Forbes, Lewin and PhillipsMINISTER OF National Security, Dr. Peter Phillips, has summoned the Police High Command, the executive of the Police Federation and the executive of the Officers Association of the Jamaica Constabulary Force to a meeting to discuss the recent spate of police killings.
The meeting, which is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon, is expected to formulate strategies to stem attacks on the security forces and reverse the situation, his Ministry said yesterday.
The decision follows meetings with the Commissioner of Police, Francis Forbes, and Chief of Staff of the Jamaica Defence Force, Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin, to discuss measures to deal with the violence. Dr. Phillips charged on Tuesday that criminals were specifically targeting policemen.
District Constable Nathaniel Williams, 44, from the Portmore police station became the 10th policeman to be murdered since the start of the year, when he was killed at a bar at Newlands, Portmore, St. Catherine on Tuesday night.
Constable Williams' death came less than 24 hours after gunmen killed Detective Corporal Joshua Graham in Manor Park, St. Andrew. Constable Williams is the third policeman to be killed in four days and the sixth to be murdered in the past four weeks.
Another man, 50-year-old Boysie Small, a haulage contractor of West Bay, Portmore, was also killed in the incident in Portmore.
Official police reports are that about 9:00 p.m., Constable Williams and Mr. Small were patrons at a bar in Newlands when three men entered. The men reportedly ordered drinks and while being served, they pulled guns and opened fire, hitting Constable Williams and Mr. Small, killing them on the spot. The men escaped on foot, taking the Constable's loaded Taurus pistol with them. No money was taken from the bar.
Carol Walcott, the common-law wife of Constable Williams, told reporters yesterday that the two had been together since 1989 and that the Constable had always stopped at the bar on his way home.
Up to last night, the police had no leads and investigations were continuing into the deaths of Constable Williams and Detective Corporal Graham.
Meanwhile, the human rights lobby group Jamaicans for Justice, the National Democratic Movement (NDM) and the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) have all expressed concern at the police killings.
"The recent trend is deeply disturbing to us," Jamaicans for Justice said in a press release. "The nation cannot afford to have police personnel targeted in this brutal and vicious way. It is our hope that the perpetrators will very shortly be arrested, charged and brought before the court. We must break the cycle of violence if we are to progress as a nation."
The Presidents Council of the PSOJ also extended sympathy to the family and colleagues of the slain policemen and encouraged all members of the security forces to continue their work, as they have the support of the vast majority of the public. The PSOJ urged people with information, to inform the police or call Crime Stop at 1-888-991-4000. "Co-operation between the public and the police force is one of the strongest ways of sending a message to the criminals trying to take over the country," the PSOJ said. "Crime must be seen as requiring attention from all individual Jamaicans, the Government and the business community."
The NDM's spokeswoman on National Security, Olive Gardner, for her part described the killings as not just an attack on the police force, but an attack on the nation.
She said that without genuine political changes which engender respect and trust between Government, judiciary, police and citizens, this crisis will continue to destabilise the society.
