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the night of 24 May. By the morning of 25 May, pacification of Tivoli Gardens
was achieved.
FINDINGS
6.47.
The placement of barricades and embattlements involved
residents, gang members, gunmen and, in the expert opinion of the
Heads of the security forces, persons trained and experienced in
military matters.
6.48.
The reluctance of residents to identify any persons involved
in the erection of barricades was an expression of a wall of silence, no
doubt engendered by a fear of reprisals by Coke and/or his criminal
organisation. Most of the residents were prepared to speak readily of
Coke the benefactor but not Coke the President of crime in West
Kingston. We accept that the garrison phenomenon creates an
environment in which it is difficult to vent dissent. And we are not
unmindful of the fact that, although Coke is incarcerated in the U.S.A.,
he has left behind associates who may still be carrying on his criminal
enterprise. But in the light of the evidence of civilian witnesses, what
we saw on video clips of embattlements being set up, and, applying our
own common sense, we find that residents participated in the erection
of barriers and embattlements.
6.49.
We think it is undoubted that a large number of gunmen
from the Tivoli Gardens area and outside that area, converged on Tivoli
Gardens and its immediate environs. They intended to offer massive
criminal resistance to the security forces in an attempt to obstruct the
execution of the warrant of arrest. They too, erected barricades and
embattlements.