'We were willing to die for Dudus'

• Tivoli residents remember last May's white protest

Howard Campbell, Gleaner Writer

One year ago, the streets of downtown Kingston were overrun with hundreds of demonstrators, mainly women clad in white, sending a message to the authorities, "Leave the President (Christopher 'Dudus' Coke) alone."

Over the years, the residents of west Kingston have staged numerous demonstrations in front of the Denham Town Police Station but last May's raucous show of support for Coke was a snapshot for the ages.

On May 20, a vocal group of women assembled on Spanish Town Road, in the vicinity of the police station, bearing placards.

That protest took place one week after Prime Minister Bruce Golding announced that Attorney General Dorothy Lightbourne would go ahead with proceedings for Coke's extradition to the United States where he was to face charges of arms and drug smuggling.

Tivoli Gardens resident Nickiesha Kirkpatrick donned her white dress and joined friends and neighbours who were part of the demonstration.

Kirkpatrick said statements from the police that Coke was holding women and children against their will and had seized their cellular phones angered the community.

"It was nuthin like dat, so wi go out an' show dem sey wi neva under nuh bondage," Kirkpatrick told The Gleaner recently.

Stopped by police

It was a similar story from Sandrawho was part of the crowd which made the long march from Spanish Town Road through Parade and across Duke Street headed, they said, for The Gleaner's North Street offices.

Metres from Gordon House on Duke Street, they were stopped by a strong detachment of police and, in less organised fashion, made their way back home through Denham Town.

"Me did have fi go out because a pure lie dem did a tell pon the man and we couldn't allow it," Sandra said as she recited the chants which the demonstrators used for most of the trek in the mid-morning sun.

"No Dudus, no Jamaica," "No Dudus, no downtown" and "We want Prezi".

Sandra scoffed at claims that persons were forced to be part of the demonstration that Thursday morning.

"A true you no know how everybody inna Tivoli love Prezi. Him never have to force we fi come out. Me did willing fi dead fi him that day," she added.

Many Jamaicans viewed the rowdy protest as an open challenge to the state.

Persons were even more incensed by captions on some of the placards, one of which read: "Mi love Dudus more than God."

Kirkpatrick was in Tivoli when the security forces moved in on May 24, launching an offensive that left an estimated 73 people dead.

She said she lost a cousin and friends during the three-day firefight which reportedly involved gunmen loyal to Coke and members of the security forces.

Little has changed for her since.

The mother of a 13-year-old son is unemployed and frustrated by the restrictions put in place by the military-police unit which has been in Tivoli for nearly a year.

*Name changed on request.