An illustrated look at Prince Harry’s unveiling of the plaque at the University of the West Indies with views on Jamaica becoming a republic from bystanders
Belatedly receiving a request for a short piece on the Prince’s visit from the Guardian in London, I set off for the Law Faculty with my trusty iPhone 4S.
A crowd of mainly students, staff members and journalists had gathered under cloudy skies to watch Prince Harry unveil a plaque at the University of the West Indies’ new Faculty of Law in honour of his grandmother’s Diamond Jubilee. As the University’s website informs you “The Queen holds the title “Visitor” of the university. The position of Visitor is considered to be the most senior official of the UWI.”
Usain Bolt graciously allows the Prince to win...which he does in grand style...
The young Prince arrived at the Law Faculty after a playful race with Jamaican star runner Usain Bolt at the University’s Mona Bowl. Crowds of young females, both from the university and from local high schools, cooed loudly in excitement as the Prince’s motorcade drew up to the Faculty.
Switching Jamaica’s constitutional status to that of a republic is by no means a done deal. The government has promised to hold a referendum before any decision is made and retaining the Monarchy might well turn out to be the more popular choice when all the votes are counted.
A quartet of girls from the St. Andrew High School for girls in Kingston, including the Head Girl and 3 prefects, said that Prince Harry’s visit was an ‘Oh my God moment’. On the subject of Jamaica becoming a republic they said they were on the fence, feeling unsure that Jamaica had adequate resources to make it on its own. They said there were clear advantages and disadvantages involved and it was a matter of weighing them carefully.
Lanesa Downs, who wore a sash that said ‘Miss Law’ and was part of the official welcome party at the law faculty, said she was really excited to meet Prince Harry. “Not all the time you’re able to meet royalty and I even got to shake his hand.” She had mixed feelings she said about the possibility of her country becoming a republic, worrying that this was not the right time for Jamaica to consider such a step; she was concerned that it might not be able to sustain itself alone and should wait a few years before becoming a republic.
In contrast Business student Andre Poyser who also hosts Newstalk 93’s Issues on Fire programme said he was in full support of Jamaica becoming a republic even though it might not change much. “We’ll just be swopping the Queen for another titular head but what I think it will provide is the opportunity for the government to go out and do broad-based consultations on the drafting of the new constitution. People can become more involved in governance. I think it will add more value to the strength of our democracy.”
Is there a version of Guantanamo Bay going in one of Jamaica’s prisons? Recent events suggest as much…
Clovis, The Observer
I’d heard over the last few weeks that August Town’s Christopher Linton (Dog Paw), accused of being leader of the Dog Paw gang, was severely beaten more than once at the Horizon Adult Remand Centre where he has been held for the last few months. Apparently the area he and other supposedly high-risk inmates were being held is known as Security Post 11 and is modeled on Guantanamo Bay.
Security Post 11 is strictly under the control of the Jamaica Defence Force, not the Police, and reportedly no correctional officers or Police are allowed entry. Since Dog Paw was transferred there he has been systematically and brutally beaten. The beatings were so severe that Linton was worried about losing his life; memories of his older brother who had died in custody after police beat him up still being fresh in his mind.
Yesterday news broke that Linton wasn’t the only one being subjected to such vicious punishment by the soldiers. The Sunday Gleaner carried a cover story about Livity Coke, Dudus’s half brother, also in the same facility, being subjected to an even worse assault by soldiers who left him for dead at the feet of the prison doctor. Apparently Livity played dead until he was close enough to the doctor when he shouted to her “Mi no dead, mi no dead, mi no dead!” Perhaps he remembered the case of the man who played possum after being shot by the police some weeks ago…see my NOT dead on arrival! No Sir! I will not rest in peace! from a few weeks ago for details.
In fact four other ‘Dons’ were meted out similar treatment: Tesha Miller (leader of the Spanish Town-based Klansman gang), Joel Andem (Gideon Warriors), Christopher Linton (Dog Paw Gang), Kevin Tyndale alias Richie Poo. So what’s going down at the Horizon Adult Remand Centre? Dr. Jephtha Ford who alerted the Gleaner about the near killing of Livity by JDF soldiers told Nationwide’s Cliff Hughes that he thought Security Post 11 at Horizon was a virtual Guantanamo Bay.
Tthe JDF responded to the Sunday Gleaner expose by putting forward the following explanation carried on RJR’s website:
JDF clears the air on ‘Livity’ beating
The Jamaica Defence Force, JDF, is moving to clear the air regarding an incident in which Leighton “Livity” Coke the brother of former Tivoli Gardens strongman Christopher “Dudus” Coke was injured at the Horizon Adult Remand Centre. It has issued a statement outlining the circumstances in which Mr. Coke had to be subdued at the maximum security facility which is manned by soldiers.
Mr. Coke, who is being held on charges of illegal possession of a firearm and shooting at members of the security forces during the incursion into Tivoli Gardens in May 2010, reportedly sustained wounds to his head. According to the JDF, in the days leading up to the February 21 incident, inmates at Horizon became boisterous and were resisting security procedures at the facility. The decision was made to temporarily remove them to another section to facilitate a clean-up.
As they were being prepared for relocation some of the prisoners resisted, barricaded themselves in their cells and hurled expletives at the soldiers. According to the JDF, the soldiers were able to restrain the protesters by using an appropriate level of force and physically lifting them to their designated cells.
When the time came to move Mr. Coke he reportedly resisted and attempted to walk back to his cell. He was stopped by the soldiers and reportedly punched a JDF sergeant and lance corporal in their faces and wrestled a baton from another. The statement says Mr. Coke wielded the baton at the soldiers. He was eventually restrained by other soldiers using batons following which it was discovered that he was bleeding. The soldiers who were involved in subduing Mr. Coke walked him to the prison’s medical facility where he was treated and subsequently sent to the University Hospital for precautionary x-rays.
Doctors at the hospital determined that his injuries were minor and he was taken back to the remand centre. By that time the cleanup was completed and Mr. Coke was returned to his original cell. On the same day, preliminary investigations were conducted by the JDF’s Inspector-General’s Department and the matter reported to the Independent Commission of Investigations, INDECOM.
The Gleaner had a few more details:
The JDF was yesterday forced to issue a media release after The Sunday Gleaner highlighted that Coke, the brother of confessed crime boss Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke, was beaten by soldiers at the remand centre.
The JDF said Coke was among several inmates at the HARC who reportedly engaged in the throwing of water, food, faeces, and other refuse from their cell as a means of resistance to being held under special conditions at the facility.
According to the JDF, which supervises the facility, the decision was taken to temporarily move the inmates from their cells in order to clean up the area. The force said some inmates protested that the movement was taking place during time normally reserved for recreational activities.
Well, if what the JDF says is true, their security cameras would be able to corroborate some or all of this right? Dr. Jephtha Ford contradicts the JDF’s assessment of Livity’s injuries being ‘minor’. He describes them as life-threatening and has sent his medical report to the Prime Minister. In the Gleaner article he also accused the PNP government of being behind the beatings but this seems implausible when you take into account the beatings administered to Dog Paw, who is very much a PNP supporter.
Incidentally Horizon is the same prison that Vybz Kartel allegedly broke out of in that infamous instance of false news that went viral last November. The following is excerpted from an MTV article that came out at the time:
Kartel, real name Adidja Palmer, allegedly started a riot at the Horizon Adult Remand Centre, where he was being held whilst under investigation over his possible involvement in up to seven murders.
It is reported that Kartel and several other prisoners managed to take control of the prison shortly after 1am local time this morning (30/11/11), taking clothes and keys from guards before escaping in a prison maintenance pickup truck at approximately 1.45am.
One police officer is thought to have died of a heart attack during the escape with at least twelve others injured, including two who were shot with guns apparently smuggled into the prison ahead of the raid.
The Force Commissioner of Jamaica’s Criminal Investigations Branch apparently confirmed that Kartel, who has previously worked with the likes of Eminem, Jay-Z and Akon, is on the run and that he and the other escapees are now on the island’s most wanted list.
Countering this, the Jamaica Observer has now alleged that reports of Vybz’ escape were started as a joke by an anonymous blogger, and that Jamaican police have no knowledge of the incident.
According to the Observer, The Assistant Commissioner of Police, Les Green, said that the reports are false.
“I know nothing about that. If that had taken place I would would certainly have known,” he said.
Another unnamed police officer added, “It may be an attempt by his cronies to keep him in the news but they don’t need to spread rumours to do that because he will be in the news for quite some time.”
Concerned individuals may be interested to know that the so-called Horizon ‘Adult’ Remand Centre also houses children The entire setup begs investigation by the media. In the absence of the late Wilmot Perkins who will take up the challenge?
Grace Kennedy, one of the foundational business companies in Jamaica turned 90 today. For some reason i remember a campaign they did some years ago advertising ‘the new face of Grace’ to a lot of pomp and fanfare. Alas the new face turned out to be that of an uber-browning, a pretty, pony-tailed woman who was shown sweeping up and down supermarket aisles with a cart, doing her shopping. Unfortunately the public at large gave her a frosty reception so she was duly dispensed with.
When my son was growing up he would watch the Grace Kitchen series on TV and want me to reproduce the meals they showed you how to cook. The video below is sort of a spoof of that series but its a gem in its own right. Comedian Fancy Cat showing us how to cook Jamaican Steamed Fish with Crackers…come on…try it!
While Jamaica seems to be experiencing a crime wave its media is busy censoring itself…
Yesterday a man named Ed Gallimore went to an ATM in New Kingston to withdraw money and fell victim to a robber who shot and killed him. He was a prominent figure in the tourist industry. According to a report in the Jamaica Observer:
Gallimore was shot at an automated banking machine on Knutsford Boulevard about 3:30 pm. Police report that Gallimore had withdrawn an undetermined sum of cash from the machine when he was pounced upon by a gunman upon leaving the booth. Gallimore was shot and the gunman escaped on a motorcycle.
In Jamaica gunmen always ‘pounce’ on their victims. Don’t ask why. A question I will ask is why Jamaican media seems to be conspiring with the bank concerned to keep the exact location of the ATM a secret. All we know is that it’s somewhere on Knutsford Boulevard in New Kingston. Such an omission raises serious questions about the media and exactly whose watchdogs they are…
In a sinister twist Ed Gallimore’s mother and other mourners were held up and robbed at his house today:
The Observer learnt that friends of the former tourism industry executive were at his house offering condolences to his mother when one of the gunmen, pretending to be a friend, walked in, hugged Gallimore’s mother, then pulled a gun and demanded money.
Something has changed about the calibre of crime we’re experiencing now. Only last week there was a brazen carjacking not very far from the unnamed ATM.
A Kingston mother was subjected to one of the most frightening ordeals of her life yesterday when an armed man forced himself into her car in heavy drive-time traffic, fought with her, and eventually drove away with her baby who was strapped into a car seat in the back. “I am still in shock,” Judy-Ann Hinds told the Observer about an hour after the ordeal ended when the thief crashed her car on Oxford Road and bolted up Belmont Road, leaving the baby unharmed.
Notice that the media wasn’t bashful about identifying the exact location in this instance; it gives you the precise address where the carjacker lost control of the car. No prizes for guessing why. There was no powerful business, political or social entity located there. As the crime wave continues the media needs to be reminded that they are supposed to be serving the public, not just those who advertise in their pages or buy their airtime. Their model ought not to be the dog in the HMV ads listening to His Master’s Voice…their job is to be the canary in the coal mine singing its heart out to alert us of the danger surrounding us. Your job is to inform not to withhold information.
This is a direct message to the media: The public needs information in order to minimize its risks. Kindly provide it. That’s your mandate.
A sketch of the bombing of an Israeli diplomat’s car patched together from tweets…
Israeli diplomat's car explodes near Embassy in New Delhi. Photo: Joji Philip Thomas @jojiphilipIsraeli Diplomat is flung from the car, seen here being helped by passersby
This morning one of my tweeps, Joji Philip Thomas @jojiphilip on Twitter, tweeted the two photos above saying that a car in front of him had just exploded. A newsman himself, Joji was on Aurangzeb Road, in the diplomatic enclave of New Delhi.”The car in front of me just exploded – a foreigner inside got flung to the other side of d road,” read his sensational sounding tweet.
The Israeli lady who was inside the car & was badly injured insisted that she be taken to the embassy,not hospital went another tweet. And shortly thereafter: hey, all u news channels who are using my photographs of the blast of the #Israeli diplomat’s car.how come no credit for the photos???
Joji also noted that despite being badly injured, after having been flung from her car, the Israeli woman had the “presence of mind to give instructions to rescuers after the blast.”
Since then the Agence France-Presse has tried to buy the photos from Joji who himself works for The Economic Times of India.
In the meantime according to @yaakovkatz: Reports of explosions near Israeli embassies in India and Georgia. Come day after 4th anniversary of Hezbollah military chief assassination.
It’s now confirmed that a man on a motorbike rode up behind the Israeli Embassy vehicle and attached a small, sophisticated bomb to it. Acccording to @geevishnu A biker planted a sticky bomb on the rear of innova and fled the scene. The lady who survived is a diplomat. So is her husband.
Meanwhile the Israelis have announced that Iran is behind the bombings in Delhi and Georgia. According to newswoman @suhasinih: Car explosion: Israeli govt confirming 4 attacks planned : Delhi+Tblisi explosives;3 arrested in Baku, Threat foiled in Bangkok.
Not everyone agrees. Tweeted the editor of Newsweek International Tunku Varadarajan known on Twitter as @tunkuv: My instinct: Iran can’t be behind Delhi bombing of Israelis. Why wd Iran sow terror in the one major US ally that is buying Iranian oil?” Indian authorities have also said that it’s too early to determine who was behind the bombings.
According to the Washington Post the injured woman is the wife of Israel’s defense attache. Their article has a lot more details on the bombing in Delhi and the foiled attempt in Tbilisi where a grenade was found attached to the car used by the Israeli ambassador, Yitzhak Gerberg.
A brief observation about mass media coverage of Whitney Houston and black celebrities in general…
CNN only seems to have one clip of Whitney singing/performing? I asked no one in particular on Twitter last night to which @106harlem responded: You know they don’t keep black folk in stock.
I couldn’t understand why for a couple of hours CNN kept showing the same footage of Whitney in a grey dress singing on stage, while NBC seemed to have slightly more diverse clips to accompany the sparse details of her death yesterday. @106harlem’s terse response is shocking but true. Within a few minutes @diverseworld chimed in saying @anniepaul @106harlem … If this is about the footage. I agree. Finally BBC moved from the Bodyguard…
So BBC was guilty of this as well…interesting little sidelight: media houses have to keep stock footage of various celebrities to use in case they die suddenly or for any other reason make the news. In fact newspapers and magazines have obituaries prepared and ready to roll out for a number of top political leaders, actors, musicians, business leaders and others just in case…
In this case not only did no one expect Whitney to go so soon, the two megamedia entities, CNN and BBC, didn’t even have enough stock footage of her performances on hand to round out their news coverage.
*Gallic shrug* C’est la vie.
By far the most beautiful audio of Whitney Houston I’ve come across is this one:
Carolyn Cooper who teaches a Reggae Poetry course invited Damian to give a public talk at UWI, sort of along the lines of the Vybz Kartel talk some time back. It was a quickly put together event that was only confirmed the evening before, and took some swift and skillful dribbling of the ball between herself and the Campus Prinicipal, Gordon Shirley to pull off. So dear @SharzzF who tweeted: It’s soo amazing when Vybz Kartel was invited to lecture, it was well advertised, but the same wasn’t done for Junior Gong, it really wasn’t a conspiracy, it was just contingency.
Perhaps because of the suddenness of it and the resulting impossibility of advertising the talk widely enough there was nowhere near the kind of audience that turned up for Kartel; still it was an energetic session with young Damian fielding 40-50 questions from UWI students after a very brief talk in which he highlighted the importance of talent. Asked about being a Marley and having everything he needed at his disposal he said he still had to make songs people wanted to hear coz they certainly weren’t listening to him only because he was Bob’s son…
Here’s a selection of tweets to give you a flavour of the evening…
RT @UWIMonaGuild: Damian ‘Junior Gong’ Marley will speak about his career as a Grammy-winning dancehall artist on Tonight at 7:30 p.m. in the Assembly Hall.
RT @mushroomi: Anyone going Junior Gong lecture?
RT @anniepaul: BIG UP if your pumpum tight like mosquito coffin! Poet Tanya Shirley prefacing Junior Gong. Audience roaring.
RT @CultureDoctor: ‘This is my beloved son in whom I’m well pleased’ Cindy Breakspeare of Jnr Gong #MonaRock
RT @Dre5IVE: A style u a style the Gong RT @Gordonswaby: Well, Junior Gong reads. Just mentioned Gladwell’s Outliers book.
RT @LIMEJamaica: Yes, Damian ‘Jr. Gong’ Marley is our newest brand ambassador. RT @Dre5IVE: Junior Gong is a LIME Ambassador?!!!!
RT @stannyha: Why isn’t LIME streaming the Junior Gong’s lecture? Since they signed him on as Ambassador? #MonaRock
RT @Savageinsight: “It’s not about being a Marley, it’s about being a human being” #DamianMarley
RT @anniepaul: I got into music because I’m a fan of music. I would put on my Dads music and pretend I was him. Junior Gong at UWI.
RT @lyn4d: I think he’s brilliant. I think he’s very smart. Fan of his music but not some of his moral choices. – Junior Gong’s view on Vybz Kartel
RT @Savageinsight: Only in Ja does a man wait in the line to say “mi no really have a big big question, mi did just waan hail yu”
At one point the stream of questions seemed never-ending. When asked if Junior Gong actively participated in any Rastafarian group, he said that he had attended meetings of the Rastafari Council; rather than simply donating money he would like to help the Rastafari community by tapping his networks, by ‘networking’ for them, for instance in building projects where professional services or architects, contractors and the like might be required. When asked if he had advice, considering his paternal family background, for others who might be considering buiding empires…he looked stumped for a moment, then said chortling, no, just tell them not to rise against MY empire…
I had been given a list of questions to put to Damian as soon as he finished, for the TVJ programme Entertainment Report, and was quite relieved when @GordonSwaby basically asked the first one on my list: Bob’s still a legend but it seems the music’s been overtaken by the merchandising…would Bob have approved of the commercializing of his name? Gordon used different words but the question was very similar. Thing is I don’t quite remember how Damian answered it…but I happily deleted it from my list. It’s not a question i would’ve chosen to ask the young lion myself, though Rohan Marley’s promotion of the House of Marley and its products does raise ethical questions…Besides as @GordonSwaby pointed out the Marley name is “…a valuable brand. That’s why they have to be careful what they do with it.”
The US Embassy in Kingston, Jamaica names its Information Resource Center (IRC) after Paul Robeson, someone who had previously been vilified and ostracized by and in his own country.
I first heard about Paul Robeson in the mid 1980s when I acquired a copy of his autobiographical book Here I Stand. Reading this first person account from a veritable giant of a man filled me with awe; I was living in the United States then, actually on the campus of Rutgers University, the very university that he had won a scholarship to attend in 1915. Rutgers had only had two black students before Robeson.
At Rutgers Robeson became a national football superstar, and later, with his powerful baritone, an internationally renowned concert singer and actor perhaps best known for the song Old Man River. He was also an indomitable champion of equal rights for African-Americans as well as the oppressed anywhere, everywhere. Regularly invited to sing in different countries Robeson was the original citizen of the world, spending a lot of time in Europe, particularly in London and the former Soviet Union, a country he admired because it was a place “where coloured people waked secure and free as equals.”
Robeson would pay dearly for this during the McCarthy Era of the fifties when he was dragged before a congressional committee that grilled him about his ‘communist sympathies’. When the committee demanded to know why he had spent so much time in the Soviet Union Robeson retorted that it was because, “in Russia I felt for the first time like a full human being—no colour prejudice like in Mississippi, no colour prejudice like in Washington.“ Then why hadn’t he remained in Russia, why had he returned to the United States demanded a committee member.
Robeson’s answer was swift and impassioned.
Because my father was a slave, and my people died to build this country, and I am going to stay right here and have a part of it, just like you. And no fascist minded people will drive me from it. Is that clear?
Robeson’s defiance and refusal to bow earned him the revocation of his passport in 1950. Hard to believe that a mere 60 years ago such undemocratic behaviour was possible in the very United States that today champions human rights left, right and centre exporting so-called democracy worldwide at the tip of heat-seeking missiles if need be. Not only were Robeson’s wings clipped, the powers that be also subjected him to slander campaigns and vicious disinformation so that his power to earn from concerts diminished and he became virtually invisible.
Lloyd L. Brown who wrote the preface to Here I Stand, ended by making the following observation:
…In Robeson’s case there can be no doubt that the ‘fascist-minded people’ whom he challenged did all they could to obscure the man and his message.
It can be expected, however, that the inquiring minds of the new generation will break through to the truth about him. Inevitably, like a mountain peak that becomes visible as the mist is blown away, the towering figure of Paul Robeson will emerge as the thick white fog of lies and slanders is dispelled. Then he will be recognized and honoured here in his homeland, as he is throughout the world, as Robeson, the Great Forerunner.
Remarkably that time seems to have come. As a recent press release from the US Embassy in Kingston, Jamaica detailed:
In early 2011, the Public Affairs Section of the U.S. Embassy in Kingston launched an essay competition among high school students to name the embassy’s Information Resource Center (IRC), in observance of Black History Month. The aim of this competition was to have the IRC named after the historical figure selected in the winning essay. The legendary Paul Robeson was the character highlighted in the winning essay which was entitled “The Soul of a Continent.” The writer was Kathy Smith, then a Grade 13 student at Manchester High School in Mandeville, Manchester. Ms. Smith is presently a first-year law student at the University of the West Indies.
On the morning of January 23, Ambassador Pamela Bridgewater, along with State Minister of Tourism and Entertainment Damion Crawford, Kathy Smith and Susan Robeson, unveiled at the entrance to the IRC, a plaque that bears the name “Paul Robeson Information Resource Center. This was followed by a ceremony in the embassy atrium to officially name the IRC in honor of Paul Robeson. The date for this event was set for January 23 because it coincided with the 36th anniversary of his death. The occasion was also used as one of the many cultural activities to celebrate Jamaica’s 50th anniversary of independence.
The guest speaker was the award-winning U.S. documentary filmmaker and Chair of the Paul Robeson Foundation, Susan Robeson. Ms. Robeson is granddaughter of the African American singer, actor, athlete and civil rights activist Paul Robeson.
Interestingly Paul Robeson actually gave a concert in Kingston on 19 November 1948. Unfortunately the sound system failed and the concert turned out to be a disaster with the stage collapsing from the crush of people who turned out to hear him and a few children getting killed in the melee. The occasion was documented by Edna Manley in her diaries:
Last night we went to hear Robson sing at the racecourse—the largest crowd we had ever seen. The sound system was hopelessly bad, and one could hear the words but the tone was hopelessly distorted—thousands of people heard nothing at all. The crowd was around seventy thousand. We were wading through the crowd to a spot where we could hear better, and the crowd around us, quite a small part of it, began to snowball behind us—so Norman stood still. It was terribly disappointing not to hear, and to feel the disappointment.
…went to the airbase to see Robeson go—he was in a terrible mood—savage over the failure of the ‘sound system’ and deeply hurt over the death of the child and injuries to the others. So typical of the Gleaner to headline the accident and give the type of presentation that almost made Robeson responsible for the tragedy.
Edna went on to note that Robeson subsequently phoned from New York asking Norman to contact the parents of the children who were killed and injured so that he could cover their hospital and funeral expenses.
Centre: Tayo Aluko with Barbara Gloudon, after performance of Call Mr. Robeson, Feb 4, 2012, Kingston
In celebration of Black History Month the US Embassy in Kingston put on two performances of “Call Mr. Robeson: A Life With Songs,” a one-man show written and performed by U.S. actor and singer Tayo Aluko.” I was privileged to attend the Saturday performance, last weekend, which was an intense and riveting enactment of one of the most extraordinary lives of the twentieth century. Aluko will be performing at Carnegie Hall on February 12th, 2012.
The Paul Robeson Information Resource Centre has the most comprehensive collection of materials on Robeson in the Caribbean, along with many other valuable documentary resources, and is freely available to the public.
Opening of SALISES 5050 conference with St Lucian Prime Minister Kenny Anthony who urged Jamaican judges to be less timid in their interpretation of constitutional rights, Feb 2, 2012
What a day, what a day. While i was busy taking in various activities at the SALISES 5050 Law and Justice Conference today news broke that a fugitive cop, Detective Sergeant Michael Sirjue, had fled the island after it was established in court that he had forged a witness statement in a case involving alleged leader of the Montego-Bay based Stone Crusher gang, Eldon Calvert and his brother, Gleason Calvert, and Michael Heron for the 2006 murder of cook shop operator Robert Green.
Apparently the witness statement was first flagged as false by handwriting expert and author Beverley East and corroborated by another expert who is actually a member of the police force. The witness in question, Artly Campbell, had been shot and killed. The discovery of the forgery has persuaded Director of Public Prosecutions Paula Llewelyn “that in the future she will ensure that statements are examined in cases, where the witness is dead or cannot be located.”
Now what’s interesting about all this is that the very first piece i posted when i created Active Voice in January 2008, my inaugural post as it were, involved another policeman, Detective Constable Cary Lyn-Sue, who had confessed to having not only manufactured a witness statement but the witness as well. What is really interesting is that Lyn-Sue’s supervisor was the self-same Det Sergeant Sirjue who is now absconding.
Fascinating isn’t it? With what passes for law and justice in this country is it any wonder that this is such a violent society? A lot of the crime plaguing us is the result of people taking the law into their own hands because the extant justice system just isn’t delivering.This is what gives rise to vigilante justice or informal justice systems presided over by dons.
Complementing this is a dishonest, unreliable police force that doesn’t hesitate to resort to criminality in the name of policing. A recipe for disaster that makes you wonder how many innocent people are languishing in prison today. It might interest you to read my post about Lyn-Sue…
Detective Constable Cary Lyn-Sue. The name will probably go down in Jamaican history in years to come; Thirty-one year old Lyn-Sue put the cat among the pigeons last week by doing something revolutionary. He told the truth. The detective constable confessed in the Montego Bay Resident Magistrate’s Court that he had fabricated witness testimony in the trial of 22-year old Jason James, allegedly a member of the Killer Bee gang.
Well, I didn’t even know such a gang existed. Lyn-Sue openly admitted that it was frustration that had driven him to invent a crown witness complete with incriminating testimony when fear prevented any actual witnesses from testifying. He was aware of various crimes committed by the accused, he said, and thought that getting James off the streets even for a day would be doing society a favour.
Speaking on Nationwide Radio’s This Morning programme the emotional constable said that he realized that his motive did not justify his deed and that he was perfectly willing to face the consequences for his crime of perjury. However he had recently converted to Christianity and found it increasingly difficult to live with what he had done. Owning up to his misdeed had made him feel good, and he felt a sense of relief, he said, even though he realized that the consequences would be dire.
There was something moving, if not awe-inspiring, about this extraordinary admission by the young policeman whose voice vibrated at times with the tension he was obviously feeling, having decided to take this lonely step of owning up to his misconduct, in a culture which appears to prefer to keep the truth behind bars or six feet under while making the sign of the cross and singing sankeys.
PS: As i write this I’m watching Mavado tell Entertainment Report on TVJ about his friend who was shot by a policeman some months ago at a nightclub. To date no investigation has been announced and no action taken against the policeman. Nor is any explanation forthcoming.
What law! what justice Jamaica enjoys after 50 years of independence!
Active Voice 