Jamaican posses, often referred to simply as posses, are a loose coalition of gangs, based predominantly in Kingston, London, the New York City area and Toronto, Canada, first being involved in drugs and gun-running in the early 1980s. It is widely claimed that the Jamaican posses are affiliated with Jamaican political parties[1], such as the Jamaica Labour Party and the People's National Party.
The JLP posses dominate the west and south of Kingston and other smaller towns and the PNP posses are mainly found in the eastern and central side and there are a few that state they are not allied to either Political party. These are often in the Northern slums of downtown Kingston. In the United Kingdom, these Jamaican gangsters would be referred to as Yardies in reference to people who lived in "government yards" in the aftermath of Hurricane Charlie which hit Jamaica in 1951. They are strongly populated in London and are specifically known to have occupied and operate in their infamous grounds of Brixton, Harlesden, Tottenham and Hackney.
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Jamaican Posse members are known for gun battles with the police and drive-by shootings in disputes with rival gangs over drug turf. Posse members are known for ritualized killings of members who "rip off" profits on drugs. The killing ritual usually involves the shooting of the individual five times; four to the chest and one to the head. Other ritual violent acts have included the use of laundry irons, chainsaws, hammer and nails, vacuum cleaners, and butcher's knives.
Posse members have little regard for public safety or human life. As part of their code, extreme violence is directed at anyone they feel has disrespected them or is in their way. Once in prison, however, their violence is savage but not regular.[2] The alleged head of the One Order Gang, Andrew 'Bun Man' Hope, was murdered in Spanish Town on February 8, 2006 which sparked a riot the following day.
Gangs in Kingston are found mainly in the black areas of the Kingston political constituencies. These gangs are the result of political rivalry, crime for survival and defense against other gangs. The leader of a gang would be considered the don, usually a man who has many outside links knows how to make money off criminal means. Not every gang leader maintains these features.
Spanish gangs are formed for both similar and different reasons than the Kingston Gangs. Spanish Towns two most 'infamous' gangs, the "One Order Gang" and the "Clanzmen" were formed strictly out of trusted political affiliations. Before the 'One Order & Clan' generation, youths in Spanish town stuck together in coalited gangs like many of today's Kingston gangs, committing 'petty' crimes as their 'only' resource of financial gains. Eventually, small gangs from De La Vega, March Pen and Rivoli (all PNP affiliated areas) came together and created a super gang which they labeled themselves as 'Clansmen'. Clan meaning being born into a family but in terms of the concept of these southern Spanish town youth, the word Clan came from inspirating "Karate Movies" which were mainly action filled Chinese/Japanese movies, which involved a lot of violence and killings from gang warfare between clans of ninjas or samurai's. The Jamaican Clanzmen was really formed to become an extortion racket where gang members who were all poor would capitalise and the people who had money, 'the working class'. With more money within the gangs possession, guns and ammunition were not very hard to come by. Thus becoming so powerful, they threatingly offered recruits to smaller gangs to join the Clan as 'Unification makes you stay strong' (which rhymes in the Jamaican accent). Many smaller gangs gave in to the Clans recruitment offer while some gangs refused simply because of one mans rivalry to another man who was in or joined the Clan. Eventually, these small gangs was forced to join as the refusing 'person' was killed and left the other outside gang members the choice to either 'roll with us or get rolled over'. The Clanzmen wanted to take over the whole of Spanish Town as they successfully conquered most areas eastwards but faced problems while trying to conquer northern areas while not even reaching to the West side of town.
There are more and more major posses which disclaim their political affiliations because of the enormous power they possess on their own. Some posses were so strong from the beginning that they never had a political affiliation to begin with. Heres a partial list of posses that don't have political ties:
This gang has been aligned to both PNP and JLP at different times, and it is said that they have taken part in more than 2000 murders since the 1980s (authorities in the UK have arrested/deported 200+ members of these last three posses in 2003 to 2006 and they have been left in disarray).
Some of these posses have broken away from bigger posses and they are known as Splinter crews or "copycat gangs". They are made up of a good amount of Jamaican born immigrants but most of them are Homeboys (UK, US, Canadian born blacks, whites, Chinese, African,Spanish, and East Indians). They tend not to be linked much with the actual island of Jamaica itself, but rather with the drug trade in their locality (in either the US, UK or Canada). They still operate like the other Jamaican posses and structure themselves on the three tier system. They tend to be very loosely knit and wildly violent due to their heavy use of A class drugs and/or hunger for money. There are probably thousands of these small indie cells in operation.
MC Cooks pen
South London
North London
Brooklyn
Bronx (only reside in North Bronx)
Queens