What Does Dudus Coke Sentence Mean?

THE IMPOSITION OF A 23-YEAR SENTENCE ON CHRISTOPHER MICHAEL (DUDUS) COKE BY FEDERAL JUDGE ROBERT. P. PATTERSON, TO RUN CONSECUTIVELY, SENDS A STRONG MESSAGE TO THOSE WHO FEEL THEY CAN CIRCUMVENT THE LAW WITH IMPUNITY.

Hidden in this sen­tence, notwith­stand­ing, is a deep­er, more sig­nif­i­cant les­son for Jamaica. The 23-year sen­tence to run con­sec­u­tive­ly, not con­cur­rent­ly, is sig­nif­i­cant for Christopher Coke. The greater sig­nif­i­cance for Jamaica and Jamaicans, how­ev­er, is that America’s Justice sys­tem is not the ridicu­lous crim­i­nal-friend­ly farce that obtains in Jamaica. Every defen­dant charged with a crime should be giv­en a fair and impar­tial tri­al; jus­tice demands it. On the oth­er hand, those who have been vic­tims of crime also deserve a rig­or­ous defend­er of their right to be safe in their per­sons, their homes, or wher­ev­er they law­ful­ly exist. That is where the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem comes in to ade­quate­ly inves­ti­gate, pros­e­cute, and effec­tive­ly apply nec­es­sary and suf­fi­cient­ly puni­tive and reha­bil­i­ta­tive reme­dies. Years ago, in anoth­er forum, I wrote that Jamaica would sub­mit to the rule of law in this new world order. I am vin­di­cat­ed to some degree, though still not sat­is­fied, that the peo­ple at the top of these crim­i­nal empires are still run­ning around Jamaica untouched.

Police sta­tions burned.Streets bar­ri­cad­ed

There is a pletho­ra of dif­fer­ent con­di­tions with­in Jamaica, which cre­at­ed Christopher (Dudus) Coke), Jim Brown, Claudie Massop, Skeng Don, George Pang, Feather Mop, Bury Boy, Jah T, Chubby Dread, Sandokan, Natty Morgan, and the seem­ing­ly end­less list of infa­mous degen­er­ates who have dis­graced our his­tor­i­cal land­scape. At the core of it all is a pop­u­la­tion that large­ly rel­ish­es and feeds on the glo­ri­fi­ca­tion of all things ille­gal and wor­ships at the feet of these low-life hea­thens. The media and the local cul­ture duti­ful­ly feed this insa­tiable, rapa­cious desire for things illic­it, vis-a-vis dance hall music, the the­ater, etc.

This fer­tile cul­ture of accep­tance is the per­fect breed­ing ground for the exist­ing cul­ture of per­va­sive and debil­i­tat­ing cor­rup­tion, which is suf­fo­cat­ing the very lifeblood of the coun­try and sub­ject­ing gen­er­a­tions of our nation’s peo­ple to a life of abject pover­ty and many deaths. It was the cul­ture that pro­duced Dudus Coke. Not that he is with­out sin, as even he has allud­ed to, but had the sys­tem effec­tive­ly pun­ished and reha­bil­i­tat­ed him when he start­ed down that path, he would cer­tain­ly not have been in that court­room yes­ter­day hear­ing those dread­ed words from Justice Patterson. Despite being arrest­ed and charged sev­er­al times, Jamaica’s crim­i­nal cod­dling judges turned him back onto the streets with­out penal­ty time and again. How could he not feel above the laws?
The sys­tem that failed the peo­ple Dudus trans­gressed against also failed Dudus. The Culture that foment­ed and main­tained a state with­in a state is expo­nen­tial­ly respon­si­ble for those who died at his hands direct­ly or indi­rect­ly. Even as Coke now has time to con­tem­plate his actions, count­less oth­ers are doing what he did in the same tiny piece of real estate with its 2.7 mil­lion inhabitants.

Dirty politi­cians, Judges, and oth­er high­ly-placed bureau­crats, a woe­ful­ly inad­e­quate bro­ken jus­tice sys­tem, from top to bot­tom, an impo­tent, timid, lap-dog police force, and a cheer-lead­ing media add a crim­i­nal­ly com­plic­it civ­il soci­ety, and the result is a per­fect storm, which cre­ates a coun­try that breads the Christopher Cokes of this world. As some seek to dem­a­gogue Christopher (dudus) Coke, we would be well remind­ed that if Jamaica had clear­ly estab­lished laws, judges who under­stood their respon­si­bil­i­ties in apply­ing those laws, and police who were capa­ble and will­ing to inves­ti­gate, we would not have this con­ver­sa­tion. Christopher Coke would have no choice but to be a legit­i­mate businessman.
As we Jamaicans express our vary­ing opin­ions on this sub­ject, we are remind­ed that there are more peo­ple in Jamaica doing the very same things that he was sen­tenced for. Some peo­ple occu­py posi­tions of pow­er, such as politi­cians, busi­ness­peo­ple, lawyers, and peo­ple from all walks of life. Dudus had a chance to do the right thing. He argued with Judge Patterson that he was a bene­fac­tor for his com­mu­ni­ty; no one denies that. Many in Jamaica see that kind of largess as wor­thy of saint­hood. Once again, that men­tal­i­ty is derived from the glo­ri­fi­ca­tion of evil, all things crim­i­nal, and an unex­plain­able accep­tance of crim­i­nal­i­ty. Sentences met­ed out for infrac­tions to the most egre­gious crimes and acts of ter­ror send a mes­sage that the state does not attach any sig­nif­i­cance to crime’s cor­ro­sive and destruc­tive con­se­quences. The Media, or what pass­es for one, does sig­nif­i­cant­ly more dam­age than good to an already gullible, low-infor­ma­tion pop­u­lace by cheer­lead­ing crim­i­nal­i­ty and glo­ri­fy­ing crim­i­nals. In the end, those who seek fame do so at the expense of the agen­cies put in place to pro­vide for the coun­try’s secu­ri­ty, even as they clutch tight­ly their American visas, green cards, and, in many cas­es, citizenship.

Newspaper edi­tors con­stant­ly berate law enforce­ment about every minute detail while they ignore the over 200 gangs oper­at­ing with impuni­ty in the coun­try. The secu­ri­ty forces are ham­strung, too afraid to do any­thing for fear of crim­i­nal pros­e­cu­tion. Those in pow­er who make the rules are the very ones ben­e­fit­ing from crime. Absent the United States and its resolve to get transna­tion­al crim­i­nals irre­spec­tive of where they oper­ate from, Jamaica would have already been a failed state.
Day after day, the num­ber one print­ed dish-rag (THE DAILY GLEANER) from its Editorial pages screams out for inves­ti­ga­tions into the deaths of those who died in Tivoli Gardens. That’s when it can pull itself from homo­sex­u­al advocacy.
There is nev­er any men­tion by this garbage dis­penser about the police offi­cers killed when Coke’s mili­tia decid­ed to over-pow­er the Jamaican state. There is no men­tion of the death of mem­bers of our mil­i­tary. There is no men­tion of the death of the inno­cents killed, as bands of maraud­ing mili­ti­a­men went on a ram­page, killing at will. There is no men­tion of the police sta­tions torched in the images dis­played above. Inimitable and indeli­ble images seared into our con­scious­ness that our beloved coun­try was ever so close to being tak­en over by filthy hood­lums who decid­ed that the laws did not apply to them. Institution of high­er learn­ing churns out so-called intel­lec­tu­als whose only inter­est is their own. Higher learn­ing has no nobil­i­ty, com­mit­ment to ser­vice, or ded­i­ca­tion to nation­hood. Those who earn a degree in Jamaica use it sole­ly as an instru­ment to club oth­ers less for­tu­nate. So where will Jamaica be as it enters its 50^th year of so-called inde­pen­dence? Will it con­tin­ue to be a haven for crim­i­nal­i­ty run by two groups of crim­i­nal­s/crim­i­nal-sup­port­ing lead­ers who have visas and cit­i­zen­ship for coun­tries where the rule of law is respect­ed? Or will a leader or group rise to take the reins and tell the peo­ple your future is in your hands? It is not in crim­i­nal­i­ty or remit­tance from abroad, and it’s all up to you.

Only time will tell!