There Is Something Rotten In Jamaica

There Is Something Rotten In Jamaica

There is something rotten in Jamaica and it just isn't about drugs.

I had never heard of this guy, Christopher "Dudus" Coke, before I became aware of the news reports, which all say, that he is an alleged notorious drug kingpin, a criminal, who is wanted in the United States. I don't argue with the tag placed on him, that he is a criminal. Drug dealing is a nasty business with terrible human and social consequences. However, if a criminal he was, he is not just a criminal now. The government of Jamaica and its security forces, by their heavy-handed actions, carried out during raids to arrest him, have elevated Mr. Coke to the status of outlaw.

Drug dealing be damned! Why does it take so many lives and so much destruction to arrest one man? Mr. Coke at worse is a common criminal. There are many reports in the press that the security forces have crossed the line, carried out extra-judicial executions, that the Jamaican army has killed many unarmed young men. Some reports put the dead at nearly 80, other reports give a higher figure.

From all reports, the Outlaw Mr. Coke and his henchmen are not saints; far from sainthood, in fact, they are rascals. The security forces too are not being led by saints. Just a reading of the human rights abuses, one could fairly say, it seems that the devil has taken charge.of the government's operations to catch one man.