THE EDITOR, Sir:
The picture on the front page of Friday's edition of your paper (May 17, 2002) of men being carried away in what appears to have been an army truck from the Tel-Aviv and Southside communities of Central Kingston serves as a reminder of a type of injustice which stalks our land under the guise of crime-solving.
What law gives the police/military the right to swoop down on a community, herd men like cattle into a truck, and then cart them off, most times to destinations unknown? Were these men detained on reasonable suspicion of having committed an offence.
Ironically in the same article a Senior Superintendent of Police is quoted as saying "we have our intelligence and we are working." I would not like to see what the police would do if they were not working off intelligence! It's the same story over and over again - detain then investigate, instead of investigate then detain. Man, made in the image of God, has an inalienable right to be treated with dignity.
When that right is breached self-esteem is also breached leading to all types of other problems. The police must ensure that in their efforts to fight crime, care is taken to ensure that the dignity of the individual is not breached. This practice of carting people off (to unknown destinations) without any reasonable suspicion that they as individuals have committed a particular offence is oppressive - it must cease - it is a violation of human dignity and I daresay of our constitutional rights.
Does the Minister of Justice approve of this routine "gathering of the herds"? What about the new Chief of Staff who seems to be concerned about the image of the army? Is he going to allow the army to continue being part of this oppressive practice? Let us not forget that the three men who
lost their lives in the Constant Spring lock-up 9 years ago were there as a consequence of a raid such as this. Will we never learn?
I am, etc.,
S. RICHARDS
Hope Road
Kingston 10
