Shower Posse

The Shower Posse is a Jamaican gang which is involved with drug and arms smuggling. Its home is in Tivoli Gardens in Jamaica, but it primarily operates in the Canadian provinces of Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba and the US states of New York, New Jersey, Florida, and Pennsylvania.[1][2]

Shower Posse
Founded1980s
Founding locationTivoli Gardens, Kingston, Jamaica
Years active1980s–present
TerritoryJamaica, Canada and United States
EthnicityJamaican
Membership1,500–2,000 in Jamaica and 4,000–5,000 in other countries
ActivitiesDrug trafficking, arms trafficking, racketeering, and murder
AlliesJamaica Labour Party
RivalsDog Posse
Junior Black Mafia
Spangler Posse
Tel Aviv Posse

The gang has a strong international presence among expatriate Jamaican communities in North America. In the United States, a branch was founded by Vivian Blake and it has a prominent role in the New York City drug trade. The gang also has a large presence in Toronto.[3]

Name

There are differing reports on the origin of the name. One theory is that it comes from the promises of its associated politicians to shower supporters with gifts.[4] Another view is that it is a reference to the gang showering opponents with bullets.[3] A third theory is that the gang got its name from the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) election slogan 'Shower', which was a response to the PNP's 'Power' that was coined from Manley's 'Power for the people' slogan in the 1970s.[5]

History

The Jamaica Labour Party-aligned Shower Posse has been provided with arms, training, and transport to the United States by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).[6]

On August 4, 1985, a gun battle erupted at a picnic attended by approximately 2,000 Jamaicans in Oakland, New Jersey, during which elements of the Shower Posse and Spangler Posse from Brooklyn and the Bronx fought with the Boston-based Dog Posse and Tel Aviv Posse. Three people were killed, nine were wounded, and police retrieved thirty-three handguns from the scene.[7]

The Shower Posse was involved in a drug war with the Junior Black Mafia in Southwest Philadelphia during the 1980s and early 1990s.[8]

In 1989, former member Charles "Little Nut" Miller was charged with drug trafficking but agreed to testify against other gang leaders in order to receive immunity. In his testimony – in which he implicated himself in nine murders – Miller revealed his connection to the JLP as a "political enforcer", as well as to the CIA, going as far to state that "the United States made me what I am."[9]

In 2009 the United States began to demand that Christopher Coke, then leader of the Shower Posse, with extensive and well-known links to the JLP, be extradited to New York, where he would face charges of smuggling drugs and weapons.[10][11] Then prime minister of Jamaica, Bruce Golding, who was also the Member of Parliament for that district (West Kingston), initially questioned the legality of the request, claiming that warrantless wiretapping had been used to collect information on Coke. However, he eventually relented, after public indignation to what many Jamaicans viewed as a cover-up to protect a politically connected drug trafficker, and on 17 May 2010 an arrest warrant was issued for Coke, leading to a state of civil unrest within Kingston, and especially Tivoli Gardens.[12] Coke was eventually arrested outside of Kingston on 22 June 2010. On Friday, 15 June 2012, a New York federal district court sentenced Coke to two consecutive sentences: 20 years for racketeering and conspiracy, and an additional three years for conspiracy to commit assault.

In 2003, Shower Posse: The Most Notorious Jamaican Crime Organization by Duane Blake was published. The tell-all saga is the firsthand account of one the organization's masterminds, Vivian Blake, detailing how the posse skyrocketed to power and wealth with savvy business skills and savage henchmen, to become the epitome of drug dealing ruthlessness.

The 2014 novel A Brief History of Seven Killings, by Marlon James, features a gang called Storm Posse, who share many features with Shower Posse, based in a fictionalised version of Tivoli Gardens named "Copenhagen City".[13]

Rapper Drake raps "Where n***** go shower posse just to get by" on OB O'Brien's 2014 song "2 On/Thotful" on which he is featured. [14]

Christopher Coke and the Shower Posse were the subject of an episode of the Netflix documentary series, Drug Lords, released in 2018.

References
  1. James R. Zazzali,Organized Crime: 25 Years After Valachi
  2. "The Mafia in New Jersey - AFRICAN-AMERICANS - JAMAICANS - AFRO-LINEAL ORGANIZED CRIME". Retrieved 23 March 2015.
  3. "No remedy for 'Posse'; International drug cartel calling the shots in Toronto's northwest end." Drew Halfnight. National Post. 8 May 2010. p. A14.
  4. "Police raise curtain on the 'Shower Posse'" Colin Freeze. The Globe and Mail. 5 May 2010. p. A11.
  5. "The Cokes then and now - News". Jamaica Observer. Archived from the original on 20 February 2015. Retrieved 23 March 2015.
  6. Edmonds, Kevin (2016). "Guns, gangs and garrison communities in the politics of Jamaica". Race & Class. SAGE Journals. 57 (4): 54–74. doi:10.1177/0306396815624864.
  7. Organized Crime: 25 Years After Valachi : Hearings Before the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Governmental Affairs United States Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs (1988)
  8. Street legends: Aaron Jones Seth Ferranti, GorillaConvict.com (October 25, 2011)
  9. "The CIA, the Cold War, and Cocaine: The Connections of Christopher "Dudus" Coke". NACLA. Retrieved 23 March 2015.
  10. "Tension in Tivoli as US awaits word on Dudus's extradition - News". Jamaica Observer. Archived from the original on 20 February 2015. Retrieved 23 March 2015.
  11. "This is not Somalia, we hope", The Gleaner Archived 9 September 2009 at the Wayback Machine
  12. "Jamaica Declares State of Emergency". The New York Times. Reuters. 23 May 2010. Retrieved 25 May 2010.
  13. Lazar, Zachary (23 October 2014). "'A Brief History of Seven Killings' - Marlon James". New York Times. Retrieved 11 December 2016.
  14. "Where niggas goin' shower posse just to get by". Genius.
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