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Yardie

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other uses, seeYardie (disambiguation).

Yardie(orYaadi/Yawdie) is a term often used, particularly within theCaribbeanexpatriate andJamaican diaspora,to refer to people ofJamaicanorigin, though its exact meaning changes depending on context. The term is derived from theJamaican patoisfor “home” or "yard".[1]The term may have specifically originated from the crowded "government yards"of two-storeygovernment-fundedconcrete homes found inKingstonand inhabited by poorer Jamaican residents, though "yard" can also refer to "home" or "turf" in general in Jamaican patois.[2]

Outside of Jamaica, "yardies" is often used to refer to Jamaicangangsororganized crimegroups 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 inNorth Americaand "Yardies" being used more frequently in theUnited Kingdom.[3]Yardie gangs or Jamaican "posses" are involved in a wide array of criminal activity depending on their location, ranging frompolitical corruption,political violence,andassassinationin Jamaica todrug traffickingandgang violencein the US, Canada, and UK.[2][4]

Etymology and usage[edit]

Derived fromJamaican Patois,the term "yardie" can be ambiguous, having multiple meanings depending on context.[3]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 the U.K. and U.S. would often refer to themselves and other Jamaicans as "yardies".[3]"Yardie" may also more specifically apply to those Jamaicans originating in the impoverished "government yards" or courtyards of Jamaicanpublic housing,and the term was eventually applied to criminals and gang members originating from these "yards."[2][5]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."[3]Subsequently, in 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."[3][6]The term is especially common in the U.K. to describe Jamaican orBritish Jamaicanorganized crime groups and gangs, while "posse" has become the more common term in North America.[2][3]

Origins of "Yardie" organized crime groups[edit]

In the 1950s inTrenchtown,Kingston, Jamaica,the government createdsocial housingdevelopments 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,squattingandhomelessnessdeveloped within the yards. Crime, drug abuse, and violence overran the yards, while political corruption andclientelismled 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.[7]

By the 1970s and 1980s,political violenceand 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 theSicilian Mafiadon) and participating in apolitical drug trafficking andracketeeringin addition to political violence and political intimidation.[2]These gangs became known as "Yardies," "posses", or "crews".[6]Accounts of the association between Jamaican political factions and the rise of the Yardies are given in the factual booksRuthlessby Geoff Small andBorn Fi' Deadby Laurie Gunst.[8]

By 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.[2]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 the U.K., U.S., and Canada.[9]The establishment of Yardie gangs abroad coincided with therise of crack cocainein both North America and the U.K., and Yardie and Posse gangs from Jamaica became heavily involved in the trafficking ofcrack cocaineand other drugs, in addition toillegal gamblingand other criminal activity.[9]

United Kingdom[edit]

In 1948 the Labour government introduced the "British Nationality Act 1948",which came into effect in January 1949. This act introduced 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[10]and gave every person within the British commonwealth the right to move to the UK, if they so wished. Within theCaribbeancommunity, new arrivals fromJamaicawere sometimes referred to as "Yardies" due to reference of Jamaica as "back 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 widerBritish societyas "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 inLondon'sblack community.The gangs in London are specifically known to have occupied and operated inBrixton,Harlesden/Stonebridge,Hackney,Tottenham,PeckhamandNotting Hill.[6]

Yardie activity has been reported inAberdeen[11]andSouth Wales[12](seecounty lines drug trafficking).

Jamaican-born British writerVictor Headleywrote a bestselling 1992 novel entitledYardie.In 2018, British actorIdris Elbamade his directorial debut with his feature filmYardie,based on Headley's book.

Criminal activity[edit]

Yardie gangs are notorious for their involvement ingun crimeand theillegal drug trade,notablymarijuanaandcrack cocainein theUnited Kingdom.In 1993, Yardies were blamed for the murder of Police Constable Patrick Dunne, shot dead while patrolling inClapham.[13]In 2006, Rohan Chung, described as a Jamaican yard gangster was given three life sentences for the murders of Noel Patterson and his daughters, Connie and Lorna Morrison.[14]

Britishpolice 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.[15]Academics have noted a tendency to over-label black British crime as "Yardie" -related due to stereotype and social narrative.[16]

A number of operations to combat Yardie gun crime have been set up, notablyOperation Tridentin theLondonarea.[17]Yardies (or imitating) gangs also appear to be active inBristol,Birmingham,Aberdeen,EdinburghandNottinghambut to a lesser extent.

Some maintain that the supposed reach and influence in communities of these "Yardies" is a myth.[5]

In popular culture[edit]

Films and television series[edit]

Video games[edit]

See also[edit]

Look upyardiein Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

References[edit]

  1. ^Allsop, Richard (2010).New Register of Caribbean English Usage.Jamaica: University of the West Indies Press.ISBN978-976-640-298-3.
  2. ^abcdefCovey, Herbert (2010).Street Gangs Throughout the World.Springfirld, Illinois: Charles C Thomas Publisher.ISBN9780398079062.
  3. ^abcdefMcCarthy, Dennis M. P. (2011).An Economic History of Organized Crime: A National and Transnational Approach.Routledge.ISBN9781136705823.
  4. ^Figueira, Daurius (2004).Cocaine and Heroin Trafficking in the Caribbean: The Case of Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica and Guyana.iUniverse.ISBN9780595336326.
  5. ^ab"Who are the Yardies?".BBC News. 19 June 1999.Retrieved6 November2016.
  6. ^abcAlan Wright (17 June 2013).Organised Crime.Routledge. pp. 211–.ISBN978-1-134-01890-1.
  7. ^Gibson, Carrie (2014).Empire's Crossroads: The Caribbean From Columbus to the Present Day.Pan Macmillan.ISBN9780230766181.
  8. ^Hobson, Will (31 December 1995)."Extreme prejudice".The Independent.Archivedfrom the original on 7 May 2022.Retrieved25 June2018.
  9. ^abAbadinsky, Howard (2012).Organized Crime.Cengage Learning.ISBN978-1285401577.
  10. ^British Nationality Act 1948 (legislation.gov.uk)
  11. ^Yardies' menace spreadsWalesOnline(15 June 2003)
  12. ^More raids in hunt for Yardie gangsSouth Wales Argus(14 November 2002)
  13. ^Catharine Arnold (5 July 2012).Underworld London: Crime and Punishment in the Capital City.Simon and Schuster. pp. 407–.ISBN978-0-85720-117-1.
  14. ^"Yardie convicted over triple murder".Evening Standard.17 January 2006.Retrieved25 June2018.
  15. ^"Who are the Yardies?".BBC News.19 June 1999.Retrieved25 June2018.
  16. ^Cyrille Fijnaut; Letizia Paoli (21 January 2007).Organised Crime in Europe: Concepts, Patterns and Control Policies in the European Union and Beyond.Springer Science & Business Media. pp. 428–.ISBN978-1-4020-2765-9.
  17. ^"Police tackle London's Yardies",BBC News, 20 July 1999.

External links[edit]

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