By Omar Anderson, Gleaner WriterHUNDREDS OF pro-Reneto Adams supporters, singing popular reggae and spiritual songs, swarmed Justice Square in downtown Kingston yesterday, to support the embattled Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), who was arrested and charged with murder, along with five rank and file members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force.
The Police high command, which expected the pro-Adams protesters, erected barricades in an effort to restrict human and vehicular traffic near the precincts of the Supreme Court.
While there were no T-shirts with SSP Adams' portrait printed on them, as was feared by the high command, protesters carried paper portraits of the senior superintendent, under the watchful eyes of the police. Members of the crowd, while giving moral support to Adams, often lashed out at Police Commissioner Francis Forbes.
"We shall overcome, we shall overcome, we shall overcome some day," sang the 200-plus crowd, south of the Supreme Court on Tower Street. Their responses yesterday to the charges being laid against SSP Adams and his co-accused ranged from disappointment to seeing them as an act of betrayal.
"Yu can't put a good man down, always keep a smile when they want me to frown," sang the crowd, borrowing the lyrics of popular deejay Sizzla.
CALL FOR FORBES' HEAD
So incensed were some of the protesters that they called for Forbes' head.
There was also a small group of people shouting anti-Adams sentiments but that group quickly dispersed.
Yesterday, vehicles going up and down King Street were prevented from passing the intersection with Tower Street and Barry Street. Only persons having legitimate business at the Supreme Court were allowed to turn right at the intersection of Barry and Church Streets, into the court complex.
The mood was different inside the courtroom where there was hardly any restrictions as to who could enter.
Representatives from almost all walks of life, including the media and human rights groups, gathered to see the Adams on his first court appearance arising from the May 7, 2003 killing of four persons in Kraal, north central Clarendon in what the police said was a shoot-out.
A number of senior police officers were also present. Among them were Assistant Commissioner Arthur 'Stitch' Martin, ACP Reggie Grant, investigator, Acting ACP Granville Gause, and SSP Calvin Benjamin.
Also present was SSP Leon Rose, chairman of the Police Officers' Association (POA), of which SSP Adams is a member.
At roughly 10:15 a.m. when Judge Mahadev Dukharan entered the court, a smiling SSP Adams led his five co-accused into the dock to face the charges. At the end of the two-hour proceedings, a smiling Adams also led his co-accused out of the dock into an area in the court where they were each processed for their $2 million bail.
After more than three hours of processing, Adams and his men walked from the court building again into a waiting and expectant crowd which walked with him, his co-accused, members of his (Adams) family and legal team, to their vehicles parked near Duke Street.
On May 7 last year, SSP Adams and members of the now defunct Crime Management Unit (CMU) visited Kraal, north central Clarendon where they were reportedly fired on by men from a house. The police said they fired back leaving four persons dead, including two women.
