“THE THREAT LEVEL WAS VERY HIGH”
Deputy Commissioner of Police Clifford Blake testified yesterday that police personnel would have been massacred if they had gone into Tivoli Gardens without the aid of the Jamaica Defense Force.
This is a critical and useful assessment by Blake, however in the interest of clarity it is important to expand on what that means. The police needed the assets of the Military not just it’s manpower but the armor needed for force protection.
Blake spoke to that under questioning, stating that the police’s focus was the safety of its officers and law-abiding citizens, and correctly so.
It is particularly difficult to minimize casualty in what was a war when the terrain is against you. In warfare the forces which occupy the high ground always has the tactical advantage.
Tivoli Gardens like some other Government built housing developments are high rise structures , when people living in these enclaves are allowed to flirt the rules and thumb their noses at the rule of law what we get is what happened there in 2010.
As a front line cop I took fire in several of Jamaica’s Garrisons, Tivoli Gardens included.
What really pisses me off is pretentious know-nothings who have varying ideas of how the police and military should have handled, what was clearly an act of war declared on the authenticity of the Jamaican state by forces loyal to Coke.
It is very easy for people who wet their pants at the sound of a car back-firing to get on their computers and be arm-chair generals.
One thing Jamaican cops never lack is bravery.
What they lack are resources , support from their political leaders and a nation deserving of their sacrifice.
Deputy Commissioner of police Glenmore Hinds captured it exactly when he said “the Jamaican people are forever indebted to the security forces”. Many laid down their lives so that the pretentious Monday morning Quarter-Backs can continue to have the freedom to grandstand.
Without their sacrifice Jamaica would be a totally different place..