Fabian Lewis writes on The bloodthirst and brutality of Jamaica police…
Since the infamous Green bay shooting in1979 by soldiers of the Jamaica defense force [the JDF], the security forces under the Micheal Manley-led Peoples National Party (PNP) government, has developed a serious and frightening appetite for blood. This especially observed of the police force i.e. the Jamaican constabulary force. Almost every night on television there is a reported shooting by the police under questionable circumstances. It’s a given that there will be two competing narratives, one given by the police that says it’s a shootout and the other by the residents claiming it to be murder in cold blood. In many cases the narrative you’ll believe is determined by where you are, or your standpoint on such matters. Be that as it may, what is all too overwhelming is evidence available to the public to confirm that the police are lying, and that the residents are indeed telling the truth.
It is always astonishing too that in these cases of so-called shootouts, not even one of the police has gotten a bruise, much less to be hit by a bullet! How can it ever be possible for so-called heavily armed gunmen as it is reported to be engaged in a shootout with so-called poorly-equipped policemen, and not one of the officers has a bruise, but the gunmen are shot and killed? How can these Constabulary communication Network (CCN)’s reports, as the communication arm of the police force, of a so-called shootout, that the details are exactly the same as in previous shooting? May I suggest two reasons? Its either that Jamaican gunmen can’t shoot straight, or plain and simple the police reports are fabricated.
JAMAICA’S HIGH MURDER RATE
Admittedly Jamaica has a high murder rate, one if not the highest in the world for a very long time now. To my memory, the over 800-a-year murder-rate during the 1980s election year [which was due to gang warfare, between politically aligned gangs]was broken in the 1990s under the Honourable PJ Patterson led Peoples National Party (PNP) government.
Undoubtedly, it is a huge challenge to the security forces to maintain even a semblance of law and order to give the citizens a sense of safety. The high levels of murders each year, has shown that they have failed miserably. Between September 2007 – October 2011, under the Bruce Golding-led Jamaica Labour party (JLP) administration the country experienced a steep fall in the murder rates especially in the latter part of the short regime. It was a welcomed sign and there was a tangible and noticeable change in the atmosphere of the country as citizens felt safer. Since the new Portia Simpson Miller led administration took over the reigns of Government after the December 29, 2011 election, there has been a steady increase in murders, in 2012, according to reports in the media and by the CCN.
In one month alone we had over 27 persons reportedly been killed, and since the first seventy days of the new year we had over 245 reported deaths. So by no means is anyone to assume that the job of the Jamaican police is easy. However the number of police shootings that is considered to be questionable, to say the least, cannot continue to go on unabated! Too many innocent lives have been snuffed out by the wanton and indiscriminate use of force even in populated areas are simply too much now! Too many persons are being killed every day by the police needlessly causing untold suffering, anguish and pain for their relatives and friends to cope with. Not to mention the anger and hatred that it engenders in the survivors that translates itself in reprisal killings against the police themselves.
EXAMPLES OF POLICE BRUTALITY
Amnesty International and the local human rights group Jamaicans for Justice, have documented numerous cases of human rights abuses and extra judicial killings by the police and has consistently release reports condemning such acts every year. From the killing of young Janice Allen, on her way home from the neighbourhood shop, where police reports stated that she was killed in a cross fire between police and gunmen, conflicting with residents reports and the further coroners inquest, more actions and reactions should have been stirred.
Jamaicans should remember all too well the cop charged and set free, the series of bizarre happenings, where vital evidence were allegedly burnt in a police station fire, threats made against the life of the girl’s mother, who allegedly was offered bribes to drop the case, in the first case, and the other case involving Michael Galye, Michael Galye a man of unsound mind, was viciously beaten and kicked until he started vomiting his faeces. Remember also those young boys murdered in the Braeton 7 killing, in Braeton St. Catherine by the police unit headed by the now retired SSP Reneto Adams, and the most recent one been Venessa Kirkland, whereby the police force has exhibited scant regard for the right to life of the Jamaican people they are ironically sworn to protect.
Venessa Kirkland a young and bright teenager was killed among others recently in what can only be described as unwarranted murder. The police open fire indiscriminately and unnecessarily on the car Kirkland and others were traveling in. Reports are that the car in which the teen and her friend were traveling to a birthday party was being trailed by police, as they went to pick up another friend in Portmore, St Catherine,. The trailing police claimed that a robbery or robberies were carried out by persons traveling in a car resembling the one carrying these youth. For many miles, they trailed the car until they reached the community where the party was to be held, and without asking the driver to pull over to ascertain if these were indeed who they were looking for, they opened fire killing and maiming all on board. These cases are just some of the high profile ones that comes to light – glaring examples of police brutality that has become so ever common in this country.
UNACCEPTABLE
Since 2007, there has been 1260 police fatal shootings, the majority of which is under questionable circumstances. That’s an average of 210 per year and climbing. For a small country of less than three million people, this level of killing by the security forces is just too high and is totally unacceptable, and must end right now!
These are the people who are sworn to protect us, and are paid ironically by the very people who they shoot like sitting birds on an open range. It has now reached the point where the citizenry are more afraid of the police than the gunmen. There is absolutely no way one can live in a civilised society with that amount of fear of those that are sworn to protect you. Where has this culture of shooting then asking question later, and the impunity by which its carried out, come from? I say the government!
WHITHER THE SUPPRESSION OF CRIMES ACT?
In 1974,the then Manley government brought to parliament a piece of legislation, known as the Suppression of Crimes act, that was ostensibly designed to combat the rising crime problem. It gave to the JCF and the JDF, sweeping powers, which includes but not limited to, the undertaking of searches without a warrant, which hitherto was illegal, the establishment of cordons, the restrictions of freedom of movement and the holding of curfews. That act was repealed in the 1990s by the then PNP administration because it was felt and also demonstrated that the police with such sweeping powers was a recipe for the abusing of the citizenry. From then onwards the police seemingly was given more and more power that encroaches on personal freedoms, and thus opening the way for the abuse of people. There are currently before the parliament two pieces of legislation, designed to give the police more powers, even despite the fact that this does not seemingly have no effect in lowering the murder rate. This is a shortsighted and idiotic view, and a easy way to avoid doing what is necessary to correct the causes of crime and violence.
The belief within the police force that they can get away with anything, which is backed up by the low levels of cops charged and the lower number of those convicted doesnt help either. These acts all add up to the current state of affairs. The respect for human rights within the police force is almost nonexistent.
This has been fostered over the years by successive governments, a poor investigative arm, the BSI – the body charged with investigating police killings -which the former Prime Minister Bruce Golding is remembered as saying “a corrupt police force cannot investigate itself”. These and more have all contributed to it been so widespread in the force even and especially among the police hierarchy.
The matter is further compounded by societies indifference to the the upholding of such rights. Until it reaches their doorsteps, when somebody is killed in cold blood by the police that is close to them, the so called efforts by the government heads to stop police killings is nothing but a band aid solution put on a petrifying sore that needs immediate surgery. INDECOM – the new agent that from now on should investigate police killings, the independent commission for human rights, is welcomed yet in my view gapingly insufficient, They are short on staff, are constrained by the government labs that are themselves under resourced and understaffed. The police personnel clearly doesn’t like the head of INDECOM Mr. Terence Williams and are even openly refusing to co-orporate with him.
As usual, the police in Jamaica are acting like a law onto themselves and the time has come for society and the government to say enough is enough, and put a stop to it.
Fabian Lewis, an intern columnist, is a concerned world citizen.
USEFUL LINKS:
Prime Ministers of Jamaica at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_Minister_of_Jamaica
Author Profile
- ... am a serious-minded Christian in my mid twenties. I am a certified construction worker with a level 2 certificate from Heart Trust. I am an intern columnist expressing my thoughts, concerns, observations through my passion for writing. Link me here
