Jamaican Gangs of New York

About the Book

In search of a better life, these new migrants arrived in New York City from the poverty-stricken and violent ghetto of Western Kingston, Jamaica. Predisposed to violence and experienced in the life of the street, they aged between twenty and thirty-five. They were different from all those that came before them from this exotic island. With the potential for a drug sale at any time, these new arrivals squared-off against one another in the streets of New York City, fighting for control of the illicit yet lucrative cocaine and crack market. From Brooklyn to Queens, Manhattan to the Bronx, the city was divided into three gang strongholds, basically no-go areas. Joe Dog and the Loyalist posse took control of South Jamaica, Queens; Blacka and the Raiders posse control Brooklyn; and Fowl and the Centralist posse controlled the Bronx. In addition to the Jamaicans, there were two black American gangs, one came out of Brooklyn and the other from Queens. When they crossed paths with the Jamaicans, it was war. Then there was the Gem Girls. This was a gang of girls from western Kingston led by a light-skinned lesbian named Patsy. These girls were as ruthless as their male Jamaican counterpart. The desire for instant gratification and material satisfaction was impetus for the violence and killings that followed. None dared to stand in their way. This violence caught the attention of the newly elected mayor Jack Jackson, who established a gang task force, headed up by a no-nonsense former Vietnam veteran named Todd Sullivan. On Todd’s first day on the job, he shook his head and swore. “These fucking Jamaican posses are turning our city into a fucking killing zone. We are going to send every fucking one of them to prison.”

About the Author

My name is Desmond Samuel Skyers I was born in the United Kingdom, on May 26, 1962, to a family of Jamaican immigrants who had migrated to the U.K. My parents moved back to their native homeland of Jamaica when I was about one-year old, and lived there until my early twenties when I travelled back to the land of my birth. Arriving in England, I worked as a janitor for a few months, before enrolling into Brixton Community College. After a brief period, I dropped out of college and migrated to the United States of America. Once in America, I took up residence in New York City, where I found work at a car repair shop. I work at the shop for a brief time before meeting up with old friends from Jamaica, this opened a new way of life for me. Not long and I was buying and selling everything I could get my hands on; Quickly I went from a no name to a law enforcement target. In 1993, I was arrested and sent to prison for three life sentence plus 40 years in federal prison. I appealed my conviction and was resentence to four concurrent 30-year sentence, during my imprisonment I went to college and I have written six books and countless of speeches and other unpublished material. This is the first part of my trilogy titled JAMAICAN GANGS OF NEW YORK, I am now free from prison and living in London where I am busy trying to put my life back together. From here I send you all much peace and blessings.