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Death Postponed: Shot five times, 'Trinity' Gardner fights on
BY HG HELPS Editor-at-Large [email protected]
Sunday, May 20, 2012
This is the 14th in a series of close encounters with death by Jamaicans, some of them in prominent positions of society. HIS nickname, taken from the 1970s western, They called me Trinity, with movie stars Terence Hill and Bud Spencer, has stuck to him for eternity.
However, when Keith Michael Douglas Gardner graduated from Kingston College in 1971 and returned to his alma mater right after to work as a laboratory technician in the biology department, little did he know that he would eventually become one of the most feared policemen in the 147-year history of the Jamaica Constabulary Force.
GARDNER… says the ‘Trinity’ image came with the kind of policing at the time — a wanton disregard for his own safety
1/3
That fearsome tag carried its share of dangers with it though, for Gardner has been shot five times — most of them in combat with ruthless law-breakers — and has escaped death on countless other occasions.
Now, the assistant commissioner of police, who is on secondment to the University of the West Indies (UWI) as its director of security, is basking in the twilight of his career — a career that will be captured in words with the publishing of his autobiography soon.
That book will, among other things, chronicle the many gunbattles and close shaves that he faced and note how he managed to survive to tell the tales.
When 'Trinity' joined the force in July 1972, his initial posting was St Elizabeth, but he wanted to come back to Kingston, so he exchanged postings with a fellow named Rodriquez and went to Hunt's Bay. It was September 1973 and at that time Gardner immersed himself in some aggressive policing.
"It was not that I really wanted the 'Trinity' image, but it came with the kind of policing at the time — a wanton disregard for your own safety," he said.
Ironically, the first time he was shot, it was by another policeman.
"The first time I got shot was in 1974 along Bay Farm Road in the vicinity of Olympic Way. It was an accidental shooting," Gardner told the Sunday Observer in an interview at his UWI office last week.
"I was on patrol with Special Sergeant Blair, attached to Hunt's Bay CIB. While we were driving, we saw a woman with one of those old Singer sewing machine oil cans. I said to her 'it's a long time my gun don't oil, lend me let me put some on it.'
"Mr Blair said he wanted to oil his too, so he 'cocked' the fully loaded revolver, put a few drops in it. But not being experienced, he didn't know that he should use the thumb and pull back the hammer and slowly squeeze the trigger and release it. He felt that the only way he could 'uncock' the gun was to squeeze the trigger, so I was accidentally shot in the right leg," said Gardner.
By April 1976, the 'Trinity' image had taken hold. One morning around 11 o'clock, while coming from the Half-Way-Tree courthouse with another policeman, Gardner, riding a 354 motorcycle — the most powerful motorcycles around at the time — spotted a wanted man.
"We reached the intersection of Hagley Park Road and Waltham Park Road and saw a guy from Rhoden Crescent called 'Scatta', a wanted man, who was riding another 354 bike. His pillion was a guy from Tivoli called 'Baskin', so I decided to take up the chase at high speed down Waltham Park Road. As we were riding, the pillion just came from between his legs and fired a volley of shots. We couldn't have been more than 50 feet away. Before we knew it, we were literally thrown off the motorcycle, because I was hit in the right leg again and the bullet entered from the interior of my leg, came through my buttocks and lodged in the other policeman. The force of that threw us off the bike, so we crashed and we were eventually taken to the KPH. Damage was done to my sciatic nerve, so I lost 25 per cent ability in the right leg," Gardner said.
Of the five times that he has been shot, two incidents remain firmly etched in his mind. One was in 1978 in the South St Andrew community of Wilton Gardens (Rema). However, the Rema incident came on the heels of an equally horrific one in the volatile East Kingston community of Wareika Hills.
"In 1978 we held a member of the notorious 'Copper' gang in August Town, where violence was flaring up. We had been sent to establish the August Town Police Station, at that time it was just like a tent.
"I was assigned to Squad 103, the commissioner's famous or infamous squad which was set up on the anniversary of Copper's escape from prison. They had caught one of these gang members and we started a long trek through Long Mountain up to Wareika in search of the others, because this guy was one of the 'send-outs' (lookouts) for the gang.
"We were a party of about 13 policemen and when we were approaching a cave, we heard voices and believed that we had everything covered, so we decided to approach the cave. Before you knew it, there was a barrage of gunshots and it marked one of the longest ever shootouts.
"At the end of the day, all the fellows escaped, although it turned out that one of them had got shot. I was shot in three places — in the right leg again, and my face was fractured in multiple places and my right hand. I was a sergeant at the time and one of the policemen said 'bwoy Sarge, them guys coming back, we can't stay here'."
Armed with a 9mm pistol and a 303 rifle, two of the 13 policemen stayed with the injured and immobile Gardner, while the others trekked down to Mountain View Avenue and summoned assistance. All three were later airlifted out of the area.
"The closest that I have come to death occurred that same year," Gardner pointed out.
"I was still recovering from the Wareika Hills incident and the first day back on duty I went to Hunt's Bay Police Station.
"A Constable Green and I had gone to Hunt's Bay to look about some prisoners in custody. We were driving a marked police vehicle back through Trench Town. By the time we reached Fourth Street in the vicinity of an old train, I saw a guy walking with a gun in his hand. The guy looked in our direction and ran off.
"He ran into a four-storey building and we gave chase. I had not recovered fully from the effects of the bullet in the right leg, but we started kicking off doors from the ground floor. Of course, nobody saw anything.
"When we reached the third floor and kicked off this door, I was staring down the barrel of a gun. The irony is that I could not kick off the door with my injured right foot, so I stood on the right foot, turned my back to the door, which was a stupid thing to do, and used the left foot to back heel the door.
"In turning around it was a barrage of gunshots, one of which hit me in the right arm and another hit me on the right side of the face, completely taking out four teeth, almost completely severed the tongue, and coming out of the right side of the face. It was like being hit with a sledge hammer.
"Poor Green got shot in the gut. He panicked and jumped from the third floor. I went downstairs, still under heavy gunfire, picked up Green, put him inside the car and barely made it to the KPH where I had to undergo reconstructive surgery. Dr Lyn, I can't forget him, saved my life and I still have a human face.
"The joke is that I was almost at the point of passing out at KPH when this guy came into the hospital wanting to take my gun from me. I was on the brink of unconsciousness and I had to grab the gun and point it in his face and he beat a hasty retreat," Gardner recalled.
An incident close to his house along Mona Road again threatened to cut his life on Earth short.
He had enrolled in a Bachelor's degree programme at the UWI, where he had begun to re-examine the issue of policing and was heading home from a class one night when his motorcar developed mechanical problems.
"I was a student and started to de-emphasise the carrying of guns, but there was this particular night that I decided to carry my gun. I was armed to the teeth with lots of ammunition, about four or five spare magazines."
This turned out to be fortunate for him as while he was checking the vehicle, he was pounced on by a group of men who were on a robbery spree.
"I wear absolutely no jewellery now, not even a watch since then. At the time of the incident I had a very expensive chain, bracelet, and diamond ring and when I stopped to check the vehicle, the next thing I saw was a Toyota Corolla coming up the road and almost spontaneously, four men came out of the vehicle, all brandishing guns, and every gun was pointed at me, as one of them shouted, 'don't move'... Intuitively, I went for my waist and then a barrage of shots followed."
In a jiffy, the night turned to day on Mona Road as gunfire lit up the sky.
"I fell on my back and the men felt that I had got hit. The clip that I had was an extended magazine. It was like a movie, like Christmas, because all four were firing and I was firing back. My thing was death before dishonour.
"The closest of the four was almost over me. The left front door of my car was open and it was through the door that I hit him, so they started to retreat. It turned out that I got shot in my right foot again. When you get shot sometimes, you don't know immediately, you don't feel pain, even when your bone is broken, because the time that I got shot in Rema, I didn't realise that I had got shot in my right hand. It was long after I went to hospital that I realised," Gardner stated.
The drama continued at the KPH, as one of the wounded men turned up, saying that he had been shot.
"Some people took me to the hospital and one of the guys — who was standing close to me during the shooting and was wearing a black Bob Marley T-shirt with a big spliff emblazoned on it and a short jeans pants — came in after me.
"I saw the guy walk in dressed same way, he came in with his mother and sister, and by that time a small group of policemen had come onto the scene. We went to him eventually and asked him how he got shot. He said that he was on Barbican Road and some men came up to him and asked him some questions and because he never answered them right, they shot him.
"We asked him where he was when he was shot and he said he was standing. By this time the doctor came up with the X-ray.
"There was no doubt in my mind that he was the person, but you were developing your case. When the doctor came and held up the X-ray, the trajectory of the bullet was upward, which indicates clearly that he was shot from a position below.
"I said to him, 'you got shot on Mona Road, you and me were involved in a shootout.' So we started interviewing him and he started to tell me that he is from Grant's Pen Road and he was rolling with some guys and he said if they knew that I was a policeman they wouldn't have given me a chance. So I said, 'Oh, is a chance me get'."
Gardner later found out two of the crooks had been on a bike and deliberately ran into the back of a woman's car on Washington Boulevard. She got out of the vehicle and they held her at gunpoint and took her car.
They started their robbery spree from Waterloo Road by holding up a security guard, relieving him of his gun, and ended up Mona Road and in Trinity's line of sight.
The injured shooter, Gardner said, was firmly pegged in the courts, based on the case 'Trinity' built.
"It was possibly the easiest trial when he faced the court. The scientific evidence was incontrovertible. The bullet they took from him matched my gun exactly, so he pleaded guilty and he was sentenced to three years in prison. He left and went to England where reports say that he was shot and killed over there, just like how Baskin and others were shot and killed, maybe not at my hand, or other policemen's hands. The guy that shot me in Rema was shot and killed in a blazing gunbattle with police officers and that was a really blazing gunbattle. I was in hospital when that happened. Most of them died overseas, because they became fugitives," Gardner said.
In another incident, he was almost shot by a man whom he had detained.
"One day in 1974 I was taking this guy to Hunt's Bay Police Station, but never searched him properly, and when we reached the station he broke away and I was in hot pursuit. I had no gun and the guy went down in his crotch and came up with a chrome .38 revolver and right in front of the station he opened fire. I can't tell how close those bullets came to my head."
He said critics of his style of policing just don't understand what cops in Jamaica face on the job.
"It is ironic that at that time there were some adverse comments by certain groups within Jamaica about the number of people that we shot, and they would never understand the level and the extent to which you engage criminal elements at the time. They were quite ruthless and very organised and Jamaica will never know and understand the debt of gratitude that they owe to the 'Trinities' across Jamaica. I cannot understand why, after so many encounters, I never gave up, and even at this stage I haven't given up."
The adventures of the man called 'Trinity' were never to cease, even while he travelled on missions overseas.
"Even in the African country of Namibia where I had gone as part of a peacekeeping squad between 1989 and 1990, I came under pressure.
"One day we were on the Angolan border monitoring the South West Africa police, because they were accused of victimisation and intimidation of the people. The area is so vast, we were on this patrol behind the South West African police in an armoured tank and before we knew it, about 50 rebels surrounded the patrol with anti-tank weapons. They crouched on hands and knees, ready to take out the patrol.
"It was a serious thing, but reggae music saved the day. Before that incident I had come back to Jamaica to see my family and saw how much the people down there loved reggae music, so I took back quite a few records and memorabilia.
"Through the tense moments when everything was at a standstill, I got out of the armoured car and started giving out some Bob Marley buttons and tried to explain that we were there to monitor the election arrangements. Before you know it, tensions cooled. If one of those men had fired one of those anti-tank weapons it would have been serious. For that move, we got commended by the United Nations," Gardner said.
Day-to-day crime-fighting was not the only thing that exposed Gardner to danger as a stint as chief bodyguard to former Prime Minister Edward Seaga, and his tenure as head of the police traffic department, were equally challenging.
"Being bodyguard to Seaga was a transformation, because I had to make the transition from frontline policing to become a close protection professional, and that was an exciting period between 1980 and 1989," he said.
"When it came down to security matters, Seaga was a man who listened to you. If you tell him what was expected of him, in terms of being the principal, you tell him what side of the car to sit, he would, and he was curious about those things.
"When you talk about close protection, if the Caribbean wants to know what that was all about, just look at the era when Seaga was prime minister, just look at how his security functioned. It was a professional thing, because we were trained by the (US) State Department and we trained in executive driving techniques, etc.
He also received specialist training in bomb disposal, traffic management, criminal investigation.
"I now have to be responsible as the repository of all of this knowledge. I can't pass the kind of knowledge and information that I have to just any policeman, given what is happening. There is a need to convey some of this and pass on this information, but you have to know who you are passing it on to, because you have to choose responsibly."
He explained that guarding the prime minister meant softenening the persona of 'Trinity', who had such a fearsome reputation then.
"Whatever you did and it was controversial, it would impact negatively on the Office of the Prime Minister. So by then I had all but finished with that sort of thing," he said.
Gardner has also been dogged by controversy throughout his career, being accused by both Jamaica Labour Party and People's National Party officials of improper conduct.
"Seaga complained to then Police Commissioner Basil Robinson that I was firing shots at citizens in Tivoli Gardens, something that was not true," he said.
Another report to the police hierarchy that he had fired shots while former Prime Minister Michael Manley was touring a community turned out not to be so, he said, as at the time he was in bed suffering from bronchial pneumonia. The controversy nonetheless saw him being transferred from Kingston to Manchester.
In 1990, after returning from Africa, Gardner went back to Half-Way-Tree as an officer, regaining his street 'creds' and his notoriety when he went to the traffic department.
"People then asked why I wasn't brandishing a gun," Gardner said.
"Traffic is challenging because people who break the Road Traffic Act don't see themselves as criminals and resent being treated as such. So uniformed policemen engaged in traffic management are even more powerful than the crime fighters, because you can stop almost anybody at any time, within reason. It was exciting," he said.
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Shot...2#ixzz1vRwno7bX
BY HG HELPS Editor-at-Large [email protected]
Sunday, May 20, 2012
This is the 14th in a series of close encounters with death by Jamaicans, some of them in prominent positions of society. HIS nickname, taken from the 1970s western, They called me Trinity, with movie stars Terence Hill and Bud Spencer, has stuck to him for eternity.
However, when Keith Michael Douglas Gardner graduated from Kingston College in 1971 and returned to his alma mater right after to work as a laboratory technician in the biology department, little did he know that he would eventually become one of the most feared policemen in the 147-year history of the Jamaica Constabulary Force.
GARDNER… says the ‘Trinity’ image came with the kind of policing at the time — a wanton disregard for his own safety
1/3
That fearsome tag carried its share of dangers with it though, for Gardner has been shot five times — most of them in combat with ruthless law-breakers — and has escaped death on countless other occasions.
Now, the assistant commissioner of police, who is on secondment to the University of the West Indies (UWI) as its director of security, is basking in the twilight of his career — a career that will be captured in words with the publishing of his autobiography soon.
That book will, among other things, chronicle the many gunbattles and close shaves that he faced and note how he managed to survive to tell the tales.
When 'Trinity' joined the force in July 1972, his initial posting was St Elizabeth, but he wanted to come back to Kingston, so he exchanged postings with a fellow named Rodriquez and went to Hunt's Bay. It was September 1973 and at that time Gardner immersed himself in some aggressive policing.
"It was not that I really wanted the 'Trinity' image, but it came with the kind of policing at the time — a wanton disregard for your own safety," he said.
Ironically, the first time he was shot, it was by another policeman.
"The first time I got shot was in 1974 along Bay Farm Road in the vicinity of Olympic Way. It was an accidental shooting," Gardner told the Sunday Observer in an interview at his UWI office last week.
"I was on patrol with Special Sergeant Blair, attached to Hunt's Bay CIB. While we were driving, we saw a woman with one of those old Singer sewing machine oil cans. I said to her 'it's a long time my gun don't oil, lend me let me put some on it.'
"Mr Blair said he wanted to oil his too, so he 'cocked' the fully loaded revolver, put a few drops in it. But not being experienced, he didn't know that he should use the thumb and pull back the hammer and slowly squeeze the trigger and release it. He felt that the only way he could 'uncock' the gun was to squeeze the trigger, so I was accidentally shot in the right leg," said Gardner.
By April 1976, the 'Trinity' image had taken hold. One morning around 11 o'clock, while coming from the Half-Way-Tree courthouse with another policeman, Gardner, riding a 354 motorcycle — the most powerful motorcycles around at the time — spotted a wanted man.
"We reached the intersection of Hagley Park Road and Waltham Park Road and saw a guy from Rhoden Crescent called 'Scatta', a wanted man, who was riding another 354 bike. His pillion was a guy from Tivoli called 'Baskin', so I decided to take up the chase at high speed down Waltham Park Road. As we were riding, the pillion just came from between his legs and fired a volley of shots. We couldn't have been more than 50 feet away. Before we knew it, we were literally thrown off the motorcycle, because I was hit in the right leg again and the bullet entered from the interior of my leg, came through my buttocks and lodged in the other policeman. The force of that threw us off the bike, so we crashed and we were eventually taken to the KPH. Damage was done to my sciatic nerve, so I lost 25 per cent ability in the right leg," Gardner said.
Of the five times that he has been shot, two incidents remain firmly etched in his mind. One was in 1978 in the South St Andrew community of Wilton Gardens (Rema). However, the Rema incident came on the heels of an equally horrific one in the volatile East Kingston community of Wareika Hills.
"In 1978 we held a member of the notorious 'Copper' gang in August Town, where violence was flaring up. We had been sent to establish the August Town Police Station, at that time it was just like a tent.
"I was assigned to Squad 103, the commissioner's famous or infamous squad which was set up on the anniversary of Copper's escape from prison. They had caught one of these gang members and we started a long trek through Long Mountain up to Wareika in search of the others, because this guy was one of the 'send-outs' (lookouts) for the gang.
"We were a party of about 13 policemen and when we were approaching a cave, we heard voices and believed that we had everything covered, so we decided to approach the cave. Before you knew it, there was a barrage of gunshots and it marked one of the longest ever shootouts.
"At the end of the day, all the fellows escaped, although it turned out that one of them had got shot. I was shot in three places — in the right leg again, and my face was fractured in multiple places and my right hand. I was a sergeant at the time and one of the policemen said 'bwoy Sarge, them guys coming back, we can't stay here'."
Armed with a 9mm pistol and a 303 rifle, two of the 13 policemen stayed with the injured and immobile Gardner, while the others trekked down to Mountain View Avenue and summoned assistance. All three were later airlifted out of the area.
"The closest that I have come to death occurred that same year," Gardner pointed out.
"I was still recovering from the Wareika Hills incident and the first day back on duty I went to Hunt's Bay Police Station.
"A Constable Green and I had gone to Hunt's Bay to look about some prisoners in custody. We were driving a marked police vehicle back through Trench Town. By the time we reached Fourth Street in the vicinity of an old train, I saw a guy walking with a gun in his hand. The guy looked in our direction and ran off.
"He ran into a four-storey building and we gave chase. I had not recovered fully from the effects of the bullet in the right leg, but we started kicking off doors from the ground floor. Of course, nobody saw anything.
"When we reached the third floor and kicked off this door, I was staring down the barrel of a gun. The irony is that I could not kick off the door with my injured right foot, so I stood on the right foot, turned my back to the door, which was a stupid thing to do, and used the left foot to back heel the door.
"In turning around it was a barrage of gunshots, one of which hit me in the right arm and another hit me on the right side of the face, completely taking out four teeth, almost completely severed the tongue, and coming out of the right side of the face. It was like being hit with a sledge hammer.
"Poor Green got shot in the gut. He panicked and jumped from the third floor. I went downstairs, still under heavy gunfire, picked up Green, put him inside the car and barely made it to the KPH where I had to undergo reconstructive surgery. Dr Lyn, I can't forget him, saved my life and I still have a human face.
"The joke is that I was almost at the point of passing out at KPH when this guy came into the hospital wanting to take my gun from me. I was on the brink of unconsciousness and I had to grab the gun and point it in his face and he beat a hasty retreat," Gardner recalled.
An incident close to his house along Mona Road again threatened to cut his life on Earth short.
He had enrolled in a Bachelor's degree programme at the UWI, where he had begun to re-examine the issue of policing and was heading home from a class one night when his motorcar developed mechanical problems.
"I was a student and started to de-emphasise the carrying of guns, but there was this particular night that I decided to carry my gun. I was armed to the teeth with lots of ammunition, about four or five spare magazines."
This turned out to be fortunate for him as while he was checking the vehicle, he was pounced on by a group of men who were on a robbery spree.
"I wear absolutely no jewellery now, not even a watch since then. At the time of the incident I had a very expensive chain, bracelet, and diamond ring and when I stopped to check the vehicle, the next thing I saw was a Toyota Corolla coming up the road and almost spontaneously, four men came out of the vehicle, all brandishing guns, and every gun was pointed at me, as one of them shouted, 'don't move'... Intuitively, I went for my waist and then a barrage of shots followed."
In a jiffy, the night turned to day on Mona Road as gunfire lit up the sky.
"I fell on my back and the men felt that I had got hit. The clip that I had was an extended magazine. It was like a movie, like Christmas, because all four were firing and I was firing back. My thing was death before dishonour.
"The closest of the four was almost over me. The left front door of my car was open and it was through the door that I hit him, so they started to retreat. It turned out that I got shot in my right foot again. When you get shot sometimes, you don't know immediately, you don't feel pain, even when your bone is broken, because the time that I got shot in Rema, I didn't realise that I had got shot in my right hand. It was long after I went to hospital that I realised," Gardner stated.
The drama continued at the KPH, as one of the wounded men turned up, saying that he had been shot.
"Some people took me to the hospital and one of the guys — who was standing close to me during the shooting and was wearing a black Bob Marley T-shirt with a big spliff emblazoned on it and a short jeans pants — came in after me.
"I saw the guy walk in dressed same way, he came in with his mother and sister, and by that time a small group of policemen had come onto the scene. We went to him eventually and asked him how he got shot. He said that he was on Barbican Road and some men came up to him and asked him some questions and because he never answered them right, they shot him.
"We asked him where he was when he was shot and he said he was standing. By this time the doctor came up with the X-ray.
"There was no doubt in my mind that he was the person, but you were developing your case. When the doctor came and held up the X-ray, the trajectory of the bullet was upward, which indicates clearly that he was shot from a position below.
"I said to him, 'you got shot on Mona Road, you and me were involved in a shootout.' So we started interviewing him and he started to tell me that he is from Grant's Pen Road and he was rolling with some guys and he said if they knew that I was a policeman they wouldn't have given me a chance. So I said, 'Oh, is a chance me get'."
Gardner later found out two of the crooks had been on a bike and deliberately ran into the back of a woman's car on Washington Boulevard. She got out of the vehicle and they held her at gunpoint and took her car.
They started their robbery spree from Waterloo Road by holding up a security guard, relieving him of his gun, and ended up Mona Road and in Trinity's line of sight.
The injured shooter, Gardner said, was firmly pegged in the courts, based on the case 'Trinity' built.
"It was possibly the easiest trial when he faced the court. The scientific evidence was incontrovertible. The bullet they took from him matched my gun exactly, so he pleaded guilty and he was sentenced to three years in prison. He left and went to England where reports say that he was shot and killed over there, just like how Baskin and others were shot and killed, maybe not at my hand, or other policemen's hands. The guy that shot me in Rema was shot and killed in a blazing gunbattle with police officers and that was a really blazing gunbattle. I was in hospital when that happened. Most of them died overseas, because they became fugitives," Gardner said.
In another incident, he was almost shot by a man whom he had detained.
"One day in 1974 I was taking this guy to Hunt's Bay Police Station, but never searched him properly, and when we reached the station he broke away and I was in hot pursuit. I had no gun and the guy went down in his crotch and came up with a chrome .38 revolver and right in front of the station he opened fire. I can't tell how close those bullets came to my head."
He said critics of his style of policing just don't understand what cops in Jamaica face on the job.
"It is ironic that at that time there were some adverse comments by certain groups within Jamaica about the number of people that we shot, and they would never understand the level and the extent to which you engage criminal elements at the time. They were quite ruthless and very organised and Jamaica will never know and understand the debt of gratitude that they owe to the 'Trinities' across Jamaica. I cannot understand why, after so many encounters, I never gave up, and even at this stage I haven't given up."
The adventures of the man called 'Trinity' were never to cease, even while he travelled on missions overseas.
"Even in the African country of Namibia where I had gone as part of a peacekeeping squad between 1989 and 1990, I came under pressure.
"One day we were on the Angolan border monitoring the South West Africa police, because they were accused of victimisation and intimidation of the people. The area is so vast, we were on this patrol behind the South West African police in an armoured tank and before we knew it, about 50 rebels surrounded the patrol with anti-tank weapons. They crouched on hands and knees, ready to take out the patrol.
"It was a serious thing, but reggae music saved the day. Before that incident I had come back to Jamaica to see my family and saw how much the people down there loved reggae music, so I took back quite a few records and memorabilia.
"Through the tense moments when everything was at a standstill, I got out of the armoured car and started giving out some Bob Marley buttons and tried to explain that we were there to monitor the election arrangements. Before you know it, tensions cooled. If one of those men had fired one of those anti-tank weapons it would have been serious. For that move, we got commended by the United Nations," Gardner said.
Day-to-day crime-fighting was not the only thing that exposed Gardner to danger as a stint as chief bodyguard to former Prime Minister Edward Seaga, and his tenure as head of the police traffic department, were equally challenging.
"Being bodyguard to Seaga was a transformation, because I had to make the transition from frontline policing to become a close protection professional, and that was an exciting period between 1980 and 1989," he said.
"When it came down to security matters, Seaga was a man who listened to you. If you tell him what was expected of him, in terms of being the principal, you tell him what side of the car to sit, he would, and he was curious about those things.
"When you talk about close protection, if the Caribbean wants to know what that was all about, just look at the era when Seaga was prime minister, just look at how his security functioned. It was a professional thing, because we were trained by the (US) State Department and we trained in executive driving techniques, etc.
He also received specialist training in bomb disposal, traffic management, criminal investigation.
"I now have to be responsible as the repository of all of this knowledge. I can't pass the kind of knowledge and information that I have to just any policeman, given what is happening. There is a need to convey some of this and pass on this information, but you have to know who you are passing it on to, because you have to choose responsibly."
He explained that guarding the prime minister meant softenening the persona of 'Trinity', who had such a fearsome reputation then.
"Whatever you did and it was controversial, it would impact negatively on the Office of the Prime Minister. So by then I had all but finished with that sort of thing," he said.
Gardner has also been dogged by controversy throughout his career, being accused by both Jamaica Labour Party and People's National Party officials of improper conduct.
"Seaga complained to then Police Commissioner Basil Robinson that I was firing shots at citizens in Tivoli Gardens, something that was not true," he said.
Another report to the police hierarchy that he had fired shots while former Prime Minister Michael Manley was touring a community turned out not to be so, he said, as at the time he was in bed suffering from bronchial pneumonia. The controversy nonetheless saw him being transferred from Kingston to Manchester.
In 1990, after returning from Africa, Gardner went back to Half-Way-Tree as an officer, regaining his street 'creds' and his notoriety when he went to the traffic department.
"People then asked why I wasn't brandishing a gun," Gardner said.
"Traffic is challenging because people who break the Road Traffic Act don't see themselves as criminals and resent being treated as such. So uniformed policemen engaged in traffic management are even more powerful than the crime fighters, because you can stop almost anybody at any time, within reason. It was exciting," he said.
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Shot...2#ixzz1vRwno7bX
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