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Tivoli Gardens Enquiry My Most Discouraging Moment As A Police Officer — DCP Hinds

War had lit­er­al­ly been declared on Jamaica by the crim­i­nal ele­ments in the peri­od just before May 24, 2010 when the secu­ri­ty forces con­duct­ed what they said was a nec­es­sary oper­a­tion in Tivoli Gardens, Kingston.

Many Jamaicans will remem­ber that before the May 24, 2010 oper­a­tion, per­son­nel at the Denham Town Police Station were attacked by gun­men, that heav­i­ly armed crim­i­nals from across Jamaica had assem­bled in Tivoli; that these crim­i­nals had bar­ri­cad­ed and for­ti­fied Tivoli Gardens; that women had marched dressed in immac­u­late white clothes stat­ing emphat­i­cal­ly that they would die for their leader Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke, that the Darling Street and Hanna Town police sta­tions had been razed and that two police offi­cers were bru­tal­ly slain on Sunday May 23 on Mountain View Avenue in St Andrew Eastern.

The after­math of the secu­ri­ty forces oper­a­tion saw over 60 peo­ple being killed and, after some­time, Coke was even­tu­al­ly cap­tured and then extra­dit­ed to the United States to stand tri­al on a num­ber of charges. He was found guilty and is now serv­ing time in a US prison.

A Commission of Enquiry head­ed by for­mer Barbados Attorney General Sir David Simmons, with Professor Anthony Harriott and retired Supreme Court Justice Hazel Harris as the oth­er two com­mis­sion­ers, was estab­lished to assess events lead­ing to events dur­ing the secu­ri­ty forces’ oper­a­tion, events after the oper­a­tion, and to make rec­om­men­da­tions. The com­mis­sion­ers heard tes­ti­mo­ny from vic­tims, the police, the army, var­i­ous spe­cial­ists, and in the end made three major rec­om­men­da­tions: one — that an apol­o­gy be made to the Tivoli Gardens com­mu­ni­ty; two — spe­cial pay­ments be made to affect­ed mem­bers of Tivoli Gardens; and three — that known gar­risons be de-gar­risoned over time.

In prob­a­bly his last major inter­view before join­ing the ranks of retired police offi­cers on Tuesday of this week, Deputy Commissioner of Police Glenmore Hinds told the Jamaica Observer that peo­ple, con­ve­nient­ly or oth­er­wise, quick­ly for­get the cir­cum­stances and events lead­ing to the secu­ri­ty forces’ oper­a­tion in Tivoli Gardens on May 24, 2010.

“My most dis­cour­ag­ing moment as a police offi­cer who served for over 40 years was the out­come of the Tivoli inquiry, for the sim­ple rea­son that I felt that all the evi­dence was not prop­er­ly under­stood by the coun­try and the com­mis­sion­ers, and I think to a large extent, we, the secu­ri­ty forces, have not been treat­ed fairly.

“I sup­pose the pas­sage of time could very well impair people’s mem­o­ries to recall events, but I remem­ber well the events lead­ing up to when the police and mil­i­tary went into Tivoli Gardens, and at the time there was no doubt that the coun­try was lit­er­al­ly tak­en over by criminals.

“I have nev­er seen such pal­pa­ble fear on the faces of Jamaicans than on Sunday, May 23, 2010 when police­men were being killed, police­men and women were being attacked at police sta­tions. It was a most daunt­ing peri­od for us and the country.

“I believe up to this day that the coun­try owes a debt of grat­i­tude to the secu­ri­ty forces because, in my opin­ion, the secu­ri­ty forces res­cued Jamaica, and I say so with­out any pos­si­ble hint of con­tra­dic­tion that we act­ed in the best inter­ests of the coun­try as we were on the brink of col­lapse,” an emo­tive Hinds told the Sunday Observer. http://​www​.jamaicaob​serv​er​.com/​n​e​w​s​/​T​i​v​o​l​i​-​G​a​r​d​e​n​s​-​e​n​q​u​i​r​y​-​m​y​-​m​o​s​t​-​d​i​s​c​o​u​r​a​g​i​n​g​-​m​o​m​e​n​t​-​a​s​-​a​-​p​o​l​i​c​e​-​o​f​f​i​cer — DCP-Hinds_85923