February 2, 2001
JAMAICANS UNITED AGAINST POLICE BRUTALITY Dear Friends, Like a burst of thunder from the skies, many Jamaicans were for the first time hearing about the Human Rights Commission of the ruling People's National Party (PNP) when its Chairman, Ronnie Thwaites, reportedly called on Police Commissioner, Francis Forbes "to ensure an immediate and thorough investigation" into the recent police shooting of a man in Bamboo, St. Ann. (Given the horrendous human rights record of the PNP administration it is indeed a surprise to learn the party has a concern about human rights.) This killing in the rural town of St. Ann was only the latest of thousands that the police have carried out over the past twenty-odd years. The police version of the killing was more or less identical to most of their other killings. The police went to the home of a 50 year old farmer by the name of Lowe and there they allege that they were attacked by a party of five gunmen. The police returned fire and after the smoke cleared and, predictably, the rest of the men had escaped, the 50 year old farmer was found riddled with police bullets. Not surprisingly, eyewitnesses tell a story of a cold blooded execution. "We want no stalling and no one is to be protected in this matter if found culpable. Peace and the building of society in which we can all live, can only be achieved when there is justice for all, we must all be committed to this. Failure to do so can only lead to our collective peril," said Mr. Thwaites. Mr. Thwaites, a well known attorney, and host of his own radio programme is reported to have appeared as a guest on another radio programme calling for immediate investigation and a Coroner's inquest into the killing. We commend Mr. Thwaites' decision to seek justice in this case but wonder why he has been silent on the other three or four hundred other police killings which have taken place since he became of a member of the PNP government in 1997. Perhaps the following excerpts from our 1988 interview with Thwaites may provide some answers to this question. Thwaites not only admits to the police practice of extra-judicial killings but suggests reasons for political inaction. "Americas Watch recently published a report describing the human rights situation in Jamaica. In that report they accused the police of carrying out summary executions. What is you assessment of that report and how do you respond to that particular charge of the police carrying out summary executions." Ronnie Thwaites: "I think the Americas Watch report was based on very credible evidence and information. What they concluded was what a number of people who have been watching the situation in Jamaica have been saying privately and certainly in my case to the Jamaican public for years now and they encapsulated it in very strong language which was considered intemperate because it came from people who were outsiders. But there is no denying what they said it is absolutely true." QUESTION: Elections are around the corner. Do you foresee that this might become an electoral issue -- the question of this sort of human rights abuse and police violence? Ronnie Thwaites: "No, I don't think so at all. Because neither political party has the courage to deal with it. The position of both is indistinguishable. It is to literally fail to understand or at worst to turn a blind eye to the abuses that they know. To speak of changing the system, improving the independent investigative machinery, to deal with this sort of thing. But when all is said and done neither party can afford to alienate the police. And in many respects it can be contended that elements within the political structure are intimidated by the police." We therefore say to Thwaites that it is not enough, as he knows very well, to seek justice in the case of one killing and to ignore the rest. The families of the thousands who have been killed by the police are also seeking justice and a closure to their pain. He needs to address the broad implications for society as a whole of police killing with impunity. He needs to address, with the same forthrightness as when he was not a member of government, the near impossibility of poor people receiving justice when brutalized by the police. "Well it is frustrating because the opportunities for any kind of redress are so limited. Everything is under investigation by the police but it is a question of Caesar investigating Caesar. And usually there is no justice. I say that clearly and baldly. I challenge the commissioner of police, I challenge the government of Jamaica to say otherwise. The fact is that unless there is some status unless there is some special effort that is made usually backed by persons of influence and a lot of money no justice comes out of deaths of that sort. Juries are loathed to convict policemen. Because they themselves are distracted by the high incidence of crime. They want to believe and trust the police and also because very often they are completely intimated by either other criminals or by the police themselves. Now in those circumstance people who call to complain are quite frustrated and there is a deep cynicism about justice in the society which in my view does no honor to our sense of progress to our sense of liberty in this country or to the hope of our eventually rising to a standard of living and of moral behaviour which is our deepest wish and prayers of people. So there is a great deal of frustration." (1) We therefore call upon Mr. Thwaites to support our demand for a Coroner's court to AUTOMATICALLY hear ALL cases of police killings. (2) Instead of accepting ‘Caesar investigating Caesar,' we call upon Mr. Thwaites to support our demand for a revamping of the Police Public Complaints Authority so that it has the necessary legal powers and resources to professionally investigate police criminality. Thwaites' is entitled to belong to the political party of his choice, but given his party's history of tolerating police killings we are forced to question the sincerity of his recent outburst. He knows very well that such widespread police killings could not happen without it being a policy of state and government. Unless he therefore seeks to challenge the policy of his own government, his intervention can only be interpreted as a desperate public relations maneuver on the eve of possible election campaign. Thwaites knows very well that it is the system that must be changed. For example, in our interview, Thwaites was quite clear about who is in control of the police. In response to the question as to whether the police had become an independent entity unto themselves, he responded: "No, not exactly. They still function under the command and the policy dictates of the Minister of National Security as the Constabulary Act provides for."!!! Does that need any further comment? The matter of police killings, therefore, is a not a mystery. It is not a matter of good and bad police. It is a matter of a clear cut policy decision on the part of the political directorate to use brutal police methods to solve social problems. There is something to be said for Thwaites' argument that without "justice for all" there is the possibility of "collective peril". The point is to whom are these words directed? Who has the power over the institutions of justice? And why should there be a fear of the people righting the wrongs of injustice? Only unless the fear is that in righting the wrongs those who have power must of necessity lose it. That we believe is a far better proposition that the perpetuation of class directed police brutality. Lloyd D'Aguilar
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