June 8, 2002
JAMAICANS UNITED AGAINST POLICE BRUTALITY Dear Friends, Amnesty International has produced another report highlighting the continued Jamaican police practice of executions, torture and detentions without charge or trial. Were it possible to use the newly-approved UN International Criminal Court to prosecute Jamaican government officials for aiding and abetting the murder and ill treatment of its citizens such a case would not be difficult to prove. Indeed a Charter of Rights presently being considered in the Jamaican parliament is meaningless unless it addresses the policy of police brutality and the right to life. The Amnesty Report is little different from those of other years. In 2001 at least 148 people were killed by the police (which number probably does not include the 25 civilians killed in July when policemen fired their weapons indiscriminately into a populated area). Also, during the same year four persons were killed by the Jamaica Defence Force two of which investigated by me were blatant murders. Only under extraordinary circumstances are soldiers prosecuted in civilian or military courts for killing civilians. The Amnesty report mentions the decision by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) not to charge those policemen found criminally liable by a Coroner's court for the killing of Patrick Genius. (Genius was shot several times in the back of the head while engaged in an alleged shootout with the police.) This is not the first time the DPP is granting immunity to police killers. Indeed, it would be fair to say that impunity for police killers begins with the DPP. The practice of impunity continues in the courts as well. For example, in the ongoing Coroner's enquiry into the police killing of seven young men from Braeton the presiding judge has said almost as a fact of law that policemen have the right to shoot first and ask questions later. This same judge has made other such prejudicial and ignorant remarks in the presence of the jury. No one inside her court dares to challenge her pro-police bias not to mention her suspected lack of qualification to be a judge. As to be expected the government has barely taken notice of the Amnesty report nor has the media made much of it apart from prividing a summary. The media have long accepted police murder as a normal way of life and are not disposed to investigating such killings. Our human rights groups while expressing concern about police brutality have yet to recognize the need for a strategy of confrontation over this human rights emergency (according to Amnesty). Contending political parties, especially the opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), do not wish to upset the police especially with elections due to be held at any time. Should the JLP assume office in the next elections there is every indication that police killings will continue as usual. As for the trade union bureaucrats their only concern is to collect union dues. WHAT IS TO BE DONE? So long as the government and in particular the prime minister and the minister of national security are not specifically targeted for aiding and abetting police murder there is no automatic self-correction to be found anywhere in the political superstructure. The police commissioner in addition to being corrupt and incompetent carries out the policy of government and makes no changes where none is demanded. The power of the DPP is absolute (appointed for life) and therefore above rebuke by the government or anyone else. Should be the DPP be an elected office? Would this make a difference? In the final analysis this
continued practice of police brutality targeted at the poor and inner city
residents points to the need for a response from these very people that
is massive, comprehensive and uprooting of a bankrupt political system.
No one knows when they will take such action but the lessons of history
make this a sure bet.
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