As Klansman Trial Progresses, Look For Judges To Showcase Their Disdain For Consequence For Actions..

The tri­al of 33 defen­dants alleged to be mem­bers of the Klansman Gang should first inform the author­i­ties of the seri­ous nature and the com­plex­i­ties the nation faces as transna­tion­al crim­i­nals coa­lesce in fur­ther­ance of their crim­i­nal goals.
For years this writer has called for tough laws typ­i­cal to the Rico Statute used by the United States to break the back of orga­nized crime.
That Statute pros­e­cutes crim­i­nal defen­dants act­ing in con­cert in fur­ther­ance of crim­i­nal wrong­do­ings and pun­ish­es them harshly.
Jamaican author­i­ties, faced with the exis­ten­tial threat of gang takeover of our coun­try, cob­bled togeth­er a hap­haz­ard piece of anti-gang leg­is­la­tion that does not go near­ly far enough in send­ing the appro­pri­ate mes­sage to gang­sters that they will be held ful­ly accountable.

Even as the police depart­ment, in its hap­haz­ard way, was warn­ing the coun­try that there was an exis­ten­tial threat fac­ing the coun­try through the gang for guns trade, know- it ‑all mouth­pieces like Horace Levy were telling the gov­ern­ment and peo­ple, that the killer gangs were actu­al­ly not gangs at all,-they were “cor­ner crews,” just guys hang­ing out on the corners.
Of course, nei­ther of the PNP admin­is­tra­tions that pre­ced­ed this JLP admin­is­tra­tion did much to secure the nation against this rather seri­ous threat.
Things came to a head after years and years of implau­si­ble deni­a­bil­i­ty and com­plic­i­ty. Prime Minister Andrew Holness was forced to con­cede that the threat posed by the transna­tion­al crime syn­di­cates oper­at­ing in Jamaica was out­side the abil­i­ties of the police to control.
Holness’s come to Jesus moment suc­ceed­ed the for­mer PNP’s min­is­ter of nation­al secu­ri­ty, Peter Bunting. He threw up his hands and declared that the only thing that could save Jamaica from the crim­i­nals ram­pag­ing unchecked was divine intervention.

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But that was also a lie- a big lie. In fact, the Jamaican peo­ple know the truth, Christians and non-Christians, Theist and Atheist, Rasta and bald­head, no one is com­ing to save the coun­try from crim­i­nals. The Savior they seek is us; we are the change we seek.
It took decades of bad-mouthing the police, starv­ing the depart­ment of resources, inter­fer­ing in the job of the police, and refus­ing to pay offi­cers a liv­able wage, effec­tive­ly caus­ing a flood of migra­tion that still today, the depart­ment can­not stop. They allowed the media and oth­er “eat-a-food” enti­ties like Jamaicans for Justice and oth­ers to spread pro­pa­gan­da and lies against the police, which got us to where we are today.
Both polit­i­cal par­ties are respon­si­ble for it.

The net result is that we now have a bet­ter-equipped police depart­ment than three decades ago. However, they still haven’t ful­ly moved to the more pro­fes­sion­al blue den­im across the board, and female offi­cers are still wear­ing skirts.
The depart­ment is still encum­bered by the same polit­i­cal inter­fer­ence, lack of ade­quate pay & leg­isla­tive sup­port. It is still hob­bled by train­ing that is so out­dat­ed that it is both shame­ful and laughable.
None of the issues fac­ing those who enforce the laws is more daunt­ing than the judges who sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly return dan­ger­ous gang mem­bers to the streets upon con­vic­tion with mere slaps on the wrists.
The police com­mis­sion­er Antony Anderson recent­ly spoke out against this prac­tice, albeit tongue-in-cheek and hav­ing arrived at the dance a day late and a dol­lar short.

The pros­e­cu­tion alleges that the defen­dants car­ried out a range of mur­ders, con­spir­a­cies to mur­der and extor­tion, and arson through­out St Catherine with­in the four years between 2015 & 2019. It said the gang’s head­quar­ters at Jones Avenue in Spanish Town was used by gang mem­bers for plan­ning their exploits and was also where brief­ing and debrief­ing in respect of crimes took place. The man said to be the leader of the gang, Andre Bryan, also known as Blackman and Teacha, is also among the 33.
Prosecutors also allege that defen­dants, which com­prise the “Blackman fac­tion” of the gang under Bryan’s lead­er­ship, had var­i­ous roles in which they act­ed as “killers, dri­vers, look­out men or watch­men, gun­smiths, and foot soldiers.
Even with the hard work put in by inves­ti­ga­tors and the chal­lenge pros­e­cu­tors have of win­ning con­vic­tions against these bru­tal, ani­mal­is­tic killers, the peo­ple face the daunt­ing prospect that the crim­i­nal cod­dling judges will let most defen­dants walk .”
And if that does­n’t hap­pen, there is always the court of appeals that is always will­ing to inject itself into the tri­al court’s deci­sions; if not to cut the con­vict­ed mur­der­ers loose, at least shave some time from their sentences.

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It was only after Haitian President Jovenel Moïse was mur­dered in his own home in July of 2021 that the Jamaican Prime Minister final­ly woke up from his life­long stu­por on the seri­ous­ness of the gangs’ chal­lenges to nation­al security.
No, the videos were not depict­ing the heavy weapon­ry they unleashed against the secu­ri­ty Forces in May Pen as they robbed the Chinese busi­ness. It was­n’t because of any of the oth­er videos that he closed his eyes to, as the very peo­ple he said police would not be kick­ing down doors to get the crim­i­nals while he was cam­paign­ing and even after he was elect­ed to office, it was only when he felt that he was vul­ner­a­ble he decid­ed to speak out.
“We are mak­ing long-term invest­ments in infra­struc­ture and human devel­op­ment, but we have an urgent prob­lem that, if we don’t use excep­tion­al pow­ers to address, those gangs can become a seri­ous threat to the State.” 
“I don’t have to expand and unpack that state­ment any­more. Ninety miles away from here; you see what can hap­pen.”(Andrew Holness)
Only after a region­al leader was assas­si­nat­ed and his own mor­tal­i­ty became a real­i­ty did he final­ly awake from his damn slum­ber and begin to real­ize that being born in Spanish Town, or wher­ev­er, does not make a damn dif­fer­ence; this is an exis­ten­tial crisis.
Holness spent his entire polit­i­cal life bad-mouthing the police and polic­ing in gen­er­al, giv­ing def­er­ence to the vilest crea­tures over the men and women who risk life and limb to defend our coun­try so that he can sleep safe­ly at night.

So as this tri­al progress, be pre­pared to see the lib­er­al elites sit­ting in judg­ment use the posi­tions giv­en them by the peo­ple against the people.
Be pre­pared to see them decide on slaps on the wrists for these vicious mis­fits who made con­scious deci­sions to oper­ate out­side soci­etal norms.
Because the buck stops with them and no one should dare ques­tion them because ques­tion­ing them is bring­ing the jus­tice sys­tem into dis­re­pute. This is the stuff tyran­ny is made of.
Imagine the affron­tery; unelect­ed bureau­crats decid­ing that their actions should not be ques­tioned because they know what’s best for us; we don’t…

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Mike Beckles is a for­mer Police Detective, busi­ness­man, free­lance writer, black achiev­er hon­oree, and cre­ator of the blog mike​beck​les​.com.