Commissioner of Police Owen Ellington yesterday gave the Tivoli Gardens Commission of Enquiry further insight into the power of the Presidential Click led by Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke.
Ellington — who was responding to questions from attorney Alexander Williams, who is representing several Tivoli Gardens residents — said that the police never gave up on reaching out to the residents of the West Kingston community.
He said that an attempt was made to start a youth club there in the early 2000s, but the plan was resisted by the Presidential Click.
Ellington said that the club was eventually formed, but with the compromise that it be named after the criminal gang.
He said that after the 2010 operation to apprehend Coke, who was wanted in the United States on drugs and gunrunning charges, the club was relaunched and renamed the Tivoli Gardens Police Youth Club.
The former top cop said the police were then able to run the club as they do the other police youth clubs across the island.
During the afternoon session, Ellington — in a testy exchange with Independent Commission of Investigation (INDECOM) boss Terrence Williams — said that he wasn’t pleased with the compromise that was made.
He said the name Presidential Click was associated with a criminal organization and to brand the group like that would be like supporting the gang.
Earlier, during the morning session, the former top cop testified that the crime that took place in other communities across Jamaica also occurred in Tivoli Gardens.
He said, however, that the police were prevented by criminals from accessing the community to investigate these crimes, which included murders. He added that criminals there enforced a code of silence that made it impossible for crimes committed in the community to be investigated.
Jamaica Observer
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