Times Herald-Record Pt. I: Rasta Gangstas!
After yesterday's post on the filthy font that was used on an elementary school handout, I spent some time perusing the paper that broke the story, the Times Herald-Record out of Hudson, NY.
It turns out that the porno font isn't the only entertaining event in that part of upstate New York. I am writing you out a prescription for more news from the Herald-Record, stat!!
This story tells about a group of Jamaican gangs that is terrorizing the community of Newburgh. I'm not sure what cracks me up more, the cornucopia of hilarious names in this story, or the abject terror that these gangs inspire in the citizens. I know that's not really funny ha-ha, but what can I say, I'm a bastard.
"Newburgh — The guys with the pit bull puppies in the center block of William Street say they're not afraid of nobody.
But their eyes drop to the sidewalk at the mention of Jamaicans.
"I don't know nothing about no Jamaicans," says one teen with a crisp ball cap and a diamond stud in his ear. He turns and spits on the sidewalk.
"They don't bother us, we don't bother them."
The usual knot of young and not-so-young Jamaican men gathered at the North end of William Street was gone yesterday. Many of them were locked up — eight are either in Orange County Jail on drug charges or in federal custody awaiting deportation after a three-month series of local, state and federal raids. The rest were lying low.
Even so, a mother of two — who calls herself Big Ris — lowered her voice when a black man with tight corn-row braids appeared on the corner, looking her way.
"Wait," she whispered through her teeth. "I think that's one of them now."
City police, who teamed with Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the crackdown on William Street, hope the added weight of deportation will help wipe out the well-organized crews of Jamaican-born dealers who have thrived here for years.
But it's another matter to make a dent in the Jamaicans' local mystique: an almost otherworldly reputation for swift and brutal violence.
"It's become almost like an urban legend or a myth with these guys," said Lt. Santo Centamore. "But then, people know there have been homicides related to these groups. They have a reputation of doing whatever they have to."
Most recently, the murder of 19-year-old Robin Rivera underscored the Jamaican gangs' reputation. Rivera argued with two Jamaican men outside a pharmacy in May. Witnesses say the Jamaican men believed Rivera was selling pot — the Jamaican gangs' product of choice — on a corner that belonged to them."
Whoa, pot is the Jamaicans' drug of choice?!?! Stop the presses, Woodward and Bernstein!!!
Here comes my favorite part. Notice how no matter what the police say, the people in the community basically think every Jamaican gangster is the killer from "Saw".
"In a flash, one of the men stabbed Rivera in the back, at 9:30 in the morning, on a busy street.
Worse was to come: Days after Rivera was released from the hospital, his family reported him missing. He was found shot to death a few blocks from William Street. There have been no arrests.
Soon, the rumors started.
Despite denials from the police, friends of Rivera and William Street residents insisted Rivera's Jamaican killers had sent a grim message with his murder.
"I heard his feet were cut off, he was tied up with barbed wire. I don't know," said Shawn Neil, 18, a neighborhood friend of Rivera's.
Other residents say they heard voodoo markings were carved into Rivera's chest — rumors the police insist are false.
Those rumors echoed the street talk in 2002, when police discovered two Jamaican men bound, gagged and shot to death, execution-style, on Johnston Street.
The men were victims, investigators believe, of a rival Jamaican drug gang, and as in Rivera's murder, there was talk of disfigurement.
On William Street yesterday, Neil said he didn't know if Rivera had been butchered — or if Jamaicans were to blame.
But, he said, he understood the reputation.
"Jamaicans are tight with each other," he said. "And hot-tempered."
He should know. Neil's father is Granville Dehaney — a Jamaican now in federal prison — who claimed to have introduced crack cocaine to Newburgh in the 1980s.
Police say the local Jamaican gangs are far more organized than other local street gangs.
The local Jamaicans have strong ties to New York City, where they get marijuana — a drug whose profit margin these days outstrips cocaine.
Centamore said Jamaicans from New York City are regularly brought to Newburgh and vice versa, which makes it hard for police to track suspects like the Jamaicans wanted in Rivera's murder and the Johnston street double-homicide.
The big city connection also adds to their aura of danger.
"I heard it was the Jamaican mafia (who killed Rivera)," said Nikki Melvin, 21, yesterday on William Street. "Not our Jamaicans, but they called down to the city. "¦ I don't know.""
Unbelievable names start flying here, one after another. Awesome!
"The eight people arrested in the joint investigation with Immigration came from two crews.
Police say one, the Spoilers, was headed by Barrington Rhumble, 39, known on William Street as Chiz, and his lieutenants, Jermaine "Willy Hype" Mais, 24, and Audley "Sufferer" Jackson, 42.
Other local Jamaican crews go by the names Champagne Posse and the Steamfish Crew.
Another crew, arrested this week, is based at the Paradise Restaurant, 64 William St.
That business has been raided five times in the past year. It first became notorious in 1993, when Gerald "Big Dread" Christian shot and killed a man over $15 in an after-hours poker game. Christian was arrested in Jamaica last year.
Yesterday, for the first time in months, the entrance to the Paradise was empty, its doors locked."
Let this be a warning to you: Don't try to sell chronic in Newburgh!! Rastas will cut your balls off and use them to fertilize their natty dreads!
It turns out that the porno font isn't the only entertaining event in that part of upstate New York. I am writing you out a prescription for more news from the Herald-Record, stat!!
This story tells about a group of Jamaican gangs that is terrorizing the community of Newburgh. I'm not sure what cracks me up more, the cornucopia of hilarious names in this story, or the abject terror that these gangs inspire in the citizens. I know that's not really funny ha-ha, but what can I say, I'm a bastard.
"Newburgh — The guys with the pit bull puppies in the center block of William Street say they're not afraid of nobody.
But their eyes drop to the sidewalk at the mention of Jamaicans.
"I don't know nothing about no Jamaicans," says one teen with a crisp ball cap and a diamond stud in his ear. He turns and spits on the sidewalk.
"They don't bother us, we don't bother them."
The usual knot of young and not-so-young Jamaican men gathered at the North end of William Street was gone yesterday. Many of them were locked up — eight are either in Orange County Jail on drug charges or in federal custody awaiting deportation after a three-month series of local, state and federal raids. The rest were lying low.
Even so, a mother of two — who calls herself Big Ris — lowered her voice when a black man with tight corn-row braids appeared on the corner, looking her way.
"Wait," she whispered through her teeth. "I think that's one of them now."
City police, who teamed with Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the crackdown on William Street, hope the added weight of deportation will help wipe out the well-organized crews of Jamaican-born dealers who have thrived here for years.
But it's another matter to make a dent in the Jamaicans' local mystique: an almost otherworldly reputation for swift and brutal violence.
"It's become almost like an urban legend or a myth with these guys," said Lt. Santo Centamore. "But then, people know there have been homicides related to these groups. They have a reputation of doing whatever they have to."
Most recently, the murder of 19-year-old Robin Rivera underscored the Jamaican gangs' reputation. Rivera argued with two Jamaican men outside a pharmacy in May. Witnesses say the Jamaican men believed Rivera was selling pot — the Jamaican gangs' product of choice — on a corner that belonged to them."
Whoa, pot is the Jamaicans' drug of choice?!?! Stop the presses, Woodward and Bernstein!!!
Here comes my favorite part. Notice how no matter what the police say, the people in the community basically think every Jamaican gangster is the killer from "Saw".
"In a flash, one of the men stabbed Rivera in the back, at 9:30 in the morning, on a busy street.
Worse was to come: Days after Rivera was released from the hospital, his family reported him missing. He was found shot to death a few blocks from William Street. There have been no arrests.
Soon, the rumors started.
Despite denials from the police, friends of Rivera and William Street residents insisted Rivera's Jamaican killers had sent a grim message with his murder.
"I heard his feet were cut off, he was tied up with barbed wire. I don't know," said Shawn Neil, 18, a neighborhood friend of Rivera's.
Other residents say they heard voodoo markings were carved into Rivera's chest — rumors the police insist are false.
Those rumors echoed the street talk in 2002, when police discovered two Jamaican men bound, gagged and shot to death, execution-style, on Johnston Street.
The men were victims, investigators believe, of a rival Jamaican drug gang, and as in Rivera's murder, there was talk of disfigurement.
On William Street yesterday, Neil said he didn't know if Rivera had been butchered — or if Jamaicans were to blame.
But, he said, he understood the reputation.
"Jamaicans are tight with each other," he said. "And hot-tempered."
He should know. Neil's father is Granville Dehaney — a Jamaican now in federal prison — who claimed to have introduced crack cocaine to Newburgh in the 1980s.
Police say the local Jamaican gangs are far more organized than other local street gangs.
The local Jamaicans have strong ties to New York City, where they get marijuana — a drug whose profit margin these days outstrips cocaine.
Centamore said Jamaicans from New York City are regularly brought to Newburgh and vice versa, which makes it hard for police to track suspects like the Jamaicans wanted in Rivera's murder and the Johnston street double-homicide.
The big city connection also adds to their aura of danger.
"I heard it was the Jamaican mafia (who killed Rivera)," said Nikki Melvin, 21, yesterday on William Street. "Not our Jamaicans, but they called down to the city. "¦ I don't know.""
Unbelievable names start flying here, one after another. Awesome!
"The eight people arrested in the joint investigation with Immigration came from two crews.
Police say one, the Spoilers, was headed by Barrington Rhumble, 39, known on William Street as Chiz, and his lieutenants, Jermaine "Willy Hype" Mais, 24, and Audley "Sufferer" Jackson, 42.
Other local Jamaican crews go by the names Champagne Posse and the Steamfish Crew.
Another crew, arrested this week, is based at the Paradise Restaurant, 64 William St.
That business has been raided five times in the past year. It first became notorious in 1993, when Gerald "Big Dread" Christian shot and killed a man over $15 in an after-hours poker game. Christian was arrested in Jamaica last year.
Yesterday, for the first time in months, the entrance to the Paradise was empty, its doors locked."
Let this be a warning to you: Don't try to sell chronic in Newburgh!! Rastas will cut your balls off and use them to fertilize their natty dreads!
posted by Tommy Lasorda at 1:57 PM
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