opposing sides of the line of political demarcation.

Burry Boy and Feathermop were two of the leading members of a PNP-aligned gang which had its roots in Concrete Jungle. The gang members, reported to number about 30, all rode Honda motorcycles and wreaked havoc on dissenting residents and their rivals in the JLP with shocking brutality.

From 1967 through to 1976 the gang had been instrumental in securing Manley's success at the polls in the newly-formed Central Kingston constituency. Burry Boy and Feathermop were the leaders of the street arm of the PNP in Central Kingston, South St Andrew and South West St Andrew.

By 1974, after Manley had declared that his party would be following a path of democratic socialism, the gang led by Blake and Spence had widened its power base and ran amok in the city.

Supported and protected by their political bosses, the two were immune to police action and literally 'got away with murder'.

Burry Boy and Feathermop are reported to have led a PNP mob which was accused of shooting a JLP activist, attacking mourners at the funeral of another JLP loyalist and mobbing opposition members of parliament when they attempted to enter Gordon House.

The incidents all happened in November.

A few weeks later, the political gang was said to be behind the chopping of party member Trevor Munroe, when they broke up a strike by disgruntled port workers represented by the PNP-affiliated National Workers' Union.

Munroe received several chops all over his body and was seriously injured as the gang assaulted the workers and representatives of his University and Allied Workers Union, which had attempted to canvass the restive workers.

Burry Boy, Feathermop and their gang, were also accused of storming the JLP headquarters at Retirement Road, stabbing a 70-year-old watchman, Vassel Black, and slashing research officer Sexton Hope.

The political mobsters also smashed furniture, telephones, typewriters and tore up documents.

A report which appeared in The Gleaner on January 21, 1975 stated: 'Eyewitnesses said the men came behind a white van that was left parked at the gate of the compound. They roared in on their gleaming Hondas, estimated at 30 with two each, their faces hard and without a trace of emotion, sending panic-stricken people in the office at the time scattering.

During it all, the men uttered not a word and when they had finished, they rode out behind the white van. An eyewitness reported seeing at least one gun in the left hand of one.'

Arising out of the incident, Opposition Leader Seaga and his party boycotted the next day's sitting of Parliament and called a meeting of the JLP's Standing Committee to discuss the attack on the party headquarters.

Manley's public condemnation of the attack did little to reign in the lawless gangsters, and political violence continued in the Corporate Area and Spanish Town.

Earlier that week, the gang also invaded a JLP meeting at Tavares Gardens and warned residents that no memorial should be held for DC Tavares, who had died earlier.

Weeks later, the same gang was again accused of invading a construction site at the Kingston Waterfront and injuring a number of the workers who were said to be supportive of the JLP. The gang also launched a brazen assault on a community centre located in the middle of the well-known JLP stronghold at Salt Lane in West Kingston.

The gang was also responsible for the wholesale 'ethnic cleansing' of Tavares Gardens when JLP supporters, planted by DC Tavares, were chased away from the area and replaced with PNP diehards.

Burry Boy and Feathermop, so called because of his grey locks which resembled a mop, were many times engaged in warfare with gangs led by revenge-seeking JLP enforcers Claudius Massop, Carl 'Byah' Mitchell and Curly Locks - the top political enforcer in Rema.

The result was unbridled bloodshed and carnage as the JLP strongmen, in reprisal, attacked and assaulted PNP supporters living at Lizard Town, a community on the outskirts of Tivoli Gardens.

The political thuggery of Spence and Blake did not go unnoticed by the leadership of the ruling party and their political gang was now accepted as a vital part of the party's political machinery.

Burry Boy and Feathermop became so notorious that they were included in Prime Minister Manley's entourage on his historic trip to Cuba during the period.

It was on that famous trip that Feathermop, a rrastafarian, would show his true colours and disrespect the party leader. Pork, which is despised by rastafarians, is Cuba's national dish and was served to Manley and his party during a reception held by revolutionary Cuban leader, Fidel Castro. Feathermop is reported to have flown into a wild rage and kicked over the tables with pork.

The practice of issuing contracts along political lines was very much alive then as it is today, and both political thugs were beneficiaries.

One particular contract which came to public attention was that for the cleaning of the Lilford Gully which was damaged by flood waters. Feathermop had won the contract and information was leaked that he was paid twice the amount of the value of the contract. It was even shocking to the public when it was revealed that the notorious gangster-turned-contractor had not paid the workers who had cleaned the gully.

The incident proved embarrassing to the PNP and Manley was forced to call in the police to investigate the matter. It is not clear if anyone was arrested in connection with the misuse of public funds.

"Feathermop was a man who would come into the KSAC office and bad up the people for money and threaten them life," one former worker at the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation recalled. "Him was a known trouble maker who was protected by the big man."

Feathermop's obnoxious manners and rebellion against authority would eventually earn him the ire of many of the power brokers inside the PNP.

He did not live to see the election year of 1976 as he was killed in a bar by a lone gunman who crept up on him and shot him several times.

Feathermop was cut down only six months after Burry Boy, who was rumoured to have murdered a Ministry of Housing official in 1975 after the civil servant began querrying questionable payments made out to him in connection with a government contract.

A few weeks after that murder, Burry Boy was himself shot to death as he drove a car along Darling Street on March 14.

The police reported that Burry Boy was killed by men who were travelling in another car which pulled up beside him. He was shot in the head more than once.

Burry Boy was seen by his rivals as a vicious political enforcer who killed and maimed without question, but to the residents who he protected, he was seen as a hero. His funeral was attended by over 20,000 mourners, including Manley and several of his Cabinet ministers, who led the funeral procession which came under gunfire as it snaked past Tivoli Gardens on its way to the May Pen Cemetery

[Comment]

Who seh nutten bout first??? Nuh mi

Plus ALL political tribalist ah Vampiya...wedda dem name PNP ar JLP...

Eddie not the first...just the best

Try anedda attack cause dat juss get lick outa di park...easyeasy

in reading what i wrote below it doesn't look to me like eddie was the best. looks more like michael manley was the best. the evidence is in the proof that the pnp garrisons outnumber the jlp ones eight to one...

my propaganda is more accurate than your...

[Comment]

Tivoli predates Arnette Gardens my friend. You are right about one thing though what you just posted was propaganda.

and what predated tivaarli....

Tavares Gardens.

So eddie didn't start garrison politics.

my propaganda is better than yours.... especially if you are stupid enough to continue caring about rumors and conjecture and what people want to believe in the face of truly spectacularly bad successive pnp administrations.

Portia sucks...like PJ did before her...like Michael did before him.

Nothing against them, they are all lovely people, particularly Michael who was my Uncle!! and Portia who I have a special affinity for... but geez they all suck at leadership....

Peter Phillips would make a far better PM. But the fact that he is not PM is entirely expected given the population of Jamaica and the predictability of their propensity for stupidity...

[Don1]

this is really foolish argument not worthy of much attention...but I see you're desperate to whitewash dat DayWalkin Vampiya Seaga's image...

Suh doan tap atall

[Don1]

Suh wha dis mean yute?? Dat PNP ave gunman??? Wow...big news dat!!

As mi seh PNP & JLP ave Poltical Vampiya who fcuk up Jamaica...an mi bun dem out wicheva tribe dem come fram

But wen yuh an' whosoeva else come yahsuh an treat one Vampiya lika Seaga as some kinda hero ar man to respect ....mi affi bun unnu out as Criminal Acolytes same way

Dat DayWalkin Vampiya build, nurture & protect di biggest Criminal Garrison... dem all export dem criminal "Showa Posse & Associates" brand all ova US/UK/Canada etc etc . FBI estimate dat Showa dem kill 1800+ inna USA.... Mi nuh sure whe di estimated death toll is inna odda places,,,including JA
All movie an TV special Babylon mek bout dem

Anyone who come yahsuh fi praise Vampiya...mi deh yah fi deal wid dem case wid reality

When dat fess up an repudiate im sordid past mi might gi im a likkle bly

[Comment]

this is really foolish argument not worthy of much attention...but I see you're desperate to whitewash dat DayWalkin Vampiya Seaga's image...

Suh doan tap atall

right the first time nerd...it is a really foolish argument.

[Sir X]

Its always the Jamaican people propensity for stupidity,to excuse the JLP failings of leadership....Profound -Obtuse reasoning ....semantic words laborites love.

[Muadib]

as Mutty used to say... it's a matter of intelligence..

[Sir X]

Yep ...how Portia speech and plane fare ?

[Rudi]

and what predated tivaarli....

Tavares Gardens.

So eddie didn't start garrison politics.

my propaganda is better than yours.... especially if you are stupid enough to continue caring about rumors and conjecture and what people want to believe in the face of truly spectacularly bad successive pnp administrations.

Portia sucks...like PJ did before her...like Michael did before him.

Nothing against them, they are all lovely people, particularly Michael who was my Uncle!! and Portia who I have a special affinity for... but geez they all suck at leadership....

Peter Phillips would make a far better PM. But the fact that he is not PM is entirely expected given the population of Jamaica and the predictability of their propensity for stupidity...

Nice try at spin. Your statement was that Spaulding started Garrisons. Patently false. What party was Tavares a member of again? You failed to mention that. The inconvenient truths keep bothering you guys hence the revisionism
Now, if you switch the discussion to which government was better at what you might have a stronger argument. Leave the garrison thing alone it never turns out nicely for you guys. Here comes the Tivoli Enquiry. The JLP needs solid advisors not revisionists. Surely you must know some.

[Muadib]

last count the PNP won the Garrison battle... dat miss yuh ?

[Comment]

Nice try at spin. Your statement was that Spaulding started Garrisons. Patently false. What party was Tavares a member of again? You failed to mention that. The inconvenient truths keep bothering you guys hence the revisionism
Now, if you switch the discussion to which government was better at what you might have a stronger argument. Leave the garrison thing alone it never turns out nicely for you guys. Here comes the Tivoli Enquiry. The JLP needs solid advisors not revisionists. Surely you must know some.

Stop taking yourself so seriously. I am not trying to spin anything. I am trying to point out by making patently false but unverifiable statements that this whole line of argument is stupid...irrelevant...red herring...and the only inconvenient truth is the fact that of the two governments that have administered our affairs so far since independence the JLP have done a FAR FAR better job than the PNP.
If that is being tribal then I am tribal, but it doesn't change the truth.

I really wish the PNP would change... and they are changing (all be it reluctantly because Peter Phillips should be PM) and give us a truly viable economic alternative to the JLP because a lot in the JLP recently leaves me stone cold.

[Rockman]

Recent counts but past transgressions do not.The sad truth is the games of the JLP undermined Michael's leadership,and for that there has to be consequences.The existence of garrisons stems from a divide ergo....

[Muadib]

Which leadership undermining period specifically ?

Are you referring to the Economic Malpractice after 1989 or in the 70's..

The price as a result of the 90's policy decisions dwarfs that of the 70's....