Show Notes
In 1998, police detained Donald "Zeeks" Phipps. Supporters surrounded the Central Police Station and downtown Kingston was thrown into days of unrest in which four people, including two police officers, were killed. Then police brought Zeeks onto a balcony and handed him a bullhorn. He told the crowd to leave, and they left.
Episode 2 of Jamaican Don of All Dons weighs Zeeks's claim. Not an extradition battle or an overseas empire, but something more local: the ability to command loyalty in one section of downtown Kingston, where Matthews Lane became his name and his name became Matthews Lane. We look at what that loyalty was made of, and why visible support in a community run by an armed authority can mean several things at once.
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