Contributor: Errol Mc Leish :

Since the United States, Supreme Court’s dec­la­ra­tion on the sta­tus of same sex mar­riage, there has been inter­est and con­cern, from some nations. Naturally, giv­en the US’ influ­ence on the geopo­lit­i­cal land­scape, the spot­light and focus has been inten­si­fied on coun­tries like Jamaica, where there is open dis­agree­ment with the con­cept. But should the Jamaican peo­ple and its gov­ern­ment be con­cerned at all about the impli­ca­tions of this turn of event? To answer this ques­tion, we look briefly on a num­ber of relat­ed issues to estab­lish a basis for the discussion.

The Jamaican soci­ety and cul­ture was ini­tial­ly, offi­cial­ly struc­tural­ly framed by its colo­nial mas­ters, Great Britain. It’s out of this cul­tur­al adap­ta­tion that laws against cer­tain acts which were deemed anti­so­cial were enact­ed. Among these, was the offence against the per­son act? This stat­u­ary pro­vi­sion is very wide, and includes, inter alia, the bug­gery act. Interestingly, this sec­tion is list­ed and cap­tioned in the pre­am­ble as an unnat­ur­al act. Given the influ­ence the church had on the cul­ture of Great Britain, one should not be sur­prised that the act of bug­gery would be includ­ed in the pro­vi­sions. Perhaps Leviticus 18: 22 might shed some light on this. “Thou salt not lie with mankind as with wom­ankind, it is abom­i­na­tion.” You got the picture?

If we under­stand how laws are cre­at­ed, we would appre­ci­ate that soci­etal norms and reli­gious prac­tices con­tribute immense­ly to its cre­ation. The bug­gery act remains on the Jamaican law books to this day because of adapt­ed soci­etal norms and the lack of inter­est on the part of any polit­i­cal par­ty, on either side of the polit­i­cal fence, be it the Jamaica Labor Party (JLP) or the Peoples National Party (PNP), to ini­ti­ate any changes to the law.

Of inter­est too, is the fact that, although these laws have been on the books for years, there has not been any sig­nif­i­cant arrest of any­one who has engaged in Homosexual activ­i­ty, at least not dur­ing my life time. This has been the case, despite the fact that prac­ti­tion­ers are known, even at the high­est ech­e­lon of our soci­ety. Many have only been open to the real­iza­tion of their exis­tence when they are killed, which in most instances were at the hands of oth­er per­sons who engaged in sim­i­lar activ­i­ty, these are the facts. Although empir­i­cal data is avail­able to demon­strate this, human rights and gay rights advo­ca­cy groups, in Jamaica, have engaged in a smear cam­paign against the state and its peo­ple, on the basis, that homo­sex­u­als are being ostra­cized, mar­gin­al­ized and tar­get­ed, because they are “dif­fer­ent”. This tru­ly is unfor­tu­nate, giv­en the facts avail­able, which obvi­ous­ly indi­cate the contrary.

One needs not to look too far, to con­clude why objec­tiv­i­ty is lack­ing from these groups. Well for one, their major spon­sors or either based in the US or in Europe. Jamaica gets grant or aid from these region, which have immense influ­ence on invest­ment and trade in the island. The heav­i­ly indebt­ed Jamaica, have to trod lines care­ful­ly and not be too crit­i­cal of poli­cies to which they are in dis­agree­ment. Given that this is the sit­u­a­tion it would come as no sur­prise that the US and Great Britain has been crit­i­cal of the bug­gery laws.

Great Britton’s PM had declared in their Parliament, that they would go as far as with­draw­ing aid to coun­tries who demon­strate anti homo­sex­u­al sen­ti­ments. The US has in recent times sent envoys to Jamaica in an effort to influ­ence changes in its bug­gery laws, and there will be more pres­sure, giv­en the par­a­digm shift on the issue.

A nation like Jamaica which has wast­ed its resources and have to rely on grants and loans from orga­ni­za­tion such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and oth­er multi­na­tion­al orga­ni­za­tions , have very lit­tle wig­gle room to make uni­lat­er­al deci­sions with­out con­sid­er­ing how the US and the UK would per­ceive it . The real­i­ty is, our deter­mined eco­nom­ic path is reliant on these eco­nom­ic pow­ers, and that places us in a rather pre­car­i­ous position.

While same sex Marriage might not be a real­i­ty in the near future in Jamaica, relax­ation of our bug­gery laws is tru­ly a like­ly pos­si­bil­i­ty. It is not a ques­tion of if it will hap­pen but when it will happen.

Over the years in these pages I have spo­ken out against the Liberal slant of Jamaica’s courts which in many cas­es caus­es even those with­out legal train­ing to gasp at the out­landish results which come out of them.
One of the rea­sons for the high crime rate in the coun­try and the break-down of social order may exact­ly be laid at the feet of the coun­try’s activists Judges, some of whom have been corrupted.
In instance after instance there evi­dence emerges of galling dis­par­i­ties in the dis­pen­sa­tion of jus­tice, depend­ing on who one knows or is affil­i­at­ed with.
Most shock­ing­ly how­ev­er , is the bla­tant con­tempt many of the coun­try’s judges have for the peo­ple’s cause.
I have argued stri­dent­ly that the vast major­i­ty of the Nation’s Judges who grad­u­ate from the Norman Manley law school are indoc­tri­nat­ed, left­ist ideologues.
They are heavy on crim­i­nal rights and light on per­son­al respon­si­bil­i­ty and adher­ence to the rule of law.
Many use the Courts as a plat­form as a medi­um to pro­mote their own agendas

As Major crimes con­tin­ue to rise, judges con­tin­ue to use their office to sub­vert the process of law and empow­er those who would cre­ate may­hem and chaos in our country
It is time they are held accountable.

Evan Brown a Justice on the High Court recent­ly award­ed Forty Five Thousand dol­lars for one hour and $100,000 for four and a half hours – this was part of the $225,000 award­ed to a for­mer deliv­ery man for false impris­on­ment after a high court judge found last month that he was held in police cus­tody for more than five hours on a charge that was lat­er dis­missed by a low­er court. Winston Hemans was also award­ed $80,000 for mali­cious pros­e­cu­tion in a civ­il suit he filed against the State aris­ing from an inci­dent at the Norman Manley International Airport (NMIA) in Kingston in July 2005.

Brown, how­ev­er, dis­missed Hemans’ claim for aggra­vat­ed or exem­plary dam­ages against the arrest­ing offi­cer, iden­ti­fied as Constable Andrew Anderson. “There was … noth­ing in the cir­cum­stances of the arrest of the claimant [Hemans], whether at the arrival area [at NMIA] or at the police sta­tion, that sug­gest­ed that the first defen­dant [Anderson] behaved in a high­hand­ed, insult­ing, mali­cious or oppres­sive man­ner,” Brown wrote in his rul­ing. Hemans claimed, in court doc­u­ments, that he parked his motor car at the NMIA on July 19, 2005, and was head­ing to the arrival area to deliv­er a pack­age when he was approached from behind by Anderson and asked to go with him to the police sta­tion locat­ed at the air­port. The for­mer deliv­ery man said when he got there, he was arrest­ed and charged with the offence of fail­ing to leave the air­port. Hemans said he was placed in cus­tody and remained there until he was grant­ed bail some time after 6 o’clock that evening. After three court appear­ances between July and August that year, pros­e­cu­tors decid­ed to drop the charge against him in September. But Anderson, in his wit­ness state­ment, said he saw Hemans at the arrival west ter­mi­nal area – clad in blue jeans and a white shirt – ille­gal­ly solic­it­ing pas­sen­gers and col­lect­ing mon­ey. Anderson tes­ti­fied that he told the deliv­ery man that he was com­mit­ting an offence and ordered him to leave the air­port. “Upon being so ordered, the claimant walked away,” the cop said.

HELD FOR FAILING TO LEAVE AIRPORT

However, he said that lat­er that day, he again saw Hemans solic­it­ing pas­sen­gers at the air­port, and it was at that time that he decid­ed to arrest him for fail­ing to leave the air­port. Anderson said a search of the deliv­ery man after the arrest revealed “mon­ey the claimant told him was col­lect­ed from solic­it­ing pas­sen­gers”. Brown, after hear­ing both sides, said the ques­tion became whether Hemans was the per­son Anderson spoke to ear­li­er that day.

“Did he [Anderson] make a mis­take? In his wit­ness state­ment, the first defen­dant [Anderson] described the per­son he told to leave the air­port as a man dressed in blue jeans and a shirt. However, in the entry made … in [the] sta­tion diary, the first defen­dant described the claimant [Hemans] as a man dressed in black pants and a blue shirt,” Brown not­ed. “The first defen­dant did not say any­thing to the claimant aside from ask­ing the claimant to accom­pa­ny him to the police sta­tion, although the claimant required of him a rea­son. He, there­by, robbed him­self of the oppor­tu­ni­ty to con­firm his ear­li­er obser­va­tions and ground his action in law,” the judge con­tin­ued. Brown also raised ques­tions about the constable’s claim in his wit­ness state­ment that the per­son he warned about solic­it­ing pas­sen­gers at the air­port walked away. He said an entry in the sta­tion diary revealed that “that per­son was escort­ed to the bus stop”. “This is the incon­gruity … nei­ther account made any ref­er­ence to the claimant’s [Hemans] car, which he, admit­ted­ly, had at the air­port. It strains the lim­its of the imag­i­na­tion to accept that the claimant would have walked with the first defen­dant to the bus stop with­out once men­tion­ing that he had his own mode of trans­porta­tion to leave the air­port,” Brown underscored.
See sto­ry here:Costly Lock-Up — Court Awards $225,000 For Wrongful Detention .

Here’s the Issue: Brown, dis­missed Hemans’ claim for aggra­vat­ed or exem­plary dam­ages against the arrest­ing offi­cer, iden­ti­fied as Constable Andrew Anderson. “There was … noth­ing in the cir­cum­stances of the arrest of the claimant [Hemans], whether at the arrival area [at NMIA] or at the police sta­tion, that sug­gest­ed that the first defen­dant [Anderson] behaved in a high­hand­ed, insult­ing, mali­cious or oppres­sive manner,”.
In oth­er words the Officer did absolute­ly noth­ing wrong beyond what he is tasked with doing, which is enforc­ing the laws. Police are placed at Airports to do specif­i­cal­ly what this Officer did, keep ter­mi­nals clear. All across the World in Nations which does not prac­tice back-water jus­tice as Jamaica does, Police offi­cers are very keen about keep­ing Airport ter­mi­nals clear for var­i­ous reasons >

Jamaica is no exception.
like oth­er Nations Jamaica has a respon­si­bil­i­ty to adhere to International stan­dards which Govern International Airports,.
Those stan­dards include but are not con­fined to ‚ensur­ing that ter­mi­nals are kept as clear as pos­si­ble so that rapid access may be avail­able to emer­gency vehi­cles and first responders.
Officers also have to be mind­ful of Terrorism in all forms when they are tasked with being vig­i­lant at International Airports.
What is abun­dant­ly clear is that this offi­cer was vig­i­lant and did his job.
What is also clear is that even if there was an error in the per­cep­tion of the Officer as far as the iden­ti­ty of the offend­er is con­cerned, there was no mali­cious intent.
If the Officer act­ed with­out mal­ice and made a gen­uine error in the iden­ti­fi­ca­tion process, where are the grounds for an award.
It was­n’t even clear that the offend­er had­n’t sim­ply changed his clothes.

This young police offi­cer may have made the sim­ple mis­take of using clothes to iden­ti­fy a sus­pect. But that mis­take ‚not a mali­cious­ly act, did not war­rant a dis­missal of the case and cer­tain­ly did not jus­ti­fy a civ­il award.
Clearly the court in this mat­ter bent back­ward , con­tort­ing itself into a pret­zel , in an attempt to find a way to award this offender.
What the ding-bat left­ist judge said was that basi­cal­ly the offi­cer act­ed appro­pri­ate­ly with no mal­ice, his own words.
Quote;“There was … noth­ing in the cir­cum­stances of the arrest of the claimant ‚whether at the arrival area [at NMIA] or at the police sta­tion, that sug­gest­ed that offi­cer Anderson behaved in a high­hand­ed, insult­ing, mali­cious or oppres­sive manner,”.

Yet he award­ed this offend­er money.
This guy was there doing exact­ly what Constable Anderson observed him doing .
It is a grave mis­car­riage of Justice that this back-water oper­a­tive act­ing as a legit­i­mate tri­er of facts can arbi­trar­i­ly sub­vert the course of jus­tice and get away with it.
For our part we will con­tin­ue to high­light these instances where these Judges whom are sworn to uphold the law , usurp their author­i­ty in order to inject their per­son­al beliefs and bias­es into the process.

In yet anoth­er response to the con­fus­ing saga regard­ing the incar­cer­a­tion of a 40 year-old Jamaican pilot jailed in Qatar, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a state­ment say­ing that Paul Stephens is still in prison.
This more sober response came only a day after Minister with Portfolio for Foreign Affairs AJ Nicholson gave what appeared to be an ine­bri­at­ed and dis­re­spect­ful response to the Media Interest in Stephens incar­cer­a­tion quote:
“Who is this man by the way, Is he king, Who is he, What is all this inter­est about?” “I am say­ing noth­ing fur­ther about this man or about this case”.!!
SEE STORY HERE: Jamaica’s Minister Of Foreign Affairs Regarding A Jamaican Citizen: “Who Is This Man By The Way, Is He King, Who Is He, What Is All This Interest About?” “I Am Saying Nothing Further About This Man Or About This Case.”!!!
Social media back­lash against Nicholson’s cave­man’s response was swift and bru­tal, no doubt prompt­ing a more respect­ful yet mun­dane response from the Ministry.

“Whenever Jamaican nation­als are arrest­ed and/​or held in cus­tody over­seas, the pol­i­cy of the Government of Jamaica is to allow the legal process­es to run their due course. It is not the pol­i­cy of the min­istry to inter­vene in the judi­cial process­es of oth­er coun­tries or to pub­licly impugn the integri­ty of these process­es with­out author­i­ta­tive jus­ti­fi­ca­tion,” the min­istry said.
In oth­er words the Ministry is doing noth­ing toward secur­ing the release of this Jamaican nation­al inno­cent or not.
This state­ment though rea­son­able sound­ing, masks a seri­ous flaw in the way the Jamaican Government sees it’s cit­i­zens. Though dif­fer­ent than Nicholson’s out­landish response a day ear­li­er, both respons­es shows a fun­da­men­tal lack of respect for their own citizens.

It is remark­able that the Ministry would release this response regard­ing a cit­i­zen of our Country par­tic­u­lar­ly against the back-drop of crim­i­nal Justice sys­tems in places like Qatar where their con­cept of the rule of law dif­fers sig­nif­i­cant­ly from ours and the rest of the civ­i­lized world.
If Mister Stephens is guilty of molest­ing a minor-child he deserves what­ev­er jus­tice that juris­dic­tion met­ed out. Conversely , we must ask our­selves whether we are com­fort­able with the notion of one of our coun­try­men being held in a Qatari prison for a crime he poten­tial­ly did not com­mit, yet receiv­ing no help from his own Government?

As in many cas­es where crimes are alleged, sup­port­ers line up on both sides. Nevertheless we can ill-afford to allow the bar­bar­i­ty of crim­i­nals to cre­ate a sense of apa­thy with­in us which numbs us to Injustice and robs us of our humanity.
That is why it is impor­tant that our Government do all it can to assist our Nationals when­ev­er they are incar­cer­at­ed abroad . It Is impor­tant that we allow the sys­tem of Justice to take it’s course in Sovereign Nations. But we must nev­er lose sight of the fact that in many places some are more equal than others.
That includes our very own pre­cious Island Home>

Lost in this con­fu­sion is the announce­ment from Shadow Minister on Foreign Affairs Edmund Bartlett that mis­ter Stephens was released from Prison accord­ing to his Qatari sources in the United States.
If indeed Mister Stephens is still in Prison, Mister Bartlett may want to recon­sid­er his sources as well as the degree with which he makes announce­ments with­out prop­er verification.

Commissioner of Police Dr. Carl Williams is lob­by­ing to again change the laws allow­ing police to arrest peo­ple they sus­pect of com­mit­ting crimes even with­out enough evidence.
Williams report­ed­ly said “We want to, hope­ful­ly, get an amend­ment to the Bail Act, so that even per­sons who are not charged for crim­i­nal offences can be arrest­ed and bailed pri­or to charge,”

What does that even mean?
So the Commissioner is seek­ing an amend­ment to the Bail Act. So that per­sons not charged with an offense may be arrest­ed and Bailed pri­or to being charged?
Simply put, the Commissioner seeks a return to the days of the Suppression of Crimes Act which allowed Police to just gath­er up huge groups of young men from cer­tain deprived areas and throw them in Jail some­times for weeks on end.
I must con­fess that the dura­tion of my 10 years of ser­vice was under those spe­cial pow­ers and yes crime was low­er across the board. However it can­not be said that lock­ing up dozens and dozens of young men from a par­tic­u­lar area is the way to go strate­gi­cal­ly if the goal is to have crime trend down on a continuüm.

The Gleaner reports that; In 2011, the Supreme Court struck down amend­ments made to the Bail Act which were made by Parliament the year before. Among oth­er things, the amend­ments pro­vid­ed for the deten­tion of a sus­pect on gun and mur­der offences for 60 days with­out bail. Additionally, accused were being required to sat­is­fy the court as to why they should be released on bail, a pro­vi­sion which runs counter to the Constitution. They could be held for up to 72 hours before being charged, instead of the 24-hour pro­vid­ed for by the Constitution.

I am tempt­ed to blast the Liberal Supreme Court for stand­ing in the way of any­thing which would alle­vi­ate the crime prob­lem and I would be on the mark . Nevertheless the Supreme Court has a duty to fol­low the Constitution.
This brings us to the ques­tion of con­sti­tu­tion­al reform. Jamaica needs a new Constitution. I believe the time is right for either a new Constitution or major over­haul to the present one geared at pro­tect­ing the cit­i­zens of our Country.
The Commissioner is seem­ing­ly at a loss as to the way for­ward ‚. Recently I saw some­thing in the papers about old retired Detectives will­ing to offer their exper­tise toward solv­ing the Nation’s crime prob­lem. The com­mis­sion­er should take them up on their offer.
The JCF must extri­cate itself from the ancient think­ing of bru­tal­i­ty and mass incar­cer­a­tion with­out charge, as a way of address­ing crime.There are no sub­sti­tutes for…
♦ Good Detective work.
♦ Scientific evi­dence. Improvements in Forensics.
♦ Bringing com­mu­ni­ties along on strategies.
♦ Community Policing.
♦ Developing and exe­cut­ing effec­tive crime strategies.

Commissioner Williams is a PhD.
We were told that what we need­ed to ade­quate­ly fix our crime prob­lem were no more big ‑foot-fool-fool-police bway.
The Force has under­gone much sup­posed improve­ments since my depar­ture over two decades ago,still the nation is yet to real­ize much in the way of returns on investments.
Sorry Commissioner this is not the way for­ward, whether you were jok­ing about your per­for­mance being 10 out of 10 or not , this lat­est strat­e­gy has you bat­ting 0 – 2 .
Will you strike out?
Time will tell.…..

“Who is this man by the way, Is he king, Who is he, What is all this interest about?” “I am saying nothing further about this man or about this case.”!!!

These were the words of Jamaica’s Foreign Minister Senator A J Nicholson, when Journalists ques­tioned him about the release of a Jamaican National Paul Stephens,who was locked up in Qatar for over three years. Stephens a 40 year-old Pilot have been incar­cer­at­ed on a charge of sex­u­al molesta­tion of a minor.
Opposition spokesman on Foreign Affairs Edmund Bartlett revealed days ago that through his efforts Stephens was released.
At the time the Information came to light regard­ing Stephens release from Prison, Nicholson admit­ted he had no knowl­edge of it , cit­ing the dif­fer­ence in time zones between Jamaica and Qatar as the rea­son he could not ver­i­fy the report.

Conversely Bartlett stat­ed that his liai­son with Qatari offi­cials in the United States con­firmed the release of Stephens. Other enti­ties have also been lob­by­ing for the release of Mister Stephens whom they claimed was unjust­ly incarcerated.
Bartlett also acknowl­edged that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was indeed involved in try­ing to secure the release of mis­ter Stephens. So what then is the rea­son for this caus­tic and dis­re­spect­ful response from AJ Nicholson?

Is it that Nicholson is pissed that Bartlett pre­empt­ed him by com­ing out and announc­ing the release of Stephens?
It may very well be juve­nile polit­i­cal malice.
In fact when pre­vi­ous­ly told that Bartlett had announced the release , Nicholson alleged­ly said ” who wan tek cred­it can go ahead and tek cred­it”.

Juvenile tantrum aside regard­ing who should be cred­it­ed, Nicholson’s tirade on this issue involv­ing a Jamaican cit­i­zen shows the deep dis­re­spect these Politicians have for Jamaicans.
Nicholson’s salary and perks are paid by Jamaican tax-pay­ers. Yet the lev­el of dis­re­spect com­ing from his mouth regard­ing exact­ly what he should be look­ing about is rather illuminating.
Shocking as this tirade is it is the norm of PNP politi­cians to show dis­dain for Jamaicans. Robert Pickersgill once asked a male audi­ence mem­ber whether he was “hav­ing his peri­od” because the mem­ber dared ques­tion him.
In oth­er some places Nicholson would have been asked to resign . However when we look at who holds the top spot in the ech­e­lons of elect­ed pow­er that thought dis­si­pates rather quickly.

AJ Nicholson has always been a self-serv­ing Arrogant piece of filth when he prac­ticed as a Defense Lawyer. In many cas­es his impres­sions of him­self as a crim­i­nal defense lawyer was not borne out at the dis­po­si­tion of cas­es in which he was involved. As the Nation’s top Diplomat there is no place for that type of arro­gance and disrespect.
Then I’m remind­ed it’s only Jamaica , any­thing goes. These ass-wipes are only there to fat­ten their pockets.

Former head of the National Solid Waste Management Authority and Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) mem­ber, Joan Gordon-Webley, has con­firmed that she has joined the rul­ing People’s National Party (PNP), say­ing that she is will­ing to face what­ev­er crit­i­cism that may come as a result of the move.

Just last year Webley resigned as the JLP’s care­tak­er for St Andrew East Rural. At the time there were spec­u­la­tions that she would be join­ing the People’s National Party. As a result the Jamaica Labor Labor Party must have seen this com­ing. Generally if you hear some­thing in Jamaica if it’s not the truth it’s usu­al­ly close to the truth.

On that basis I believe the hier­ar­chy of the Jamaica Labor Party (JLP) to which Webley belonged must have expect­ed this from the time she resigned last year. In fact there were rum­blings that there were dis­agree­ments which pre­cip­i­tat­ed her res­ig­na­tion as care­tak­er of the St Andrew East Rural Constituency.

Without spec­u­lat­ing on the details sur­round­ing Webley’s exit from the JLP and her sub­se­quent align­ment with the failed PNP , it is fair to say her depar­ture is no great loss for the Labor Party. It may also be fair to say that the PNP is a bet­ter fit for her.
Webley comes from a dif­fer­ent time in Jamaican politics .
A time of Garrisons and guns.
It is unclear whether Webley eschewed those old style Politics as the younger less trib­al Andrew Holness has.
Whatever the rea­sons for her depar­ture, they are imma­te­r­i­al at this time.
For any­one steeped in Jamaica’s polit­i­cal his­to­ry, it must amaze that in light of the less con­fronta­tion­al style and direc­tion of Holness , that Gordon Webley would seek to join the PNP.

This is no loss for the Labor Party despite the immi­nent noise which will emanate as a result of the optics. Holness must stead­fast­ly con­tin­ue to rebuild the Labor Party on the mar­ket style prin­ci­ples of Bustamante.
Bustamante was a Business-Owner and a Trade Union Leader, those dis­ci­plines unique­ly pre­pared him to launch the Labor Party on the prin­ci­ples of Education, love of Country and hard work .
Those are the bedrock prin­ci­ples which lead indi­vid­u­als and Nations out of pover­ty. Much unlike the Government-depen­den­cy mantra of the oth­er par­ty cre­at­ed by his more glib cousin Norman Manley.

The Labor Party should not bad-mouth Joan Gordon-Webley, mem­bers should sim­ply thank her for her ser­vice and wish her well while con­tin­u­ing the work of devel­op­ing strate­gies and poli­cies which will res­cue Jamaica and return it to a path of growth and prosperity.
Adiós Joan.….…

The Jamaican Government said it is work­ing to secure more con­vic­tions in Human Trafficking in the Courts. Chairperson for the National Task Force Against Trafficking in Persons (NATFATIP), Carol Palmer, who made the dis­clo­sure to JIS News, said the Government intends to deal harsh­ly with per­sons engaged in human trafficking.
Palmer made the com­ments against the back­drop of Jamaica gain­ing it’s very first con­vic­tion in the Courts for Human Trafficking.
Palmer laud­ed all the enti­ties , includ­ing the Police and Prosecutor for their work in secur­ing the Conviction of Indian busi­ness­man, Rajesh Gurunani, who oper­at­ed gar­ment stores in down­town Kingston and in St Catherine, was found guilty of traf­fick­ing in per­sons, facil­i­tat­ing traf­fick­ing in per­sons, and with­hold­ing trav­el doc­u­ments between May 2008 and March 2011.

As a lit­tle boy we used to go bird shoot­ing using cat­a­pults (sling-shot), I was a hor­ren­dous shot. Any Bird I fired at was sure to escape I was that bad a shot with a sling-shot. Usually I end­ed up shoot­ing parts of my own hand rather than hit­ting the bird.
I was such a hor­ri­ble shot that on the one occa­sion I actu­al­ly did shoot a bird my entire fam­i­ly laughed at me so bad­ly I was embar­rassed. Everyone said that the Bird must have been sick, on it’s way home from the Hospital in order for me to actu­al­ly shoot it. I was so embar­rassed that I believed that maybe the Bird was indeed sick, I did not eat it despite my love for Bird-meat.

With the Incompetence of the Criminal Justice System in Jamaica it is incom­pre­hen­si­ble that they would actu­al­ly show their faces to cel­e­brate the Nation’s first con­vic­tion in the Courts for some­thing which has been going on for years.
Mister Rajesh Gurunani was the prover­bial sick bird. His lev­el of care­less­ness, incom­pe­tence and maybe arro­gance must have been mon­u­men­tal for the Jamaican sys­tem to fig­ure out his transgressions.
All of these peo­ple Jamaicans or oth­ers, regard­less of where they come from under­stand the inher­ent weak­ness and utter incom­pe­tence of the Jamaican Security and crim­i­nal appre­hen­sion apparatus.
Chairperson Carol Palmer was quick to point out that the Government will be seek­ing to secure more con­vic­tions. This prompts me to ask,“Why does the coun­try need a Task-Force Against Trafficking in Persons”?
Aren’t these Police Responsibilities?
Palmer brags that the Government intends to deal harsh­ly with per­sons engaged in Human traf­fick­ing. How exact­ly will the Government do this?
Will there be an edict from Jamaica House with the Queen declar­ing (“off with their heads”) ? Or are there clear, deci­sive and unam­bigu­ous laws which sends offend­ers to prison?
This is real­ly much to do about noth­ing. It real­ly is not that com­pli­cat­ed to inves­ti­gate these mat­ters. The Ministry of National Security’s Website states that For the peri­od April 2012 to March 2013, two hun­dred and thir­teen (213) police raids were con­duct­ed and 23 human traf­fick­ing vic­tims were res­cued. Over 100 per­sons have also been inter­viewed by the JCF Trafficking in Persons Unit in rela­tion to human traf­fick­ing, 90 of those being since January 2013.

If you thought I was being unrea­son­able in my crit­i­cism of the sin­gle con­vic­tion this alone ought to give you pause.
In one year 213 raids were con­duct­ed by Police.
Twenty three (23) vic­tims released.
One hun­dred per­sons interviewed.

Yet the Government cel­e­brates a sin­gle con­vic­tion in the courts. Many of my for­mer col­leagues in law-enforce­ment crit­i­cize me for being too hard on the JCF with my criticisms.
Those with whom I worked under­stand full well what I am talk­ing about. If crim­i­nals broke the laws we went after them.
When we went after them ‚we got them.
When we got them, rest assured they were convicted.
What the Courts did with them was not our business.
Jamaica’s hopes for a reduc­tion in crime is not based on any real­is­tic , or rea­son­ably-attain­able met­ric beyond Divine Intervention. As a Christian I can tell you, God helps those who help themselves.
The Jamaican Government and it’s lack­eys in the Police Department chased effec­tive police offi­cers from the Force and replaced them with pen­cil-push­ing desk-warm­ing wannabes, main­ly their cronies from the University of the West Indies (UWI) who need­ed work.
Platitudes, Promises and Pronouncements are the order of the day as the Crime wave rages.
As one per­son puts it Nero twid­dles his thumb as Rome burns.

Youth Unemployment is rough­ly twice the National Average in Jamaica . Youth Unemployment Rate in Jamaica decreased to 5.70 per­cent in May of 2015 from 5.90 per­cent in April of 2015. accord­ing to the Ministry of Internal Affairs & Communications. According to the same report­ing the very same Ministry reports that Youth Unemployment in 2015, reached an all time high of 13.20 per­cent in March of 2003.
To Jamaicans famil­iar with the num­ber of young peo­ple with absolute­ly noth­ing to do these num­bers are beyond laughable.
Despite this, I am not talk­ing specif­i­cal­ly about youth unem­ploy­ment in the abstract but as one of the rea­sons for the Country’s high mur­der rate.
Youth Unemployment. Deportation. Lack of ade­quate Laws. Lack of laws with teeth. Police Incompetence. Lack of sup­port for the Rule of Law. Lack of sup­port from the Political Directorate to Law Enforcement, are only some of the issues fuel­ing the Nation’s bur­geon­ing crime wave.

WHAT IS COMMISSIONER OF POLICE CARL WILLIAMS SMOKING ?
Commissioner of Police Dr Carl Williams yes­ter­day gave him­self a per­fect rat­ing of 10 out of 10 as he launched what he said were a num­ber of new and tweaked ini­tia­tives to go after crim­i­nals who are respon­si­ble for almost 90 per cent of the 602 mur­ders record­ed in the island over the first six months of this year , accord­ing to the Jamaica Observer. SEE STORY HERE Perfect 10.

According to the report­ing , that fig­ure rep­re­sents a 19 per cent jump (98 more) in the num­ber of mur­ders com­mit­ted over the cor­re­spond­ing peri­od last year. The Article the­o­rized that Williams is seek­ing to allay the fears of Jamaicans.

I am unsure to what extent anoth­er pro­nounce­ment from the Police High Command offer­ing grand plat­i­tudes and mak­ing promis­es it can­not and has no capac­i­ty to ful­fill will do that.
Williams argues that at the top of the list of ini­tia­tives to stem the tide of dead­ly crimes was a new pro­gram called ‘Get the Guns Campaign’, which will offer mon­e­tary incen­tives to cit­i­zens who pro­vide infor­ma­tion that lead to the con­fis­ca­tion of dead­ly weapons. “In light of this and the increased use of guns in mur­ders, I am here intro­duc­ing the ‘Get the Guns Campaign’,” the com­mis­sion­er told jour­nal­ists at a news con­fer­ence at his office in Kingston. “This cam­paign is designed to one, inter­cept ille­gal guns com­ing into the coun­try; two, seize ille­gal guns in the hands of the crim­i­nals; and three, ulti­mate­ly reduce the num­ber of gun mur­ders in the coun­try,” Williams said.!!!
Call me unin­formed and sil­ly but I have to ask this of Commissioner Williams.
If the pro­gram is to quote : Offer mon­e­tary incen­tives to cit­i­zens who pro­vide infor­ma­tion that lead to the con­fis­ca­tion of dead­ly weapons.!
How will the very same pro­gram quote: Intercept ille­gal guns com­ing into the coun­try; two, seize ille­gal guns in the hands of the crim­i­nals; and three, ulti­mate­ly reduce the num­ber of gun mur­ders in the country,”?
Hence my ques­tion to the good­ly Dr. What are you smoking?

Essentially this is just anoth­er Gun Amnesty which gen­er­al­ly does pre­cious lit­tle to reduce Crime but pro­vides a stream of income to those already immersed in crim­i­nal con­duct and more specif­i­cal­ly those engaged in the gun trade.
Generally, Criminals do not give up their guns, they will turn over unused or unus­able old weapons to the police while hold­ing onto their stash of real weapons.
Probably more con­se­quen­tial, a gun amnesty opens up new oppor­tu­ni­ties for gun traders to source weapons ille­gal­ly then sim­ply sell them to the Police/​Government at a profit.

As a for­mer front line street cop I was nev­er par­tic­u­lar­ly enthused about gun amnesty. They nev­er real­ize the intend­ed results. In the end they offer pay-offs to cit­i­zens who should have called police about their knowl­edge of ille­gal weapons for their own good to begin with.
Good cit­i­zens call police about crim­i­nal activ­i­ty, includ­ing the where­abouts of ille­gal weapons. Jamaicans must under­stand the lives they save may be their very own.
As a sup­port­er of the Rule of Law, and a Jamaican who yearn for the Police Department to be an effi­cient enti­ty which pro­duces results, I am pained at the Commissioner’s statements.
This state­ment is a clear indi­ca­tion that on the mer­its the Police has no real strat­e­gy to push back against seri­ous crimes in Jamaica.

I am aware that the Government has not sup­plied near­ly enough resources to do the Job. We are also aware that to some extent The Administration is heav­i­ly invest­ed in Criminal con­duct through sur­ro­gates who are well placed in crit­i­cal areas of the society.
I am also aware that the Administration has a net­work of Garrisons through­out the Country in which Criminal behav­ior is nur­tured and encouraged .
Despite this, it is impor­tant that the Police employ more stri­dent and work­able strate­gies geared at pro­vid­ing returns on Investments for the Jamaican Nation.
I ful­ly under­stand that the Force is large­ly demor­al­ized as a result of the fore­gone and oth­er issues, how­ev­er the Commissioner must use the tools he has at his dis­pos­al more effectively.
A gun Amnesty is not the answer real and tan­gi­ble strate­gies are ..

(1)Training Detectives to Investigate Crimes.
(2) Using your Office to push the Administration to pass Laws putting crim­i­nals behind bars and keep­ing them there.
(3) Use Officers more effi­cient­ly by hav­ing very vis­i­ble , coör­di­nat­ed pres­ence in high risk communities .
(4) Having your­self and the rest of the Gazetted Ranks stand firm­ly and unequiv­o­cal­ly behind Officers until they are proven to have bro­ken the laws. Over the decades Commissioners and the Gazetted Ranks have been noth­ing but boot lick­ing lack­eys when it comes to sup­port­ing police who do the real work.
(5) Be pro­fes­sion­al take no bull­shit from nei­ther the Administration nor the Opposition. In order to effect change the Police must become an equal oppor­tu­ni­ty offend­er in sup­port of the Nation’s Laws.
(6) Stop being sub­servient and def­er­en­tial to Politicians.

Over the years this pub­li­ca­tion has made real and sub­stan­tive sug­ges­tions which if adopt­ed would have seri­ous­ly placed seri­ous crimes in remission.
Many years ago while I was a young Constable sta­tioned at the Mobile Reserve crim­i­nals would ter­ror­ize Brook Avenue and oth­er parts of the com­mu­ni­ty of Duhaney Park.
Armed with high-pow­ered weapons they used the high ground at the back of Brook avenue as a stag­ing ground from which to launch assaults on the Community.
A sin­gle Police Unit with four offi­cers, appro­pri­ate­ly armed, strate­gi­cal­ly placed brought those attacks to a halt.
These are not new strate­gies. They worked in the Eastern St Andrew com­mu­ni­ties of Nannyville, at the foot of Wareika Hills, and in oth­er loca­tions all across the cor­po­rate area.
As a young offi­cer I was part of sim­i­lar strate­gies all across the Country as we were air­lift­ed into com­mu­ni­ties like Hayes and adjoin­ing com­mu­ni­ties in the Parish of Clarendon. Flankers in St. James and oth­er com­mu­ni­ties all across our country.
The place­ment of well trained , well equipped offi­cers who are unafraid to take action is the best way to tamp down on seri­ous crimes.
Placing band-aid on gun­shot wounds is a fool’s errand.
Commissioner Williams may have spent too much time behind desks to ful­ly under­stand­ing crime fight­ing techniques.
Empty out the Police sta­tions, flood the com­mu­ni­ties with uni­formed cops .
The best deter­rent against crim­i­nals is catch­ing them when they com­mit crimes.
If offi­cers are placed and their place­ment strate­gi­cal­ly coör­di­nat­ed with appro­pri­ate rein­force­ments crime trends down dramatically.
As I have said before there are struc­tur­al and geo­graph­i­cal chal­lenges to effi­cient polic­ing in Jamaica, despite those chal­lenges, sus­tained ‚coör­di­nat­ed intel­li­gence-based polic­ing is possible.
It’s time the Commissioner and his cohorts above Cross Roads real­ize that PhD’s are good but they do pre­cious lit­tle to impact crime . Flowery goobly-gook sounds good but real polic­ing from real cops has no substitute.
That is the job of real ded­i­cat­ed crime fight­ers who know what the hell they are about.

In a recent (United States State Department) Report on Human Rights the Agency alleged that “The (Jamaican) Government did not restrict or dis­rupt access to the Internet or cen­sor online con­tent. There were cred­i­ble reports, how­ev­er, that the Government mon­i­tored pri­vate online com­mu­ni­ca­tions with­out appro­pri­ate legal authority.”

The United States State Department is in brack­ets because I believe there is a mis­guid­ed notion in the United States that the American State Department is the State Department for the rest of the World.
Last time I checked Jamaica was a small but Sovereign Nation, hav­ing to find it’s own way in the world amidst the inher­ent dis­ad­van­tages it faces against larg­er Nations, eco­nom­i­cal­ly and otherwise.
Jamaican Authorities have angri­ly pushed back against this asser­tion by The United States State Department alle­ga­tions. In a strong­ly word­ed response Junior Technology Minister Julian Robinson chal­lenged the US author­i­ties to pro­vide proof of the alle­ga­tions laid against the Jamaican Government. Yesterday, the American Embassy in Kingston respond­ed with a release say­ing that an inac­cu­ra­cy had been published.
Now lets be rea­son­able it is quite nor­mal for humans to make mis­take. It is cer­tain­ly not Okay or cool for Nations to illic­it­ly obtain infor­ma­tion, then smear and malign oth­er Nations with what amounts to noth­ing but lies. Then to add insult to Injury sim­ply say “whoops we made a mistake”.
What right did you have mak­ing the asser­tion in the first place?
How did you acquire the information?
The fact is, all of this infor­ma­tion, cor­rect and incor­rect are gleaned by CIA oper­a­tives , many of whom are brush­ing shoul­ders with Jamaicans at every lev­el of Jamaican soci­ety. They oper­ate out of the United States Embassy, where they con­duct illic­it and un-autho­rized spying.
It’s not okay to sim­ply say …

The US Department of State has now cor­rect­ed the report and, as part of its process to devel­op these reports, the US Government want­ed “a robust exchange” between civ­il soci­ety, the press, and gov­ern­ment lead­ers on the issue. “We wel­come feed­back on the report, with the objec­tive of main­tain­ing the most author­i­ta­tive, com­pre­hen­sive and fac­tu­al review of the glob­al state of human rights,”

Jamaica is not America’s 51^st state . The United States needs to pay atten­tion to it’s own trans­gres­sions and breach­es of Human Right which are many , var­ied and egre­gious, par­tic­u­lar­ly under the Patriot Act.
Torture.
Extra-judi­cial killings by Police.
Illicit spy­ing on it’s own citizens.
And it’s total un-restrained big Government con­trol of it’s own citizenry.
How dare the United States con­tin­ue to inject itself into the affairs of oth­er Nations under the guise of International Human Rights when right here in America the Government engages in ille­gal and uncon­sti­tu­tion­al sur­veil­lance of it’s own cit­i­zens. Engages in Drone Killings(Innocent Casualties be damned).
And oth­er tac­tics designed to silence any­one opposed to it’s operations.
Under the Obama Administration, Whistle blow­ers like Edward Snowden and Wiki-Leaks’s Julian Asange have had to seek Sanctuary in exile to avoid prosecution.
Why ?
Because they dare reveal what the Government is doing against it’s own Constitution, and peo­ple. Under Obama more whis­tle blow­ers have been pros­e­cut­ed than under any oth­er Administration. Those who stand in defense of the Constitution against Government illic­it behav­ior do so at their own peril.
Speaking out against the American Government is not exact­ly advis­able unless one is pre­pared for the consequences.
Where does the State Department gets it’s gall crit­i­ciz­ing oth­er Countries in light of these truths with­out first fix­ing it’s own injus­tices and Governmental intru­sions into peo­ple’s lives?

Could the orig­i­nal Bennifer be head­ed toward a rec­on­cil­i­a­tion? Days after Ben Affleck and wife of 10 years Jennifer Garner announced their split, reports sur­faced claim­ing that the 42-year-old Oscar win­ner has alleged­ly been in con­tact with his ex Jennifer Lopez. “Everyone is talk­ing about J.Lo and Ben and say­ing it’s inevitable they will get togeth­er again at some point,” an insid­er told the UK’s Sun.

“They were pret­ty flir­ty at the Oscars and have stayed in touch over email. Jennifer Garner nev­er liked it.” Despite the claims, sources tell the Daily News Lopez and Affleck “haven’t spo­ken.” The for­mer Hollywood it cou­plemade head­lines at this year’s Academy Awards when they were report­ed­ly spot­ted chat­ting dur­ing a com­mer­cial break in the broadcast.

Affleck approached his ex-fiancée and “whis­pered some­thing” in her ear before she “play­ful­ly” swat­ted his arm, the AP report­ed at the time. While the two seemed to be on friend­ly terms then, the songstress described her 2003 break up with Affleck as her “first real heart­break” in her 2014 mem­oir “True Love.” Fans should­n’t expect a “Gigli” sequel any­time soon as Lopez, 45, was just seen cozy­ing up to her on-again, off-again boyfriend Casper Smart in New York City a mere 24 hours after Affleck and Garner’s divorce announcement.

“After much thought and care­ful con­sid­er­a­tion, we have made the dif­fi­cult deci­sion to divorce,” the par­ents of three said in a joint state­ment Tuesday, just one day after their wed­ding anniver­sary. “We go for­ward with love and friend­ship for one anoth­er and a com­mit­ment to co-par­ent­ing our chil­dren whose pri­va­cy we ask to be respect­ed dur­ing this dif­fi­cult time.“Ben Affleck ‘stayed in touch’ with ex Jennifer Lopez in months lead­ing up to Jennifer Garner split: report