Peter Espeut WELL, QUESTIONABLE killings by the police have started again. You will recall that there had been (for us) quite a long period without reported extra-judicial executions after some policemen were finally charged for the killings at Braeton. Ordinary citizens avoid crime for many reasons, one of which is they might get caught, convicted and sentenced. For a long time it seemed that Jamaican policemen were exempt from this, and so they were able to kill with impunity. Once front-line cops were charged in the Braeton case, questionable police killings stopped! Braps!
Charging policemen for murder is one thing; proving it in court is quite another, especially when their fellows are in charge of collecting the evidence against them. The recent trial around the death of Janice Allen is a case in point. If it is true, as the Prime Minister said, that a corrupt police force cannot investigate corruption, neither can it investigate murder where the accused is one of their colleagues. What signal does it send when a court case is dismissed against a policeman because of missing evidence, and an important police witness is overseas and cannot testify, and those policemen who have charge of the safekeeping of the evidence are not called to account for their stewardship? I can understand why police killings have resumed.
MICHAEL GAYLE CASE
I have been scandalised by the Michael Gayle case. I do not understand how police and soldiers can beat someone to death, and no charges at all can be laid because the police themselves refuse to say who exactly was involved. Does not a policeman have a duty to provide the evidence? Does a policeman not face a charge of dereliction of duty if he is witness to a crime and fails to give evidence? All the policemen present should have been charged with complicity.
British police authorities were called in to investigate the questionable police killings at Kraal in Clarendon, and they completed their investigations and submitted their findings to Jamaican authorities several months ago, yet the Jamaican Director of Public Prosecutions has not been able to make a ruling based on the evidence presented to him. Are we to conclude that the British police are just as unable to investigate police crime as their Jamaican counterparts, or is there another conclusion? In any case it sends a signal, and the questionable police killings continue.
Jamaica has the highest rate of police killings in the world (per capita), and this is not anything to be proud of. So little comes out of investigations under the present arrangements that it is clear something different has to be done. It seems to me that that there are problems with police methods, problems with on-the-ground supervision of field operations, and problems with internal investigations of policemen by policemen. These problems need to be addressed, and quickly.
CREDIBILITY OF THE POLICE
The credibility of the police force is at an all-time low. When the police claim that the other people fired first and they only returned the fire, or when they claim that there is a shoot-out, or when they claim that they find guns or ganja on someone, a large number of Jamaicans do not automatically believe them. Neither, apparently, does the Prime Minister.
In the United States of America they have different layers of investigative agencies which can be called upon to investigate one another when wrongdoing is suspected: the State Police can be asked to investigate suspected malfeasance in a city police force, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) can be asked to investigate the State Police; and the Justice Department will investigate the FBI. In the United Kingdom, Scotland Yard can be called in to investigate the London Constabulary or the Yorkshire Constabulary in the face of a complaint. But in Jamaica we have the Jamaica Constabulary Force - and there is no other agency to call on to investigate them in the event of an incident such as the Janice Allen case.
An agency equivalent to the FBI or the Justice Department needs to be established in Jamaica. Its jurisdiction must include the power to subpoena police documents and firearms, and the power to interrogate police officers who are suspects or witnesses. It must have the internal capability to assess crime scenes, and to perform forensic and ballistic investigation. To protect its credibility, this new agency must not employ any former policemen.
If they believe they are innocent of wrongdoing, the police should be the ones calling for genuinely independent investigations to clear their names and to restore their credibility. Well-thinking Jamaicans must insist on genuinely independent investigations of police homicides to erase the international bad name we are getting as a country which does not respect the human rights of its own citizens.
Our political leaders have the opportunity to do the right thing in the face of escalating crime and alleged police excesses. I hope they have the will to do what is right.
Peter Espeut is a sociologist and is Executive Director of an environment and development NGO.
