Verbal Spark!

Well Duane Blake the son of the alleged mastermind (Vivian Blake) of the notorious gang wrote a book on their story and while Duane wrote the book at 23 (in 2003), and there is some obvious bias toward his dad who is in Federal prison on a 28-yr sentence, the story is one of the most sobering you will ever read. You will see why the Shower Posse has been dubbed by U.S. law enforcement as the most violent gang American society has ever seen. Columbians could not touch them, nor the Italian mafia or Asian gangs when it came to sheer viciousness. Their name derived from “showering” public places with bullets even if they were only trying to kill one person.

They brought notoriety to Miami back in the 80s (when I moved to the area) which brought about shows like Miami Vice and Steven Segal’s controversial movie, Hard to kill . It is still the stuff of legend in these parts about the stunning incident when it was claimed (by Duane’s book) but denied by Miller (elsewhere BEFORE he was sentenced recently in the U.S. - don’t know what his story is now), that Miller shot 5 people dead in a Miami crack house, one of the victims was a young pregnant girl who plead for her life. All were shot point blank, including the pregnant girl whose skull was blown away and the modern “execution style” murders were born. Miller escaped Jamaican prison serving time for killing a store clerk and allegedly 2 police officers. Some Posse members were said to have killed over 100 people each and law enforment officials claim that over 1,400 murders from Miami to New York to Los Angeles (not counting overseas) were committed by the gang. In some shootouts they had amongst themselves, with other Posses like the Spangler Posse and Payne Land Posse, police retrieved over 3,000 spent shells. They were known to empty guns on already dead victims and victims were rarely shot once. Sometimes guns were reloaded to fire more shots on already dead victims and shooting people in the face at point blank was standard. In short, their story is cold and chilling.

In the book Vivian is never really implicated as being the actual voluntary leader of the gang and I don’t recall any actual murders being attributed to him. This is explainable because he is NOT in prison for murders and after all, it is his son who wrote the book so claiming he committed murder would be ridiculous being that he was not sentenced for any. What you are led to believe is that Vivian helped a lot of Jamaicans from Tivoli Gardens to make it to the United States, many with violent pasts in Jamaica (including his brother who apparently really started the shooting wars) who established themselves and did their own thing including killings, but it all centered around Vivian because he was one of the first to make it big so naturally those he brought to the U.S built off of him. There was natural association and natural progression with him even if he did not want it.

There are a few things you can observe from the book if you are Jamaican or familiar with their culture that maybe even Jamaicans might not be aware of. The idea of [some]Jamaicans using other people’s passports to “sneak” into the U.S seems to have started back in the 70s with the arrival of these Tivoli Gardens natives. The idea of “business marriages” appeared to have gained steam during that time. Vivian Blake, having tons of money from Marijuana distribution, set the standard with cars that are still popular amongst Jamaicans, such as BMW’s which set a high standard for cars many Jamaicans (as well as other West Indians) go after (Lexus, Mercedes, Infinitis).

Whether intentional or not, the book brings home the point (to me at least) that there is really no honor amongst thieves and violent men. Maybe Duane did this intentionally with his father’s blessing to deter young boys growing up to steer clear of such things, as Duane himself is rather clean cut and is a graduate of Howard University with 3 businesses under his belt. In the book all you read about is constant killing, betrayal, infighting and internal robberies. Seems like no one was ever safe and worse of all, actual Jamaican politics was involved.
In the book, Duane presents Vivian as nothing more than a business man and hustler who only wanted a good life and fly under the radar. It was his associates, namely his brother who eventually cleared the way for his thuggish friends to come to the U.S., who started shooting up the place, starting gang wars and exposing the operation to the police and then the Feds with all their petty nonsense. That sounds plausible, but only Vivian would be able to confirm that.

Yes, Cecil Connor, the St. Kitts native ended up in Jamaica around the time of the rise of the JLP under Seaga. From what I understand, because he could dress so well, he was nicknamed “Modeler.” Through Jim Brown (who was burned to death in his cell the day before he was to extradited to the U.S. to face charges), the Tivoli Gardens leader, “Modeler” was introduced to Vivian and was brought to the U.S. via St. Kitts and the rest was history. When he was arrested by the Feds in the late 80s or early 90s, he decided to turn witness against other gang members and in the witness protection program, he was given the name, “Charles Miller” who is also known as “Little Nut.”

It is no secret that he was the most ruthless. As you mentioned, he shot a girl for not giving him sex and then went to another room where his friend was having sex with the dead girl’s friend and shot her too without question. In St. Kitts it is said he shot and killed the deputy Prime Minister’s son (apparently he admits this) and his girlfriend and then placed their bodies in a cane field in a SUV and lit the SUV on fire. This was when my uncle eventually arrested him and when he made the threat to my uncle in the presence of others at the police station that he won’t live to see Christmas. The threat followed through.

It is also said he shot and killed the St. Kitts U.N. ambassador and his foreign guests who were on a yacht one night off the coast of St. Kitts and saw Miller making a drug pickup from the Colombians. Seeing the ambassador and realizing he was seen and recognized, Miller wanted to no witnesses, boarded the yacht and shot everyone dead and asked the Colombians to dispose of the boat and bodies. My uncle called in the U.S. Navy to assist in the search (he let me watch the video) and to this day, bodies nor boat has been found. He was simply a madman all by himself, who learned the art of killing in the violent ghettos of Jamaica. He was just cold.

The church I used to attend in St .Thomas was headquartered by a church organization in Portland, Oregon. We used to have pictures of their congregation and it was 99.9% “white” and we also had tapes from their services and they were more into classical styled music.

Well one week we were having some kind of revival service and the overseer and his right hand man paid us a visit all the way from Oregon. His right hand man played the piano. Well during the first Sunday night service while they were there, the song leader asked the congregation to turn to page 182 - Blessed be the name. The guys in the church band, which included me on bass, looked over to the young “white” fellow for him to start the song. He started the prelude, chopping away on the keys like Beethoven. When it was our turn to break in to join, we came in with a wicked calypso/reggae beat, dropping some serious high hat and bass lines on the song. My boy’s eyes lit up, looking at us like, “what the hell is that bush music?!?!?” We were rocking the song but you could see this guy was highly annoyed that his piano was not the highlighted instrument. That was the last we saw or heard of him.

During that same service before a packed audience, there was a brother whom they tapped to sing the “special.” Now, this guy was somewhat of an eccentric and a showoff. Being that he wanted to impress the overseer, he really went out of his way this time. He got up on the stage and started clearing his throat and doing his little voice thing. We tried to follow him with the guitars but we could not find the Q sharp he was singing in. Obviously frustrated, he decided to walk off the stage, come down to the musician’s row, ask for the guitar, pick a few notes to match his voice and then asked us to hit him that note. When he got back up on stage and we played the introductory prelude, dude started the song in some unknown note and he looked well satisfied. When we tried to find the note he was singing in, he showed a scowl as if to say he preferred the wrong note over the right note. Can you say, “tone deaf?”

There was a minister from Tortola who was boring like molasses. When he got up to preach (usually for 2 hours), church used to get real quiet to the point where you could hear flies buzzing, people snoring and people’s brains actually thinking. Well one Sunday he was preaching and since we musicians sat in the front row, we had a first row view of what was to happen next. People from Tortola use the letter “w” in place of “v” so “love” becomes “low” (louw) or “victory” becomes “wictory.”

Well thinking he was really preaching now (NOT) and reaching a crescendo is his shouting, he leaned forward over the altar with his finger pointing to the audience. He yelled:

“YOU MUST LOW YUH BRUDDA IF YOU WANT WICTORY IN CHRIST!”

Next thing I know, his dentures fell out onto the altar.

Back in 1927 when the United States granted all native Virgin Islanders (and those born thereafter) citizenship, many left the impoverished islands (still recovering from slavery) and headed to the United States in search of a better life. This left the islands depleted of natives so when the tourism boom took place 30 years later, the call was put out for natives of other nearby islands, but they came from as far as Guyana and as close as Tortola in the British Virgin Islands. They came to work at the hotels, the docks and some also came to work for white mainlanders who kept homes in the Virgin Islands.

My mother and father, from Nevis and St. Kitts respectively, came in the wave of immigrants that came in the 60s and met in St .Thomas and like most of the new immigrants, settled in places like Savan, the older section of the capital, Charlotte Amalie. Some, like my father, used the U.S. Virgin islands as a springboard into the physical United States, settling mostly in New York City. In that same decade, many Puerto Ricans (also American citizens) flooded into St .Croix Virgin Islands after the Hess (oil) refinery and Harvey Bauxite refinery were built on that island. They came in search of jobs at both of these sites. Their legacy can be found in the many Spanish last names that can be found on this English speaking Virgin Island. They created an entirely new mixture on that island and to a lesser degree, St .Thomas.

The 60s also saw a wave of immigrants who came from as far as Israel, Palestinians fleeing the Six-day war in their homeland. They quickly set up shops as merchants selling clothing, shoes and food and becoming a major part of the society. They were/are simply called “Deh Arabs.” I am still trying to figure out why they chose the tiny Virgin Islands thousands of miles across the sea.

Then there were the “Frenchies,” white, blonde, blue eyed immigrants from the French island of St. Barthelemy (Barts) near St. Maarten. They are descended from French Huguenots who left Brittany and Normandy in the 17th and 18th centuries to settle on that island. They settled west of Charlotte Amalie in a place now known affectionately as Frenchtown while another group took up residence on the north side of the island mostly in the area of Hull Bay. What is interesting about the two groups is that they look different. Those in Frenchtown are generally shorter and have dark hair while those on the other side of the island are taller (usually over 6 feet), blonde and blue eyed. The reason for this difference is that at one point, St. Barts was ruled by Sweeden for 100 years. Interestingly though, the two groups generally isolate themselves from each other.

So by the 70s, the Virgin island population was as diverse as anywhere else in the world. It was hard to find a U.S. Virgin Islander who could point to two parents or grandparents from the U.S. Virgin Islands. It appears that the greatest contributors of this diversity originated in Tortola, St. Kitts, Nevis, Antigua and Dominica. It has even been said that the Virgin Islands are merely extensions of those islands as just about everybody on those islands can tell you they have some kind of relative in the U.S. Virgin Islands or relatives that passed through them. The motto could easily be the motto Jamaica uses, “Out of many, one people.”

Now in the late 70s and early 80s there began to appear a tiny population of natives from the Dominican Republic some 600 miles west of the Virgin Islands. Initially it was puzzling, at least to me. By the 90s they could be found in larger numbers in the Virgin Islands, but also could be found in places like Nevis, Antigua and St. Martin. On my recent trip to St .Thomas a few weeks ago, entire sections of the island are Dominican enclaves, places (Savan) where when I was a kid were either abandoned places left behind by the first wave of immigrants from the 50s, 60s and 70s or sparsely populated by the lower classes. Now some of those once run down houses are now Dominican clubs and/or homes. All hours of the night you can hear Dominican music on Droningens Gade (the western extension of

) going toward Altona and now you can also find a strip of Dominican bars out in the country areas of St .Thomas out on the road between Ft. Mylner and Nadir. Interestingly enough, amidst the Dominican invasion came Haitians who just so happen to share the same island with those of the Dominican Republic, collectively called Hispanola. These are part of the new or second wave of emigration into the United States Virgin Islands and beyond and it is quite amusing at times to notice the friction between these new immigrants and the old immigrants who once upon a time were themselves looked down on by the few native Virgin Islanders on the island when they came to the Virgin Islands.

The Dominican Republicans are an interesting group, however. Back in the 1930s and 1940s many able bodied men and women from the Virgin Islands (both U.S. and British), St. Kitts, Nevis, Anguilla, Antigua, St. Maarten/Martin settled in the Dominican Republic in search of work at the cane fields and factories there. They settled in areas like La Romana and San Pedro de Macoris in the southeastern areas of the Dominican Republic. They included my grandfather and his 7 siblings and they, like many others, ended up having children amongst themselves but moreso with the native men and women. These children and their children and children’s children are the ones now migrating to nearby Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands (both U.S and British), St. Martin, Anguilla, St.Kitts, Nevis, Antigua and even as far Dominica (not to be confused with the Dominican Republic). In other words, it is now a reverse migration happening in those islands. Many of these Dominicans are actually making their way back to the islands of their parents, grandparents or great grandparents searching for what they feel is a better life and it is not surprising to find a Dominican person speaking nothing but spanish, but carrying a very English last name like Richardson or Huggins or Leonard.

Needless to say the great majority of them enter these other islands illegally, traveling across the treacherously rough and shark infested 27 mile stretch of water between the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico known as the Mona Passage. Many die along the way, but it often goes unreported and those who make it are dumped in the waters off the shores of the other islands or smuggled on to local boats out of view of the local U.S. Coast Guard in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands who then take them to the shores. The females are often picked up by Dominican men already on the other islands and placed in whorehouses (fronting as clubs) to prostitute themselves to pay back their passage money which is often some ridiculous amount.

Despite this, the natives of the Dominican Republic have also contributed to the ever changing fabric of the Virgin Islands. It’s not surprising to find children with rather exotic looks walking about the islands and it is certainly not surprising to hear Spanish and Haitian creole being spoken all over the place.

Unfortunately, Dwayne’s shining moments in these NBA playoffs might be falling under the radar of many around here because of the huge amount of soccer fans in this area of the world, however, ESPN and other sports agencies have taken notice of what we already knew here in South Florida and that is, that Dwayne Wade is a very special player. “Flash” is becoming an icon not just in this area, but in the annals of basketball and also sports history and he is only 23.

In one game earlier this year against perennial powerhouse, Detroit, he scored 17 straight points to help the Heat win what seemed like a sure loss to the Detroit Pistons. If not for that game, the Heat would have lost 4 games to Detroit this year in the regular season without one win against their heated rivals. We now know what he did to Detroit in the playoffs. For all who know him and for us who have seen him all year long on he local stations, this is not really a surprise, but I think the showcase he is putting on exceeded even the most ardent fan. On a night when the Dallas Mavericks labeled Dwayne as enemy number 1, employing every possible defensive scheme to stop him including hard fouls and triple teams, he still scored 43 points and most of them in pressure situations, two of them at the free throw line while standing there all alone, thousands of fans cheering with 1.9 seconds on the game clock, his team down by one, needing one to keep their season and championship drive alive and another to put his team in the driver’s seat. He calmly sank both free throws, neither one touching the rim. Nothing but net. They might as well have been daggers placed with precision into the hearts of the collective Dallas team and organization, at least for this Father’s Day night.

What I find is less talked about and underestimated are the many waves of migrations that took place for one reason or another since slavery ended in the Caribbean. On the southwest side of Jamaica in the parish of St. Elizabeth, legend has it that a cruise liner carrying either Germans or Scottish passengers shipwrecked off the the shoreline of that parish. The survivors made it to land and stayed, eventually forming a community there. Over time, some merged into the local population through marital and/or sexual interaction which created a mulatto type community whom Jamaicans call “brownings” to this day. Many Jamaicans of a rather fair complexion originate in St .Elizabeth. While this was not necessarily a traditional migrations of soughts, it helped to shape a part of what and who Jamaica is today.

Also, Indentured servant hood played a big role in Jamaica, like Trinidad and Guyana and to a lesser degree, other Caribbean islands after slavery, as wealthy land owners (often white) took up offers to bring in workers from distant places like China and India who worked to pay of their passage to the Caribbean while in the process help former slave owners and/or their children deal with the massive blow the abolition of slavery gave to their way of life. As would be expected, many of these immigrants were looked upon with suspicion by the local population and the suspicion was returned. Most of them held strongly to their way of life they remembered back in their homelands. This, however, did not stop eventual intermingling with the locals by their children and children’s children which eventually bore children of “mixed” heritage and race. This of course gave birth to Jamaica’s motto, “Out of many, one people.”

In addition to the Chinese and Indians, there were also another less mentioned group of people that came to the Caribbean, mostly the eastern Caribbean down to Trinidad and Guyana. They were the Portuguese, hailing from a Portuguese island off the northwestern coast of Africa and Southwest of Portugal known as Madeira. Like the Chinese and Indians, many came in search of work or to start a new life. Popular surnames names they left behind were De Freitas (Freitas), Dias, Delacoudray, Costa, Fernandes (Fermandes), Gomes, DeSousa (Sousa, Souza), Santos, etc.
Of course it is common knowledge that many East Indians migrated to Trinidad and Guyana and in lesser waves, to the other islands of the Caribbean. They changed the landscape of those countries of course.

There there is the mass migration of mostly Jamaicans and Barbadians to Central America (namely Panama, Costa Rica and Honduras) to clear jungle, build railroads, and eventually the Panama Canal. Many of these migrant workers had children in those countries, even down to places like Colombia in South America which borders Panama.

Then there were waves of migrations from Jamaica and the eastern Caribbean to Cuba and the Domincan Republic to cut cane and work in the sugar cane factories. This was in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. Many young able bodied men from places like St. Kitts, Nevis, St. Martin, Anguilla, the U.S and British Virgin Islands fathered many children in the Dominican Republic and women who tagged along from those islands ended up with children from the local Dominican men also. These immigrants included my grandfather and his 7 siblings. That migration is being reversed today as just about everyday, many Dominicans attempt the dangerous trek across the Mona Passage chanel between the Domincan Republic and Puerto Rico to make it to lands where their fathers and grandfathers came from 50, 60, 70 years ago. While the Dominican Republic is a Spanish speaking country, it is not surprising to find many English surnames there, such as Leonard, Huggins, Hodge, Gumbs and Richardson which hints back to this point in time when many men and women from the English speaking Caribbean migrated to this Spanish speaking country.

Bermuda, isolated in the middle of the north central Atlantic Ocean saw a huge wave of Kittitians, Nevisians, and natives of Montserrat in the 1940s and 1950s helping to shape that relatively prosperous island into what it is today - in the top five of world nations in regards to standard of living.

St .Croix Virgin Islands saw a wave of Puerto Ricans coming to her shore when the Hess Oil Refinery opened up in the early 60s. Today, while St. Croix is an english speaking island, it is not surprising to find many Spanish surnames on that island.

The Virgin Islands, mostly St. Thomas, had a wave of immigrants which included my mother and father starting in the late 40s and early 50s when tourism boomed after World War II. Many war veterans had been stationed at the naval base (Sub base) in St .Thomas, protected by the deep water and semi enclosed and hidden harbor in Charlotte Amalie. After the war ended, many made their way back to this slice of paradise with their families, setting off the tourism boom. Since many native Virgin Islanders had abandoned the then impoverished island(s) in 1927 when the U.S. granted all natives U.S. citizenship, a call was put out for workers from neighboring islands to work in the hotels and gift shops which brought in hordes of “down islanders” from as far as Guyana. As a result, the Virgin Islands boast a population with probably at least one representative from every Caribbean island from tiny St. Barthelemy to relatively large Trinidad and points in between. In addition, families of Palestinians came to the Virgin Islands after the 6-day war in Israel to escape Israeli domination of their ancestral land and as mentioned before, many Dominicans (Dominican Republic) have found their way into the local population via illegal entry by way of smuggling across the waters from their country.