Increase in police killings is rightful cause for concern

THE EDITOR, Madam:

The police commissioner and now former Prime Minister Bruce Golding have pushed back against the Jamaicans for Justice’s (JFJ) concerns over the more than doubling of police killings this year

In their criticisms, no reference is made to the following part of the JFJ’s statement: “JFJ was careful to clarify that it does not immediately label these incidents as extrajudicial killings, acknowledging that each case must be investigated individually. However, it pointed to a disturbing pattern that has emerged from statements made by INDECOM: “no body-worn cameras were reported as issued or worn in these fatal encounters.”

If the police are engaging in carefully planned, somewhat predictable, intelligence-driven interventions, then why not use body cameras? Mr Golding makes very little of this, and the commissioner none at all. They also fail to adequately acknowledge the fact that there is so little trust in the police that even the people in Grange Hill who want the gangs gone are not willing to provide information that would allow successful prosecutions – thus encouraging the police to behave as judge, jury and executioner. The fact that heavy-handed policing helps to further alienate the youth, who already feel alienated and thus drawn easily into crime, is also overlooked.

They also fail to consider the fact that this Government much prefers states of emergency rather than zones of special operations, the latter designed to help deal with the cause of the violence, not just the symptoms; plus the fact of the government economic model that, despite low unemployment, fails to provide much sense of upliftment or hope.

And why the gangs in rural, remote Grange Hill? Suppression in one place just causes crime to move to another. The answer, a blanket police state with all our freedoms compromised? JFJ and INDECOM are surely correct to bring to the nation’s attention to the massive increase in police killings.

Until the police prove that the rise is due to an increased number of operations, increased ruthlessness by criminals and by situations (as proven by body cameras) that leave no alternative other than the use of lethal force, then we should all be concerned.

PAUL WARD