May 7, 2001
JAMAICANS UNITED AGAINST POLICE BRUTALITY Dear Friends, The past week has seen some important happenings in the ongoing struggle against police brutality in Jamaica. On Tuesday, May 1, Families Against State Terrorism (FAST) held a press conference in Jamaica to announce the details of their campaign to "Constrain State Terror." Some of their demands are included below. On Thursday, May 3, Jamaicans United Against Police Brutality (JUAPB) held another of our weekly picketing of the Jamaican Consulate in New York City. Our picketing will soon move to the offices of the Jamaica Tourist Board. This is an important development because we have seen no indication that the Jamaican government is taking the matter of police extrajudicial killings seriously. They have dismissed the Amnesty Report out of hand thus confirming our position that some form of international sanction is needed to force a change in the policy of extrajudicial police killings. There have been at least four reports of police executions since the Amnesty Report. The commissioner of the Jamaican police force, Francis Forbes, was also in New York City using every opportunity to blunt the impact of the Amnesty report, casting doubt on the validity of the independent pathology report on the killing of the Braeton youth, and smearing the dead youth while knowing fully well that there is no evidence to support his allegations. In response to our question about accepting responsibility for what happened, the commissioner flatly refused to accept responsibility saying that to do so would require a new commissioner every day! A telling commentary that some holders of public office see their position as a right rather than a duty to the citizens who pay their salaries. Lloyd D'Aguilar
Highlights of what Police Commissioner Forbes had to say: Mark Riley (WLIB radio): I happened to be in the Caribbean about two weeks ago in Barbados and one of the big news items throughout the Caribbean at that time is the criticism and the response to the criticism of the police in Jamaica by Amnesty International. The government has responded very strongly saying essentially that Amnesty doesn't know what it is talking about when it criticizes the Jamaican police force. [Do] you see any validity at all in Amnesty's criticisms about the use of excessive force by the police? Francis Forbes: . . . [T]here is some merit to some of the criticisms coming out of Amnesty. Our own quarrel with Amnesty is that their report is somewhat one-sided and in some instances it lacks depth to the research and faulty research brings about erroneous results. MR: When you say one-sided sir they did not take into account perhaps attempts that have been made to reform the excesses of the department? FF: That is so. They were particularly concerned as we are about the level of fatal shootings by the police. But they didn't take into consideration the environment in which the Jamaican police work. They also neglected where we are coming from and to give emphasis to the fact that we have cut police fatalities or police fatal shootings by about a hundred percent in the past ten years and we are working on reducing in reducing it further.... We work in a very difficult environment. THE AMNESTY REPORT FLATLY CONTRADICTS FORBES: "Amnesty International is gravely concerned that the authorities in Jamaica – despite numerous assurances to the contrary – are failing to prevent serious and systematic human rights violations at the hands of the police and security forces. ... It is also indisputable that the policing of Jamaica is a complex, dangerous and difficult task. Amnesty does not underestimate the perils faced by the Jamaican police officers in the course of their duties. [HOWEVER], [e]xtrajudicial executions, torture and ill-treatment continue, despite the fact that Jamaican law prohibits torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and provides mechanism to enable victims to obtain redress, and despite other reforms that have taken place since the early 1990s. ... [THE JAMAICA CONSTABULARY FORCE (JCF)] has been responsible for an average of 140 deaths per annum in the last ten years. Although these figures indicate a comparative reduction from the period of the 1980s, which saw a peak of 354 killings in 1984, the numbers remain excessively high." Mark Riley: Talk if you would Commissioner to the extent that you can about the incident in Breton. This seems to have become a flash point for a lot of critics of the way the police in Jamaica do their business. Francis Forbes: .. First of all I can't go very deep into that case because it is currently being [investigated] and criminal charges could result. But in a very simple way these guys were alleged to have been involved in the brutal execution of a policeman inside of a police station a few days before that. And the night immediately preceding the event they were also alleged, at least three of them were identified by witnesses, to have been involved in the execution of a school principal. The gun that had taken the life of the policeman was found in their possession and in fact a gun was stolen from the policeman on that occasion after he had been shot and killed at close range. That gun was also recovered from their person on the morning of that event. Also the gun that was used to murder the school principal as I said was found in their possession. ..... CALLER: ... I am not From Jamaica but I just came back from there last Friday. I bought the Observer and the Gleaner every day. And there were some things that disturb me as an individual and even some things that you said that these guys who killed the policeman at the police station. I would think that if a statement like that is to be made they should be convicted in a court of law before accusing them -- before saying that they killed the ppoliceman. FF: What do you say to the fact that we have eyewitnesses? What do you say to the fact that the ballistics report show that the gun that killed the policeman was the gun taken from them? What do you say to the fact that policeman's gun was found with them? COMMISSIONER FORBES HAS A SERIOUS CREDIBILITY PROBLEM ON HIS HANDS. EVEN THE MOST HARDLINE SUPPORTERS OF POLICE EXTRAJUDICIAL KILLINGS AND WHO BELIEVE THAT THE BOYS WERE CRIMINALS AND THEREFORE DESERVED TO DIE, HAVE HAD NO TROUBLE BELIEVING THAT THEY WERE EXECUTED. COMMONSENSE SUGGESTS THAT IT WOULD HAVE BEEN IMPOSSIBLE TO SHOOT SIX YOUTH IN THE HEAD (ALL SEVEN WITH MULTIPLE GUNSHOTS) THROUGH CONCRETE AND CLOSED ALUMINUM WINDOWS. IT THEREFORE STANDS TO REASON THAT IF THE POLICE LIED ABOUT THAT THEN NOTHING ELSE THAT THEY SAY CAN BE BELIEVED WITHOUT PROOF. EYEWITNESSES DO SAY THAT THEY SAW FOUR GUNS BEING BROUGHT INTO THE HOUSE WHICH WERE THEN CLAIMED TO BE THE GUNS FOUND. THE POLICE WERE SHOWN ON TELEVISION HANDLING THE GUNS WITHOUT GLOVES. JLP MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT DELROY CHUCK HAS SAID ON RADIO THAT ON THE MORNING AFTER THE KILLINGS HE GOT AN "ANONYMOUS" CALL FROM A MEMBER OF THE POLICE RAIDING PARTY TO SAY THAT THE POLICE HAD ONE OF THE GUNS IN THEIR POSSESSION TWO DAYS BEFORE THE RAID, THAT IT WAS A "SWEETY" GUN. CALLER: I am not saying no to what you are saying Mr. Commissioner but what I am saying is I think that they should be convicted first before making that statement. Anyway I read the autopsy report being done by an independent pathologist. FF: But you have to be corrected right there before you even get into that. That independent pathologist did not perform an autopsy. And there are so many lies going around that the whole thing gets complicated. That foreign [pathologist] Dr. Leth that was brought in by Amnesty International – that pathologist stood and made observations. He never participated. And so no report that is published by him can be recognized as an autopsy report or a post mortem report. CALLER: The point that I was trying to make is that from what I read it would appear as though at least two or three of them were shot while they were on the ground the way the bullet entered and exited their heads. FF: Well, I would say you should await the proper autopsy report from the Jamaican pathologist because he was the one who performed the post mortem. And you know anyone with common sense will understand that when you are dealing with bullet wounds and the track that the bullets travel though a body you need a physical examination. You can't just stand by and observe certain things. FORBES' RESPONSE IS PATHETIC. THE BODIES HAVE BEEN VIEWED AND IDENTIFIED BY THE RELATIVES WHO CONFIRM THAT SIX OF THE YOUTH WERE INDEED SHOT IN THE HEAD (ONE OF THEM HAD A PART OF HIS SKULL BLOWN AWAY) AND ALL HAD MULTIPLE GUNSHOT WOUNDS. THE ISSUE IS NOT WHETHER DR. LETH'S REPORT IS THE OFFICIAL REPORT OR NOT, THE ISSUE IS WHETHER FORBES NOW REALIZES THAT HE HAS CREATED A SERIOUS CREDIBILITY PROBLEM FOR HIMSELF BY HAVING MISLEAD THE WORLD WHEN HE PRESENTED THE POLICE STORY OF A SHOOTOUT. WE MAINTAIN THAT SINCE FORBES WAS INTIMATELY INVOLVED IN THE PLANNING OF THE OPERATION HE THEREFORE BEARS RESPONSIBILITY FOR WHAT HAPPENED. HE SHOULD EITHER RESIGN OR BE FIRED. WE CONSIDER HIM A MATERIAL WITNESS TO THE QUESTION OF WHETHER SENIOR SUPERINTENDENT RENETO ADAMS AND HIS MEN PLANNED TO COMMIT MURDER ON THE MORNING OF MARCH 14.
FAMILIES AGAINST STATE TERRORISM (FAST) THE STRUGGLE TO CONSTRAIN STATE TERRORISM Families Against State Terrorism feels that justice agencies compound the injustice of extra-judicial killings, and seem structured to deliberately frustrate efforts to have police charged when they violate the citizen's right to life. We require the Minister of National Security and Justice to withdraw his statement giving permission to police to send gunmen to the morgue. We ask him to implement the changes that will convince the public that the government is holding the police force responsible under local and international law. FAST is therefore launching a campaign to demand of the government: 1. An independent investigative body with the power to subpoena police witnesses and documents, the resources to conduct independent forensic and ballistic tests, and the will to pursue investigations beyond institutional roadblocks. 2. Autopsies that meet international standards. 3. Coroner's inquests that are held automatically when police killings occur, and where the integrity of juries is reasonably assured. 4. Policing systems that hold the JCF leadership responsible for: · An audit of non-police weapons in police custody · Records of police weapons and ammunition that can show investigators who fired what gun and what bullets · Removal of injured and dead bodies by ambulance ONLY. · Removal of spent shells and other evidence by independent investigators ONLY. · Protection of crime scenes till on-site investigation is complete. · Presence of police witnesses in court · Use of deadly force as a last NOT first resort We call on fellow citizens and other civic bodies to continue to press for an international independent inquiry into police killings in general and into the Braeton killings in particular. We also call for inquiry into the management of the police force and into the performance of all agencies that, by omission and commission, contribute to a climate in which police can kill with impunity. We also ask that steps be immediately taken to ensure that the leadership of the police force is sufficiently credible, competent, professional, and respectful of legal processes. Click here to return to Jamaicans United Against Police Brutality homepage. |