Misplaced Pages

#27972

90-795: Yardie (or Yaadi/Yawdie ) is a term often used, particularly within the Caribbean expatriate and Jamaican diaspora , to refer to people of Jamaican origin, though its exact meaning changes depending on context. The term is derived from the Jamaican patois for “home” or " yard ". The term may have specifically originated from the crowded " government yards " of two-storey government-funded concrete homes found in Kingston and inhabited by poorer Jamaican residents, though "yard" can also refer to "home" or "turf" in general in Jamaican patois. Outside of Jamaica, "yardies"

180-467: A UNEP report, the Caribbean coral reefs might get extinct in next 20 years due to population explosion along the coast lines, overfishing, the pollution of coastal areas and global warming. Some Caribbean islands have terrain that Europeans found suitable for cultivation for agriculture. Tobacco was an important early crop during the colonial era, but was eventually overtaken by sugarcane production as

270-512: A minimum mandatory sentence of 5 years in federal prison. On the other hand, possession of 500 grams of powder cocaine carries the same sentence. In 2010, the Fair Sentencing Act cut the sentencing disparity to 18:1. In 2012, 88% of imprisonments from crack cocaine were African American. Further, the data shows the discrepancy between lengths of sentences of crack cocaine and heroin. The majority of crack imprisonments are placed in

360-446: A Jamaican yard gangster was given three life sentences for the murders of Noel Patterson and his daughters, Connie and Lorna Morrison. British police are hesitant to categorize British Yardie gangs as organized crime, since there appears to be no real structure or central leadership; affiliations between the various Yardie gangs in the UK can be described as loose at best. Academics have noted

450-588: A bestselling 1992 novel entitled Yardie . In 2018, British actor Idris Elba made his directorial debut with his feature film Yardie , based on Headley's book. Yardie gangs are notorious for their involvement in gun crime and the illegal drug trade , notably marijuana and crack cocaine in the United Kingdom . In 1993, Yardies were blamed for the murder of Police Constable Patrick Dunne, shot dead while patrolling in Clapham . In 2006, Rohan Chung, described as

540-458: A crack index was calculated using information on cocaine-related arrests, deaths, and drug raids, along with low birth rates and media coverage in the United States. The crack index aimed to create a proxy for the percentage of cocaine related incidents that involved crack. Crack was an almost unknown drug until 1985. This abrupt introductory date allows for the estimation and use of the index with

630-678: A decline in the Amerindian population. such as the Kongo , Igbo , Akan , Fon and Yoruba as well as military prisoners from Ireland , who were deported during the Cromwellian reign in England . Immigrants from Britain , Italy , France , Spain , the Netherlands , Portugal and Denmark also arrived, although the mortality rate was high for both groups. Crack epidemic The crack epidemic

720-559: A devastating impact on the population, so starting in 1503, slaves from Africa were imported to the colony. While early slave traders were Portuguese and Spanish, known as the First Atlantic System, by the 17th century the trade became dominated by British, French, and Dutch merchants. This was known as the Second Atlantic System. 5 million African slaves would be taken to the Caribbean, and around half would be traded to

810-530: A few still are, colonies of European nations; a few are overseas or dependent territories : The British West Indies were united by the United Kingdom into a West Indies Federation between 1958 and 1962. The independent countries formerly part of the B.W.I. still have a joint cricket team that competes in Test matches , One Day Internationals and Twenty20 Internationals . The West Indian cricket team includes

900-424: A result of the low-skill levels and minimal initial resource outlay required to sell crack, systemic violence flourished as a growing army of young, enthusiastic inner-city crack sellers attempt to defend their economic investment." Once the drug became embedded in the particular communities, the economic environment that was best suited for its survival caused further social disintegration within that city. In 1986,

990-699: A small part of the prison population, and non-violent drug offenders an even smaller portion; that people convicted of violent crimes make up the majority of prisoners; that county and state justice systems account for the large majority of American prisoners and not the federal system that handles most drug cases; and, subsequently, "national" statistics tell a distorted story when differences in enforcement, conviction, and sentencing are widely disparate between states and counties. San Jose Mercury News journalist Gary Webb sparked national controversy with his 1996 Dark Alliance series which alleged that Nicaraguan dealers with Contra ties started and significantly fueled

SECTION 10

#1733086247028

1080-556: A tendency to over-label black British crime as "Yardie"-related due to stereotype and social narrative. A number of operations to combat Yardie gun crime have been set up, notably Operation Trident in the London area. Yardies (or imitating) gangs also appear to be active in Bristol , Birmingham , Aberdeen , Edinburgh and Nottingham but to a lesser extent. Some maintain that the supposed reach and influence in communities of these "Yardies"

1170-571: A thousand press stories were published. Initially, crack had higher purity than street powder. Around 1984, powder cocaine was available on the street at an average of 55 percent purity for $ 100 per gram (equivalent to $ 293 in 2023), and crack was sold at average purity levels of 80-plus percent for the same price. In some major cities, such as New York , Chicago , Los Angeles , San Francisco , Philadelphia , Baltimore , Houston and Detroit , one dose of crack could be obtained for as little as $ 2.50 (equivalent to $ 7 in 2023). According to

1260-541: A whole) on the failures of the criminal justice system, it obscures African-American support for tougher crime laws and downplays the role of violent crime in the story of incarceration. John Pfaff , in his book Locked In: The True Causes of Mass Incarceration and How to Achieve Real Reform , criticizes Alexander's assertion that the Drug War, including sentencing disparities for crack, is responsible for mass incarceration. Among his findings are that drug offenders make up only

1350-675: A wide array of criminal activity depending on their location, ranging from political corruption , political violence , and assassination in Jamaica to drug trafficking and gang violence in the US, Canada, and UK. Derived from Jamaican Patois , the term "yardie" can be ambiguous, having multiple meanings depending on context. In the most innocuous sense, "yardie" can simply refer to a Jamaican national; as "yard" can mean "home" in Jamaican Patois, Jamaican expatriates who moved abroad to countries such as

1440-947: A yard" (or "back home"). A large influx of inner city Jamaican immigration to Britain during the 1980s led to the rise of gang violence or behaviour on the part of Jamaicans which became known in wider British society as "Yardie culture" and the participants "Yardies". The terms "Yardie gang" or "Yardie gun violence" were largely used by the British media to describe violent crimes in London 's black community . The gangs in London are specifically known to have occupied and operated in Brixton , Harlesden / Stonebridge , Hackney , Tottenham , Peckham and Notting Hill . Yardie activity has been reported in Aberdeen and South Wales (see county lines drug trafficking ). Jamaican-born British writer Victor Headley wrote

1530-814: Is a myth. Caribbean Situated largely on the Caribbean Plate , the region has thousands of islands, islets , reefs , and cays . Island arcs delineate the northern and eastern edges of the Caribbean Sea : the Greater Antilles in the north and the Lesser Antilles , which includes the Leeward Islands , Windward Islands , and the Leeward Antilles , to the east and south. The nearby northwestern Lucayan Archipelago , comprising The Bahamas and

1620-508: Is dissolved in a solution of water and baking soda and then dried out into "crack rocks". As the rocks are heated, it makes a crackling sound and this is how the substance got its name. It was not until 1985 after an article in The New York Times describing crack use in the Bronx , New York titled "A new, purified form of cocaine causes alarm as abuse increases" that within a year, more than

1710-514: Is often used to describe a pirate operating in this region. The Caribbean region was war-torn throughout much of its colonial history, but the wars were often based in Europe, with only minor battles fought in the Caribbean. Some wars, however, were born of political turmoil in the Caribbean itself. In 1791, a slave rebellion in the French colony of Saint-Domingue led to the establishment in 1804 of Haiti ,

1800-511: Is often used to refer to Jamaican gangs or organized crime groups and gangsters of Jamaican origin, nationality, or ethnicity. In this sense, the term is sometimes used interchangeably with the term "posse" or " Jamaican posse " to refer to crime groups of Jamaican origin, with the term "posse" used more frequently in North America and "Yardies" being used more frequently in the United Kingdom . Yardie gangs or Jamaican "posses" are involved in

1890-586: Is questioned. Consistent dates of 3100 BC appear in Cuba . The earliest dates in the Lesser Antilles are from 2000 BC in Antigua . A lack of pre-ceramic sites in the Windward Islands and differences in technology suggest that these Archaic settlers may have Central American origins. Whether an Ortoiroid colonization of the islands took place is uncertain, but there is little evidence of one. DNA studies changed some of

SECTION 20

#1733086247028

1980-676: Is warm year round, in the 70s, 80s and 90s, and only varies from winter to summer about 2–5 degrees on the southern islands and about a 10–20 degrees difference on the northern islands of the Caribbean. The northern islands, like the Bahamas, Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, may be influenced by continental masses during winter months, such as cold fronts. Aruba: Latitude 12°N Puerto Rico: Latitude 18°N Cuba: at Latitude 22°N Lucayan Archipelago Greater Antilles Lesser Antilles All islands at some point were, and

2070-421: The 2004 Haitian coup d'état , the US were accused by CARICOM of arranging it to remove elected Haitian leader Jean-Bertrand Aristide. In 1965, 23,000 US troops were sent to the Dominican Republic to quash a local uprising against military rule (see Dominican Civil War ). President Lyndon Johnson had ordered the invasion to stem what he deemed to be a "Communist threat." However, the mission appeared ambiguous and

2160-606: The Caribbean . The Caribbean is sometimes considered alongside Latin America as a region. Generally, the Caribbean region is organized into 33 political entities , including 13 sovereign states , 12 dependencies , 7 overseas territories , and various disputed territories . From 15 December 1954 to 10 October 2010, there was a territory known as the Netherlands Antilles composed of five islands, all of which were Dutch dependencies. From 3 January 1958 to 31 May 1962, there

2250-682: The Cuban Revolution of 1959, relations deteriorated rapidly leading to the Bay of Pigs Invasion , the Cuban Missile Crisis , and successive US attempts to destabilize the island, based upon Cold War fears of the Soviet threat. The US invaded and occupied Hispaniola for 19 years (1915–34), subsequently dominating the Haitian economy through aid and loan repayments. The US invaded Haiti again in 1994 . After

2340-460: The Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico , while the more seasonal dry tropical savanna climates are found in Cuba , northern Colombia and Venezuela , and southern Yucatán, Mexico . Arid climates are found along the extreme northern coast of Venezuela out to the islands including Aruba and Curacao , as well as the northwestern tip of Yucatán. While the region generally is sunny much of

2430-624: The Indian subcontinent and Asia ; as well as modern immigration from around the world. The region takes its name from the Caribs , an ethnic group present in the Lesser Antilles and parts of adjacent South America at the time of the Spanish conquest of the Americas . The two most prevalent pronunciations of "Caribbean" outside the Caribbean are / ˌ k ær ɪ ˈ b iː ə n / ( KARR -ə- BEE -ən ), with

2520-697: The Monroe Doctrine , the United States gained a major influence on most Caribbean nations. In the early part of the 20th century this influence was extended by participation in the Banana Wars . Victory in the Spanish–American War and the signing of the Platt Amendment in 1901 ensured that the United States would have the right to interfere in Cuban political and economic affairs, militarily if necessary. After

2610-513: The Sicilian Mafia don) and participating in apolitical drug trafficking and racketeering in addition to political violence and political intimidation. These gangs became known as "Yardies," "posses", or "crews". Accounts of the association between Jamaican political factions and the rise of the Yardies are given in the factual books Ruthless by Geoff Small and Born Fi' Dead by Laurie Gunst. By

2700-790: The Turks and Caicos Islands , and the island of Barbados in the Lesser Antilles, are considered to be a part of the Caribbean despite not bordering the Caribbean Sea. All the islands in the Antilles , including the Lucayan Archipelago, form the West Indies , a term often interchangeable with the Caribbean . The archipelago of Bermuda is not part of the Caribbean, as it lies in the Sargasso Sea to

2790-527: The plantation system . [REDACTED] The oldest evidence of humans in the Caribbean is in southern Trinidad at Banwari Trace , where remains have been found from 7,000 years ago. These pre-ceramic sites, which belong to the Archaic (pre-ceramic) age, have been termed Ortoiroid . The earliest archaeological evidence of human settlement in Hispaniola dates to about 3600 BC, but the reliability of these finds

Yardie - Misplaced Pages Continue

2880-553: The 10–20 year range, while the imprisonments related to heroin use or possession range from 5–10 years. A number of authors have discussed race and the crack epidemic, including Memphis Black writer Demico Boothe, who spent 12 years in federal prison after being arrested for the first-time offense of selling crack cocaine at the age of 18, published the book, "Why Are So Many Black Men in Prison?" in 2007. Writer and lawyer Michelle Alexander 's book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in

2970-455: The 1950s in Trenchtown , Kingston, Jamaica , the government created social housing developments employing large public courtyards, and the courtyard areas soon became the hub of social and recreational activity in the crowded housing of Trenchtown. With increasing overcrowding and poverty, however, squatting and homelessness developed within the yards. Crime, drug abuse, and violence overran

3060-622: The 1980s crack epidemic. Investigating the lives and connections of Los Angeles crack dealers Ricky Ross , Oscar Danilo Blandón , and Norwin Meneses, Webb alleged that profits from these crack sales were funneled to the CIA-supported Contras. The United States Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General rejected Webb's claim that there was a "systematic effort by the CIA to protect

3150-461: The 1980s, a drop in government budgets resulted in less money being paid by political parties to their gangs of armed supporters. These political Yardie gangs thus increasingly turned to apolitical criminal activity, such as drug trafficking, to bring in income. At the same time, the Jamaican government severely cracked down on Yardie gangs and political violence in general, leading many so-called Yardie gangsters to immigrate abroad and establish gangs in

3240-562: The 1985–1986 National Narcotics Intelligence Consumers Committee Report, crack was available in Atlanta , Boston , Detroit , Kansas City , Miami , New York City , Newark , San Francisco , Seattle , St. Louis , Dallas , Denver , Minneapolis and Phoenix . In 1985, cocaine -related hospital emergencies rose by 12 percent, from 23,500 to 26,300. In 1986, these incidents increased 110 percent, from 26,300 to 55,200. Between 1984 and 1987, cocaine incidents increased to 94,000. By 1987, crack

3330-790: The Age of Colorblindness (2010) argues that punitive laws against drugs like crack cocaine adopted under the Reagan administration's war on drugs resulted in harsh social consequences, including large numbers of young Black men imprisoned for long sentences, the exacerbation of drug crime despite a decrease in illegal drug use in the United States, and increased police brutality against the Black community resulting in injury and death for many black men, women, and children. According to Alexander, society turned to racist criminal justice policies to avoid exhibiting obvious racism. She writes that, since African Americans were

3420-858: The Bahamas and the Leeward Islands ; the Island Caribs and Galibi in the Windward Islands; and the Ciboney in western Cuba. The Taínos are subdivided into Classic Taínos, who occupied Puerto Rico and part of Hispaniola; Western Taínos, who occupied the Bahamian archipelago, Cuba, Jamaica , and part of Hispaniola; and the Eastern Taínos, who occupied the northern Lesser Antilles . The southern Lesser Antilles, including Guadeloupe , Dominica , and Trinidad, were inhabited by both Carib-speaking and Arawak-speaking groups. Soon after Christopher Columbus came to

3510-482: The Black community also experienced a 20–100% increase in fetal death rates, low birth-weight babies, weapons arrests, and the number of children in foster care. A 2018 study found that the crack epidemic had long term consequences for crime, contributing to the doubling of the murder rate of young Black males soon after the start of the epidemic, and that the murder rate was still 70 percent higher 17 years after crack's arrival. The paper estimated that eight percent of

3600-626: The British Caribbean islands. Slavery was abolished first in the Dutch Empire in 1814. Spain abolished slavery in its empire in 1811, with the exceptions of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Santo Domingo. Slavery was not abolished in Cuba until 1886. Britain abolished the slave trade in 1807 , and slavery proper in 1833 . France abolished slavery in its colonies in 1848. The Caribbean was known for pirates , especially between 1640 and 1680. The term " buccaneer "

3690-594: The Caribbean itself, but according to the Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage , the most common pronunciation in Caribbean English stresses the first syllable instead, / ˈ k ær ɪ b i æ n / ( KARR -ih-bee-an ). The word "Caribbean" has multiple uses. Its principal ones are geographical and political. The Caribbean can also be expanded to include territories with strong cultural and historical connections to Africa, slavery , European colonisation and

Yardie - Misplaced Pages Continue

3780-685: The Caribbean region varies: Some islands in the region have relatively flat terrain of non-volcanic origin. These islands include Aruba (which has minor volcanic features), Curaçao , Barbados , Bonaire , the Cayman Islands , Saint Croix , the Bahamas , and Antigua . Others possess rugged towering mountain-ranges like the islands of Saint Martin , Cuba , Hispaniola , Puerto Rico , Jamaica , Dominica , Montserrat , Saba , Sint Eustatius , Saint Kitts , Saint Lucia , Saint Thomas , Saint John , Tortola , Grenada , Saint Vincent , Guadeloupe , Martinique and Trinidad and Tobago . Definitions of

3870-525: The Caribbean, both Portuguese and Spanish explorers began claiming territories in Central and South America. These early colonies brought gold to Europe; most specifically England, the Netherlands, and France. These nations hoped to establish profitable colonies in the Caribbean. Colonial rivalries made the Caribbean a cockpit for European wars for centuries. Columbus, and the early colonists of Hispaniola, treated

3960-531: The Dutch. Sea water was pumped into shallow ponds, producing coarse salt when the water evaporated. The natural environmental diversity of the Caribbean islands has led to recent growth in eco-tourism . This type of tourism is growing on islands lacking sandy beaches and dense human populations. Life expectancy in some countries of the Caribbean in 2022, according to estimation of the World Bank Group : At

4050-667: The Orinoco around 650 AD and another group, the Arauquinoid, expanded into these areas and up the Caribbean chain. Around 1300 AD a new group, the Mayoid, entered Trinidad and remained the dominant culture until Spanish settlement. At the time of the European discovery of most of the islands of the Caribbean, three major Amerindian indigenous peoples lived on the islands: the Taíno in the Greater Antilles ,

4140-432: The South American nation of Guyana , the only former British colony on the mainland of that continent. In addition, these countries share the University of the West Indies as a regional entity. The university consists of three main campuses in Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago, a smaller campus in the Bahamas and Resident Tutors in other contributing territories such as Trinidad. The Caribbean islands have one of

4230-621: The U.K. and U.S. would often refer to themselves and other Jamaicans as "yardies". "Yardie" may also more specifically apply to those Jamaicans originating in the impoverished "government yards" or courtyards of Jamaican public housing , and the term was eventually applied to criminals and gang members originating from these "yards." As the term "yard" in Jamaican Patois can also refer to a territory, turf, or piece of land, "yardie" further gained gang or criminal connotations as Jamaican gangs or criminals claimed certain "territories" or "turf" and referred to such territory as their "yards." Subsequently, in

4320-407: The U.K. and, to a lesser extent, North America , the term "Yardie" most frequently refers to gangsters or gangs of Jamaican origin, though these gang members themselves may refer to their gangs as "posses" or "crews." The term is especially common in the U.K. to describe Jamaican or British Jamaican organized crime groups and gangs, while "posse" has become the more common term in North America. In

4410-470: The U.K., U.S., and Canada. The establishment of Yardie gangs abroad coincided with the rise of crack cocaine in both North America and the U.K., and Yardie and Posse gangs from Jamaica became heavily involved in the trafficking of crack cocaine and other drugs, in addition to illegal gambling and other criminal activity. In 1948 the Labour government introduced the " British Nationality Act 1948 ", which came into effect in January 1949. This act introduced

4500-468: The U.S. Congress passed laws that created a 100 to 1 sentencing disparity for the possession or trafficking of crack when compared to penalties for powder cocaine , widely criticized as discriminatory against African-Americans and other racial minorities, who were more likely to use crack than powder cocaine. This 100:1 ratio was mandated by federal law in 1986. Persons convicted in federal court of possession of 5 grams of crack cocaine received

4590-442: The United States was landing in Miami , and originated in Colombia , trafficked through The Bahamas . Soon there was a huge glut of cocaine powder in these islands, which caused the price to drop by as much as 80 percent. Faced with dropping prices for their illegal product, drug dealers made a decision to convert the powder to "crack", a solid smokable form of cocaine, that could be sold in smaller quantities, to more people. It

SECTION 50

#1733086247028

4680-436: The United States, Britain, France and the Netherlands still have some Caribbean possessions . The decline of the export industries meant a need to diversify the economies of the Caribbean territories. The tourism industry started developing in the early 20th century, rapidly developing in the 1960s when regular international flights made vacations affordable and is now a $ 50 billion industry. Another industry that developed in

4770-414: The United States. Between the 1960s and 80s, most of the British holdings in the Caribbean achieved political independence, starting with Jamaica in 1962 , then Trinidad and Tobago (1962), British Guiana (1966), Barbados (1966), the Bahamas (1973), Grenada (1974), Dominica (1978), St. Lucia (1979), St. Vincent (1979), Antigua and Barbuda (1981), and St. Kitts and Nevis (1983). Presently,

4860-448: The United States. In cities with populations over 350,000 the instances of crack cocaine were twice as high as those in cities with a population less than 350,000. These indicators show that the use of crack cocaine was much higher in urban areas. States and regions with concentrated urban populations were affected at a much higher rate, while states with primarily rural populations were least affected. Maryland, New York and New Mexico had

4950-411: The coastal areas of the mainland, Belize , Panama , Guyana , Suriname , and French Guiana are often completely included within the Caribbean due to their strong political and cultural ties with the region. Geopolitically, the islands of the Caribbean are often regarded as a subregion of North America , though sometimes they are included in Middle America , or regarded as its own subregion as

5040-407: The drug trafficking activities of the Contras". The DOJ/OIG reported: "We found that Blandon and Meneses were plainly major drug traffickers who enriched themselves at the expense of countless drug users and the communities in which these drug users lived, just like other drug dealers of their magnitude. They also contributed some money to the Contra cause. But we did not find that their activities were

5130-448: The earlier foraging inhabitants—presumably through disease or violence—as they settled new islands." Between 400 BC and 200 BC, the first ceramic-using agriculturalists, the Saladoid culture , entered Trinidad from South America. They expanded up the Orinoco River to Trinidad, and then spread rapidly up the islands of the Caribbean. Some time after 250 AD another group, the Barancoid, entered Trinidad. The Barancoid society collapsed along

5220-432: The early 20th century was offshore banking and financial services , particularly in The Bahamas and the Cayman Islands , as the proximity of the Caribbean islands to North America made them an attractive location for branches of foreign banks seeking to avail themselves of less complicated regulations and lower tax rates. The United States has conducted military operations in the Caribbean for at least 100 years. Since

5310-434: The fall of addicts destroyed by the drug". The article said that freebase made its "strongest inroads" in the music industry of Los Angeles and at this time, in 1980, the similar crack form had just been starting (and in a few years would become predominant and also move to the East Coast and elsewhere). The article describes both the earlier free base method of purifying cocaine to make it smokable which started in 1974 and

5400-682: The first humans is correlated with extinction of giant owls and dwarf ground sloths . The hotspot contains dozens of highly threatened animals (ranging from birds, to mammals and reptiles), fungi and plants. Examples of threatened animals include the Puerto Rican amazon , two species of solenodon (giant shrews) in Cuba and the Hispaniola island, and the Cuban crocodile . The region's coral reefs, which contain about 70 species of hard corals and from 500 to 700 species of reef-associated fishes have undergone rapid decline in ecosystem integrity in recent years, and are considered particularly vulnerable to global warming and ocean acidification. According to

5490-409: The first republic in the Caribbean. Neighboring Santo Domingo (now Dominican Republic ) would attain its independence on three separate occasions in 1821, 1844 and 1865. Cuba became independent in 1898 following American intervention in the War of Independence during the Spanish-American war . Following the war, Spain's last colony in the Americas, Puerto Rico , became an unincorporated territory of

SECTION 60

#1733086247028

5580-544: The fringe of the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea just to the north of the island of Puerto Rico, is the deepest point in all of the Atlantic Ocean. The region sits in the line of several major shipping routes with the Panama Canal connecting the western Caribbean Sea with the Pacific Ocean. The climate of the area is tropical , varying from tropical rainforest in some areas to tropical monsoon and tropical savanna in others. There are also some locations that are arid climates with considerable drought in some years, and

5670-487: The highest instances of crack cocaine use, while Idaho, Minnesota and Vermont had the lowest instances of crack cocaine use. African American families were largely located in low-income inner city neighborhoods. This led to crack impacting African American communities far more than others. Between 1984 and 1989, the homicide rate for Black males aged 14 to 17 more than doubled, and the homicide rate for Black males aged 18 to 24 increased nearly as much. During this period,

5760-403: The indigenous peoples brutally, even enslaving children. In 1512, after pressure from Dominican friars, the Laws of Burgos were introduced by the Spanish Crown to better protect the rights of the New World natives. The Spanish used a form of slavery called the Encomienda , where slaves would be awarded to the conquistadors, who were charged with protecting and converting their slaves. This had

5850-431: The knowledge that values prior to 1985 are essentially zero. This index showed that the Northeast U.S. was most affected by the crack epidemic. The U.S. cities with the highest crack index were New York (especially the city's Washington Heights neighborhood), Newark and Philadelphia . The same index used by Fryer, Levitt and Murphy was then implemented in a study that investigated the effects of crack cocaine across

5940-606: The majority users of crack cocaine, it provided a platform for the government to create laws that were specific to crack. She claims that this was an effective way to imprison Black people without having to do the same to white Americans. Alexander writes that felony drug convictions for crack cocaine fell disproportionately on young Black men, who then lost access to voting, housing, and employment opportunities, which then led to increased violent crime in poor Black communities. Legal Scholar James Forman Jr. argues that though Alexander's book has value in focusing scholars (and society as

6030-486: The most diverse eco systems in the world. The animals, fungi and plants, and have been classified as one of Conservation International 's biodiversity hotspots because of their exceptionally diverse terrestrial and marine ecosystems, ranging from montane cloud forests , to tropical rainforest , to cactus scrublands . The region also contains about 8% (by surface area) of the world's coral reefs along with extensive seagrass meadows, both of which are frequently found in

6120-503: The murders in 2000 are due to the long-run effects of the emergence of crack markets, and that the elevated murder rates for young Black males can explain a significant part of the gap in life expectancy between black and white males. Crack cocaine use and distribution became popular in cities that were in a state of social and economic chaos such as New York, Los Angeles and Atlanta, and particularly in their low-income inner city neighborhoods with high African American concentrations. "As

6210-420: The newer but similar crack making process. Freebase was made by users who would combine cocaine with baking soda and water and then extract the base salt, "freeing it" with ammonia . This achieves a lower melting point and when heated with a lighter, the vapors are inhaled (but the substance was dangerously flammable). A less volatile but similar process was developed by dealers around 1980 where street cocaine

6300-505: The north, but it is an associate member of the Caribbean Community . On the continental mainland of the Americas , the Caribbean coasts of Mexico , Central America, and South America, including the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico, Bay Islands Department of Honduras, the North and South Caribbean Autonomous Regions of Nicaragua, the Limón Province of Costa Rica, Cartagena and Barranquilla in Colombia, Maracaibo and Cumaná in Venezuela, are considered part of Caribbean. As with

6390-466: The number of fungal species endemic to some Caribbean islands. For Cuba, 2200 species of fungi have been tentatively identified as possible endemics of the island; for Puerto Rico , the number is 789 species; for the Dominican Republic , the number is 699 species; for Trinidad and Tobago, the number is 407 species. Many of the ecosystems of the Caribbean islands have been devastated by deforestation , pollution, and human encroachment. The arrival of

6480-483: The peaks of mountains tend to have cooler temperate climates . Rainfall varies with elevation, size and water currents, such as the cool upwellings that keep the ABC islands arid. Warm, moist trade winds blow consistently from the east, creating both rain forest and semi arid climates across the region. The tropical rainforest climates include lowland areas near the Caribbean Sea from Costa Rica north to Belize , as well as

6570-643: The primary stress on the third syllable , and / k ə ˈ r ɪ b i ə n / ( kə- RIB -ee-ən ), with the stress on the second. Most authorities of the last century preferred the stress on the third syllable. This is the older of the two pronunciations, but the stressed-second-syllable variant has been established for over 75 years. It has been suggested that speakers of British English prefer / ˌ k ær ɪ ˈ b iː ə n / ( KARR -ə- BEE -ən ) while North American speakers more typically use / k ə ˈ r ɪ b i ə n / ( kə- RIB -ee-ən ), but major American dictionaries and other sources list

6660-551: The region's staple crop. Sugar was produced from sugarcane for export to Europe. Cuba and Barbados were historically the largest producers of sugar . The tropical plantation system thus came to dominate Caribbean settlement. Other islands were found to have terrain unsuited for agriculture , for example Dominica , which remains heavily forested. The islands in the southern Lesser Antilles , Aruba , Bonaire and Curaçao , are extremely arid, making them unsuitable for agriculture. However, they have salt pans that were exploited by

6750-413: The shallow marine waters bordering the island and continental coasts of the region. For the fungi, there is a modern checklist based on nearly 90,000 records derived from specimens in reference collections, published accounts and field observations. That checklist includes more than 11,250 species of fungi recorded from the region. As its authors note, the work is far from exhaustive, and it is likely that

6840-538: The status of "Citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies" (CUKC), essentially putting all residents within Britain's colonies on an equal footing with existing residents of the British Isles and gave every person within the British commonwealth the right to move to the UK, if they so wished. Within the Caribbean community, new arrivals from Jamaica were sometimes referred to as "Yardies" due to reference of Jamaica as "back

6930-570: The stress on the third syllable as more common in American English too. According to the American version of Oxford Online Dictionaries, the stress on the second syllable is becoming more common in UK English and is increasingly considered "by some" to be more up to date and more "correct". The Oxford Online Dictionaries claim the stress on the second syllable is the most common pronunciation in

7020-675: The terms Greater Antilles and Lesser Antilles often vary. The Virgin Islands as part of the Puerto Rican bank are sometimes included with the Greater Antilles. The term Lesser Antilles is often used to define an island arc that includes Grenada but excludes Trinidad and Tobago and the Leeward Antilles. The waters of the Caribbean Sea host large, migratory schools of fish, turtles, and coral reef formations. The Puerto Rico Trench , located on

7110-709: The time of European contact , the dominant ethnic groups in the Caribbean included the Taíno of the Greater Antilles and northern Lesser Antilles , the Island Caribs of the southern Lesser Antilles, and smaller distinct groups such as the Guanajatabey of western Cuba and the Ciguayo of eastern Hispaniola. The population of the Caribbean is estimated to have been around 750,000 immediately before European contact, although lower and higher figures are given. After contact, social disruption and epidemic diseases such as smallpox and measles (to which they had no natural immunity) led to

7200-538: The traditional beliefs about pre-Columbian indigenous history. According to National Geographic , "studies confirm that a wave of pottery-making farmers—known as Ceramic Age people—set out in canoes from the northeastern coast of South America starting some 2,500 years ago and island-hopped across the Caribbean. They were not, however, the first colonizers. On many islands they encountered a foraging people who arrived some 6,000 or 7,000 years ago...The ceramicists, who are related to today's Arawak -speaking peoples, supplanted

7290-411: The true total number of fungal species already known from the Caribbean is higher. The true total number of fungal species occurring in the Caribbean, including species not yet recorded, is likely far higher given the generally accepted estimate that only about 7% of all fungi worldwide have been discovered. Though the amount of available information is still small, a first effort has been made to estimate

7380-498: The west of Barbados. The principal hurricane belt arcs to northwest of the island of Barbados in the Eastern Caribbean. A great example being recent events of Hurricane Irma devastating the island of Saint Martin during the 2017 hurricane season. Sea surface temperatures change little annually, normally running from 30 °C (87 °F) in the warmest months to 26 °C (76 °F) in the coolest months. The air temperature

7470-484: The wet and dry seasons. Seasonally, monthly mean temperatures vary from only about 5 C (7 F) in the northern most regions, to less than 3 C in the southernmost areas of the Caribbean. Hurricane season is from June to November, but they occur more frequently in August and September and more common in the northern islands of the Caribbean. Hurricanes that sometimes batter the region usually strike northwards of Grenada and to

7560-494: The yards, while political corruption and clientelism led to local politicians buying and selling patronage within the community and paying gangs and violent political supporters to intimidate voters and threaten, assault, or kill political opponents. By the 1970s and 1980s, political violence and politically-affiliated organized crime groups and street gangs became increasingly common in poorer areas of Jamaica, with gangs often led by older bosses known as " dons " (in reference to

7650-419: The year, the wet season from May through November sees more frequent cloud cover (both broken and overcast), while the dry season from December through April is more often clear to mostly sunny. Seasonal rainfall is divided into 'dry' and 'wet' seasons, with the latter six months of the year being wetter than the first half. The air temperature is hot much of the year, varying from 25 to 33 C (77 F to 90 F) between

7740-438: Was a surge of crack cocaine use in major cities across the United States throughout the entirety of the 1980s and the early 1990s. This resulted in a number of social consequences, such as increasing crime and violence in American inner city neighborhoods, a resulting backlash in the form of tough on crime policies, and a massive spike in incarceration rates . In the early 1980s, the majority of cocaine being shipped to

7830-554: Was also a short-lived political union called the British West Indies Federation composed of ten English-speaking Caribbean territories, all of which were then British dependencies. The modern Caribbean is one of the most ethnically diverse regions on the planet, as a result of colonization by the Spanish , English , Dutch , and French ; the Atlantic slave trade from Sub-Saharan Africa ; indentured servitude from

7920-496: Was cheap, simple to produce, ready to use, and highly profitable for dealers to develop. As early as 1981, reports of crack were appearing in Los Angeles , Oakland , Chicago , New York , Miami , Houston , and in the Caribbean . The word "crack" may have first appeared in a media publication in the sub-headline of a Rolling Stone article on May 1, 1980, titled "Freebase: A Treacherous Obsession: The rise of crack cocaine and

8010-499: Was reported to be available in the District of Columbia and all but four states in the United States. Some scholars have cited the crack "epidemic" as an example of a moral panic , noting that the explosion in use and trafficking of the drug actually occurred after the media coverage of the drug as an "epidemic". In a study done by Roland Fryer , Steven Levitt , and Kevin Murphy ,

8100-474: Was roundly condemned throughout the hemisphere as a return to gunboat diplomacy . In 1983, the US invaded Grenada to remove populist left-wing leader Maurice Bishop. The US maintains a naval military base in Cuba at Guantanamo Bay . The base is one of five unified commands whose "area of responsibility" is Latin America and the Caribbean. The command is headquartered in Miami, Florida. The geography and climate in

#27972