Author Archives: Mike

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Backyard Gardening;

I recent­ly adopt­ed a new hob­by, back­yard gardening,it is a hobby now, but dur­ing my high school days it was a means of putting food on the table and mon­ey in my pock­ets, any­way, I digress.

Times are a lit­tle hard right now and many peo­ple are strug­gling just to make ends meet, peo­ple in Jamaica and oth­er parts of the world are hav­ing to be inge­nious in stretch­ing their gro­cery dol­lar to feed their fam­i­lies, hav­ing lived in both Jamaica and the United States I have a lit­tle bit of expe­ri­ence on what it feels like to be with­out mon­ey, or at least enough of it, in both countries.

I would like to stress to my friends who access these blogs, that it is real­ly isn’t that dif­fi­cult to pro­duce fresh veg­eta­bles and fruits to sup­ple­ment the fam­i­ly’s dietary needs, and maybe add a lit­tle bless­ing to some­one else.With very lit­tle space and a few dol­lars at the right farm store, you would be sur­prised what you can accomplish .

This spring I ven­tured into a farm store a short dis­tance from my home, I pur­chased a vari­ety of seedlings , includ­ing two vari­eties of let­tuce, two vari­eties of water­mel­on, cucum­ber , green pep­pers, squash ‚(or what we in Jamaica call pumpkin),hot peppers,tomatoes , zuc­chi­ni . Supplemented by egg­plant and Callalo seedlings a friend blessed me with.

So I pro­ceed­ed home with my seedlings , along with some peat moss, a small bag of organ­ic fer­til­iz­er, and some top soil, to the side of our house and there I did my thing.Well it’s been over fifty days and my fam­i­ly have ben­e­fit­ted from green pep­pers ‚plum tomatoes,callalo,hot pep­pers, and our let­tuce are almost all gone thanks to my wife.

I am in total and utter fas­ci­na­tion at the good­ness of God in pro­vid­ing food for my fam­i­ly from such a con­fined space and I thought I would like to share that with you wher­ev­er you may be​.You too can do the same in a wood­en box or an old tire, or a small area where there is at least six hours of after­noon sun,a lit­tle less would not be catrostrophic.

You can find good top soil any­where in Jamaica or oth­er parts of the Caribbean and you may be sur­prised that here in the USA the leaves you rake and bag in the fall , may be stored and used as valu­able mulch in the spring.Places like Kingston Jamaica pos­es a slight­ly big­ger chal­lenge for ten­e­ment dwellers , for those in high-rise dwellings this may not be for you, but for those peo­ple liv­ing on ground lev­els , even rent­ed ten­e­ments, you can pro­duce some toma­toes , pep­pers , callalo,and even cucum­bers and cab­bage to bol­ster whats served at the din­ner table, the weath­er is good and you may do this year round in Jamaica, peo­ple in the New York do not have the lux­u­ry of year round gar­den­ing but should take full advan­tage of the warm months.

Happy gar­den­ing.

mike beck­les:

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WHAT IS THE STRATEGY FOR SMASHING JAMAICA’S CRIMINAL GANGS ?

Police personnel at the Denham Town Police Station hold hands in prayer after their colleague, Constable Lynden Barrett, was shot and killed in West Kingston.
Police per­son­nel at the Denham Town Police Station hold hands in prayer after their col­league, Constable Lynden Barrett, was shot and killed in West Kingston.

At the start of this year Police Commissioner Owen Ellington declared to the Country that he would be demand­ing from Divisional Commanders their strat­e­gy to com­plete­ly dis­man­tle Jamaica’s Criminal Gangs.The Police argue that there are sev­er­al dozen Criminal Gangs oper­at­ing across the Island.Some Non Governmental Organizations dis­pute those claims, argu­ing that some of the group­ings of peo­ple the Police call gangs are just guys hang­ing out on the corners.

Horace Levy has been a senior lec­tur­er and research fel­low at the University of the West Indies since 1998. His 2009 mono­graph Killing Streets and Community Revival is based both on his research and his active involve­ment since 2002 in the Peace Management Initiative. (AAP Home > Department of City & Regional Planning).The argu­ments made by mis­ter Levy is based on his asso­ci­a­tion with the orga­ni­za­tion he helps to lead, the PMI.

Having spent a decade polic­ing the inner cities and gar­risons of Jamaica ‚I must say with all due respect to Mister Levy and the PMI, despite the valu­able work they do, I am more inclined to go with the assess­ment of the Police.The work of the PMI though invalu­able, is dif­fer­ent from the role of the police . Operatives of the PMI are seen in these com­mu­ni­ties in a dif­fer­ent light than the way the police is viewed.

Arguing that guys on the cor­ner who behave in a civ­il way around PMI oper­a­tives are some­how divorced from turf-defense, extor­tion, and the com­mis­sion of oth­er crimes, shows a lack of under­stand­ing of how crim­i­nals oper­ate. It’s naïveté, or much worse. That argu­ment is sim­i­lar to that of par­ents whom have done their best to raise a child, would swear on the Bible that the child nev­er indulges in bad behav­ior, until that child is con­vict­ed of crim­i­nal wrong doing. We can do our best to raise our kids but we should nev­er swear on their honesty.

Back to com­mis­sion­er Ellington:

On hear­ing the announce­ment from the Commissioner my imme­di­ate incli­na­tion was to won­der how many Commanders had train­ing or under­stand­ing how to exe­cute the man­date giv­en by their boss? I am not say­ing that the Commanders, some of whom are sea­soned street cops can­not effec­tive­ly erad­i­cate the gangs with­in their sphere of com­mand. What I do know as a mat­ter of fact is that some of them have no clue, no will, and oth­ers are timid lead­ers who had great­ness thrust upon them. If we are to erad­i­cate the mon­ster of gang vio­lence there must be effec­tive leg­is­la­tion that pre­cedes the police effort. The police com­mis­sion­er , well-inten­tioned though he is, is ask­ing his com­man­ders to do some­thing that can­not be achieved under the present sys­tem. If the Authorities are seri­ous the thing to do is look over­seas at mod­els which work. A good place to start is the American Rico Statute. RICO, is a United States fed­er­al law that pro­vides for extend­ed crim­i­nal penal­ties and a civ­il cause of action for acts per­formed as part of an ongo­ing crim­i­nal orga­ni­za­tion.

In 1970, Congress passed the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, Title 18, United States Code, Sections 1961 – 1968. At the time, Congress’ goal was to elim­i­nate the ill-affects of orga­nized crime on the nation’s econ­o­my. To put it blunt­ly, RICO was intend­ed to destroy the Mafia,it is applied to indi­vid­u­als, busi­ness­es, polit­i­cal protest groups, and ter­ror­ist orga­ni­za­tions. In short, a RICO claim can arise in almost any con­text. source(RicoAct.com llc)RICO address­es long-term, not one-shot, crim­i­nal activ­i­ty. Not only must a RICO claim be based upon crim­i­nal activ­i­ty, but the crim­i­nal acts must con­sti­tute a “pat­tern” of crim­i­nal activ­i­ty. A sin­gle crim­i­nal act, short-term crim­i­nal con­duct, or crim­i­nal actions that bear no rela­tion­ship to each oth­er will not give rise to a RICO claim. The United States Supreme Court has ruled that crim­i­nal actions con­sti­tute a “pat­tern” only if they are relat­ed and con­tin­u­ous. In order to be “relat­ed,” the crim­i­nal acts must involve the same vic­tims, have the same meth­ods of com­mis­sion, involve the same par­tic­i­pants, or be relat­ed in some oth­er fash­ion. A pat­tern may be suf­fi­cient­ly con­tin­u­ous if the crim­i­nal actions occurred over a sub­stan­tial peri­od of time or posed a threat of indef­i­nite dura­tion. The for­mer pat­terns are referred to as closed-end­ed pat­terns; the lat­ter pat­terns are referred to as open-end­ed pat­terns. Accordingly, even if you have been injured by a crim­i­nal act, you will not have a RICO claim unless that crim­i­nal act is part of a larg­er pat­tern of crim­i­nal activ­i­ty.source(RicoAct.com llc).

The Americans rec­og­nized they had a prob­lem and they act­ed deci­sive­ly to ensure that the coun­try would not bow to criminals.This law has more than enough detrac­tors , thats fine, that is how a democ­ra­cy work ‚but the vast major­i­ty of Americans will argue that the law serves the pur­pose for which it was intend­ed. American cities, and small com­mu­ni­ties are not con­trolled by heav­i­ly armed, maraud­ing, blood thirsty gang­sters with law-enforce­ment in retreat.

The JCF can­not not get the nec­es­sary sup­port it needs from Government to refrain from polit­i­cal games­man­ship with National Security. Declare a State Of Public Emergency. Give the secu­ri­ty forces the room they need­ed, to solid­i­fy and hold the grounds they cleared. This is a seri­ous indict­ment on the Government.! The Police for its part is still mired in alle­ga­tions of cor­rup­tion. Too many of its mem­bers alleged to be involved in crim­i­nal behav­ior. There are also loud accu­sa­tions that some offi­cers are them­selves close­ly asso­ci­at­ed with some of the lead­ing crim­i­nal gangs in the coun­try. The two lead­ing gangs the One Order an alleged JLP proxy and the Klans man a PNP affil­i­ate are at the fore­front of crim­i­nal activ­i­ty, from my sources on the ground in the old cap­i­tal of Spanish Town and it’s envi­rons, over the last sev­er­al years crime in and around Spanish Town has been out of con­trol, even dur­ing the days of for­mer no-non­sense crime fight­ers like Kelso Smalls and oth­ers, Spanish Town’s crim­i­nals had shown a cer­tain tenac­i­ty and deter­mi­na­tion, that required hard-nosed polic­ing, from Sufferers heights, to De la Vega City, from Thawes Pen to Brunswick Avenue, and all places in between crime and Political vio­lence was left unchecked, and in many instances sup­port­ed by politicians.

As a mem­ber of the Rangers Squad out of the Mobile Reserve and lat­er serv­ing at the Constant Spring CIB I am acute­ly aware of what it takes to ensure that the streets are con­trolled by the rule of law. The JCF through favoritism, Political affil­i­a­tion, and just plain incom­pe­tence has caused a once well-regard­ed Agency to be reduced to one of ridicule and shame. Through its inef­fec­tive devel­op­ment of its great­est asset, the peo­ple who vol­un­teer , it has caused the Department to expe­ri­ence one of the high­est rate of attri­tion of any pub­lic body in the Country.

The Jamaican peo­ple have lost count­less mil­lions of tax Dollars to attri­tion. They saw no returns on their invest­ment. Many mem­bers decid­ed not to get caught up in a no win sit­u­a­tion and have left., Some are unable to leave but would at a momen­t’s notice were they giv­en the chance. The solu­tion is not a sim­ple one ‚but one that requires will,vision, and know-how, the Jamaican peo­ple have to avail them­selves to the fact that call­ing the Authorities and report­ing crim­i­nal activ­i­ty [snitch­ing] is in their best Interest. They must under­stand that an atmos­phere of no snitch­ing is fer­tile soil for crim­i­nal­i­ty to flour­ish. They must real­ize that as cit­i­zens with rights, they have respon­si­bil­i­ties to act with cir­cum­spec­tion and responsibility.They must deter­mine to sac­ri­fice for coun­try, resist­ing the instant grat­i­fi­ca­tion of now. [eat a food men­tal­i­ty] .

They must endeav­or to stop cor­rupt­ing pub­lic offi­cials, and they must uni­fy around the com­mon cause of crime erad­i­ca­tion. It is impos­si­ble to gauge how many killers are walk­ing the streets and by-ways of Jamaica, what is cer­tain is that there are hun­dreds pos­si­bly thou­sands. many young men walk­ing the streets have slaugh­tered dozens of peo­ple , raped and killed many women, girls and lit­tle boys, and will nev­er be brought before a Jamaican court to account for any of those crimes.

There are count­less oth­ers whom are involved in mur­der for hire. Through mur­der for hire , they have oth­ers do their killing for them, even in the rare case of an inves­ti­ga­tion they are nev­er named. Subsequently they con­tin­ue to pay oth­ers to exter­mi­nate peo­ple as they see fit.

I get real mad when some for­eign group or indi­vid­ual goes to my coun­try and walk around with some­one from a depressed com­mu­ni­ty , ask a few ques­tions, then pro­ceed to go back to their coun­try and write sto­ries as if they under­stand some­thing about Jamaican crim­i­nal­i­ty . I am equal­ly pissed about their sur­ro­gates like those with­in the crim­i­nal sup­port­ing group Jamaicans for jus­tice. It’s exec­u­tive direc­tor who have no under­stand­ing of what obtains in ghet­tos , oth­er than what they are told ‚or from watch­ing tele­vi­sion. They col­lect state­ments from crim­i­nals or their fam­i­ly mem­bers run with it to their for­eign han­dlers who pro­ceed to slan­der the secu­ri­ty forces and the coun­try. The groups that sup­pos­ed­ly care about human rights are nev­er con­cerned , nev­er do they talk about the col­lec­tive harm and trau­ma that is being vis­it­ed on the Nation as a result of the sick­en­ing slaugh­ter of our inno­cent broth­ers and sis­ters, large­ly by drug and sex crazed demons parad­ing as men. Demons that have no souls, vam­pires if you will, who pride them­selves in the ghoul­ish slaugh­ter of the innocent.

Those are the peo­ple whose rights are guar­an­teed in Jamaica, our Law Enforcement Officials are required to tip toe around these mur­der­ing low lives. Criminal rights groups are heav­i­ly involved in the run­ning of the coun­try’s secu­ri­ty appa­ra­tus. Criminals are like cock­roaches , shine a light they will scam­per for cover,keep the light on and they stay away, those who dare return face the fury of the roach spray !!!!

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Was Independence Worth It.? Part 1:

Jamaicans, whether we reside at home or abroad, take a keen inter­est in the hap­pen­ings at home, we want to know see Jamaica doing well .
Wherever we are to be found we live like Jamaicans ‚eat Jamaican, and social­ize as we did back home.
I have lived away from home for a while,and still our pantry is stocked with Jamaican food, my wife and I would have it no oth­er way.
I do feel a sense of guilt every time I vis­it this sub­ject know­ing as I do the strug­gles the Jamaican peo­ple face on a dai­ly basis, grow­ing up the poor­est of the poor I am par­tic­u­lar­ly sen­si­tive to the tra­vails of the peo­ple, in their dai­ly strug­gle just to make ends meet .The guilt I feel is not one of wrong doing , it is a guilt a con­sci­en­tious human being should feel know­ing that peo­ple do not have enough to eat and chil­dren are going to bed with­out the most basic neces­si­ties of life, food, and clean drink­ing water!!

In a mat­ter of months Jamaica will cel­e­brate 50 years as an inde­pen­dent Nation, The ques­tion that ought to be para­mount in our minds must be “what have we accom­plished as an Independent Nation”? .

This will form part of a series of blogs I will write ‚and one in which I will be ask­ing you to par­tic­i­pate from today henceforth.

mike beck­les:

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ALLEGED KILLER OF KHAJEEL MAIS CHARGED

The much-antic­i­pat­ed iden­ti­ty of the alleged shoot­er of 17-year-old Kingston College school­boy Khajeel Mais is a secret no longer.
The Police has just iden­ti­fied the shoot­er as 50 years old Patrick Powell of Belgrade Loop of St. Andrew.
Powell is report­ed­ly charged with mur­der, ille­gal pos­ses­sion of a firearm, shoot­ing with intent and fail­ure to hand over the weapon to Police.

We will update you as more infor­ma­tion becomes avail­able, how­ev­er we have to ask why is he is not charged with ille­gal pos­ses­sion of Ammunition also, if the weapon is ille­gal then the Ammo is also illegal.

Come on JCF it’s about time you start clos­ing loop­holes and throw­ing the book at these guys,.

Just do the job right.!!!

mike beck­les:

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SCORE ONE FOR LAW ABIDING JAMAICANS:

Sharon Hay-Webster
Sharon Hay-Webster

Independent Member of Parliament (MP) Sharon Hay-Webster yes­ter­day vot­ed with Government mem­bers to secure the exten­sion of a piece of leg­is­la­tion which gives the police pow­er to arrest sus­pect­ed crim­i­nals with­out charge for up to 72 hours. Hay-Webster, who recent­ly resigned from the Opposition People’s National Party (PNP), said sid­ing with her for­mer par­ty would amount to gross dere­lic­tion of duty.“I speak in defence of the many cit­i­zens’ lives that have been pro­tect­ed because of these inter­im acts that we have done,” said Hay-Webster, who rep­re­sents the volatile south cen­tral St Catherine said. “I could not vote against this inter­im act exten­sion because I believe it is for the pro­tec­tion of life and prop­er­ty, and I vote for that for my peo­ple,” she added(Taken from the Jamaica Gleaner) Sharon Hay Webster, Jamaica thanks you .This is not the first time you have bucked con­ven­tion­al wis­dom, and stood with the Jamaican peo­ple . Ronald Thwaites is the MP of a Jamaican Garrison.[fact] D K Duncan ‚what can I say ? A sad reminder of a shame­ful past, (see Granges com­ments) [fact] This brings us to Peter Bunting,this is the shad­ow Minister of National Security , and a pos­si­ble future Minister of National secu­ri­ty ! Every Police Officer, Army Officer,every sol­dier, every law-abid­ing Jamaican ought to be aghast, that any­one with views like his could have any­thing to do with National secu­ri­ty , or their own secu­ri­ty. In any Country seri­ous about crime, this guy would­n’t even have a secu­ri­ty clear­ance, not so in Jamaica , here he con­tin­ues to play cheap polit­i­cal, games with the safe­ty and secu­ri­ty of the Jamaican people.

As I have main­tained , sup­port­ed by facts ‚when­ev­er the Jamaican peo­ple need­ed the PNP on the sen­si­tive issue of National Security, they are nev­er there, this is a his­tor­i­cal fact . On the 2nd of March 1972 the People’s National Party came to pow­er in Jamaica on a wave of pop­u­lar support,after run­ning on a plat­form of “bet­ter must come” under their watch Jamaica expe­ri­enced its great­est peri­od of Political trib­al­ism and blood-let­ting, this result­ed in Hundreds of peo­ple loos­ing their lives to Political killings. The great­est peri­ods of upheaval was those lead­ing up to the 1976 and 1980 Elections which saw a blood strug­gle between the forces loy­al to Edward Seaga of the JLP and Michael Manley of the PNP.Many will argue that the vio­lence was not car­ried out by just PNP sup­port­ers , this is absolute­ly cor­rect , there are no attempts here at lay­ing blame for polit­i­cal vio­lence. The argu­ments being made here are about the lack of resolve shown by Manley and his Government to effec­tive­ly re-estab­lish the Authority of the rule of law, dur­ing this peri­od the secu­ri­ty forces were ren­dered impo­tent , lack of weapons , lack of per­son­nel, lack of vehi­cles, and lack of support,prisoners were removed from Police lock ups by PNP politi­cians and their goons , while Police Officers stood by unable to act, The Olympic Gardens Police Station was invad­ed and Police Officers slaugh­tered. Elections were held on 15 December 1976 , while the state of emer­gency was still in effect. The PNP was returned to office. The State of Emergency con­tin­ued into the next year. Extraordinary pow­ers grant­ed the police by the Suppression of Crime Act of 1974 con­tin­ued to the end of the 1980s.(source Manley Wikipedia page) more than 500 peo­ple were arrest­ed and locked up at the Army Barracks Up Park Camp with­out charge , with­out bail,most if not all were either JLP politi­cians or sup­port­ers of the JLP. They were sup­pos­ed­ly held because they were plot­ting to over­throw the Manley Government, to date not one per­son so held was ever charged , much less con­vict­ed for plot­ting to over­throw the Government. Interestingly, despite this his­to­ry , last year the People’s National par­ty under the lead­er­ship of Portia Simpson Miller refused en mass to sup­port the Security Forces by extend­ing the lim­it­ed State of Emergency , a move that would effec­tive­ly give them breath­ing room to secure and hold ter­ri­to­ries under the con­trol of well armed thugs who threat­ened the Jamaican State. The PNP used the pop­ulist argu­ment of not want­i­ng to see the rights of peo­ple vio­lat­ed by the secu­ri­ty forces,an argu­ment that res­onates with the ter­ror­ists in Tivoli Gardens and all oth­er Garrisons with­in our coun­try, and the crim­i­nal cod­dling sym­pa­thiz­ers in Jamaicans for jus­tice, but which had no cred­i­bil­i­ty with rea­son­able peo­ple in Jamaica or the rest of the world who watched with hor­ror as armed mili­tias attacked and destroyed police vehi­cles , killed mem­bers of our police force and mil­i­tary, as well as numer­ous mem­bers of the public.

Armed mili­tia mem­bers could be seen on the streets parad­ing with AK47 rifles burn­ing shoot­ing and mur­der­ing at will,some will log­i­cal­ly argue that this hap­pened under the JLP , and they would be absolute­ly cor­rect, the argu­ment being made here is the PNP’s lack of sup­port for the rule of law , not sup­port­ing what Golding was forced to do after his man­gling of the Christopher Coke débâ­cle. By refus­ing to sup­port the lim­it­ed state of emer­gency the PNP sided with the Forces of Anarchy. No amount of argu­ment to the con­trary will con­vince law-abid­ing peo­ple in Jamaica or around the world otherwise,and dam sure won’t con­vince me .Not sup­port­ing our Police and mil­i­tary was a repro­bate act ‚one steeped in Political expe­di­en­cy, one which left the Jamaican peo­ple out to dry at the mer­cy of AK47 tot­ing thugs. There are those who argue the Government could sim­ply have accept­ed a stop-gap mea­sure the oppo­si­tion offered , or sim­ply go back to the Governor General to gain an exten­sion, indis­putable facts , but facts that does noth­ing to negate the threach­ery they engaged in choos­ing not to sup­port those who risk their lives to make sure oth­ers may be safe, that was an act of betray­al, it is full-time the PNP stop play­ing polit­i­cal games with the lives of the Jamaican peo­ple , it is time the pos­tur­ing and pla­cat­ing stop,the long-term eco­nom­ic suc­cess and well-being of the Jamaican peo­ple hinges on a safe and secure Nation, there can be no growth with­out stability.

As we speak the PNP is on a grand tour around the Country, tech­ni­cal­ly noth­ing is wrong with what they are doing, since what they do very well is cam­paign, but women and chil­dren , young men and old men are being behead­ed, and as Portia and Knight and the oth­er bunch of old fail­ures parade on the cir­cus tour, they utter nary a word of con­dem­na­tion of what is going on in the coun​try​.As far as they are con­cerned it is just par for the course. Ask Portia Simpson Miller what are her plans if she wins the next elec­tion and the response will be the same tired old nar­ra­tive from I was a child„helping the poor. One would hope those offer­ing them­selves up for lead­er­ship , or in Jamaica’s case ruler­ship , would under­stand this , most of the peo­ple in the PNP are old recy­cled fail­ures whom have been around for decades tak­ing turn after turn at the pub­lic trough,Thwaites, Duncan.Portia Simpson Miller, Pickersgill,Davis, the list goes on and on , all of these guys have been in rep­re­sen­ta­tion­al pol­i­tics since I was kid , they have failed and are now lin­ing up for anoth­er go around at the pub­lic’s expense, how long are the peo­ple going to remain bliss­ful­ly igno­rant? how much longer are they going to squan­der their’s and their chil­dren’s future on the altar of polit­i­cal alle­giance to both polit­i­cal par­ties .Over the decades this par­ty has shown noth­ing but reck­less disregard,and absolute incom­pe­tence on the issue of crime and vio­lence, and the baby they pro­duce, Terrorism.

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ARE THESE THE POLICE OUR COPS NEED TO EMULATE?

Rupert Mudoch was assault­ed today as he and his son James Murdoch sat in a room being grilled by British Lawmakers, .The much vaunt­ed Metropolitan Police who are respon­si­ble for pro­tect­ing the Members of Parliament, wit­ness­es and observers , all of whom amount­ed to a grand total of fifty , are now left to explain how a man car­ry­ing a bag con­tain­ing a plate full of shav­ing foam could have entered the hear­ing room undetected,and unchecked by those charged with pro­tect­ing the occu­pants of the hear­ing room.

Rupert Murdoch and his son James, were appear­ing in front of British Parliamentarians to answer ques­tions about the bur­geon­ing phone hack­ing scan­dal involv­ing one of their pub­li­ca­tions News of the world.

The Metropolitan Police has seen their num­ber one and two peo­ple at the helm step down ‚as a result of this scandal,and are now fur­ther embar­rassed by this inci­dent, which clear­ly is one of gross incompetence.

Jamaica has invest­ed hand­some­ly in bring­ing British Police to Jamaica to help to reshape our Police Department, the qual­i­ty of returns on that Investment has sure­ly not been vis­it­ed by any­one in Authority in Jamaica, the man on the streets how­ev­er may have some­thing to say about how that mon­ey was spent and they sure­ly have their opin­ions on how Mark Shields impact­ed the JCF, beyond show boating,morale eroding,disrespecting, grand­stand­ing, and cock­tail cir­cuit­ing trotting.

The point of this Blog is to point out that Incompetence is not con­fined to any par­tic­u­lar group, the Colonialist men­tal­i­ty per­va­sive in Jamaica, is seri­ous­ly test­ed here, with these inci­dents and alle­ga­tions of cor­rup­tion and incom­pe­tence on the part of British Police The com­mon wis­dom seem to sug­gest that if it is done by some­one oth­er than us, it is done cor­rect­ly , there is evi­dence that would tend to sup­port this men­tal­i­ty, how­ev­er I am aware that giv­en the tools no one is bet­ter than us when we put our mind to it.

I hope we will look at these inci­dents and real­ize that the answers to the prob­lems we face lies with us , and no one else, we will have to fix them, and no amount of British or American accent will, it is up to us.

Mike beck­les:

have your say:

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Liberal Supreme Court Overturns Law That Keeps Criminals In Jail.

A Full Court, com­pris­ing Justice Horace Marsh, Justice Patrick Brooks and Justice Leighton Pusey held on Friday that the amend­ments to the Bail Act were uncon­sti­tu­tion­al and made sev­er­al dec­la­ra­tions. Amendments were made to the Bail Act as the Government strug­gled to deal with the high crime rate and was expect­ed to be in place for one year. The 60-day peri­od in cus­tody was sub­ject to the right of the per­son being held to be brought before the court after sev­en days, and there­after at 14-day inter­vals, at which time the court reviews the ques­tion of whether the per­son should con­tin­ue to be held in cus­tody or bail be con­sid­ered. The pros­e­cu­tion also had the right to appeal against the grant­i­ng of bail.

FORMER JUSTICE Minister Senator A.J. Nicholson, QC, has wel­comed the court’s rul­ing that last year’s amend­ments to the Bail Act were uncon­sti­tu­tion­al. The Supreme Court struck down the amend­ments last Friday. He explained that, as leader of Opposition busi­ness, when the pro­posed leg­is­la­tion came to be debat­ed in the Senate he advised that the People’s National Party (PNP) would not lend sup­port to the amend­ments because the Government min­is­ters who pilot­ed the Bill failed to con­vince them that the amend-ments were not in breach of cer­tain sec­tions of the Chapter on Fundamental Rights in the Constitution.(cour­tesy the jamaica glean­er) It was report­ed then that short­ly before six anti-crime bills were passed on July 9 last year, for­mer res­i­dent mag­is­trate Senator Marlene Malahoo Forte had acknowl­edged that the Interim Bail Act to pro­vide for a 60-day deten­tion of per­sons who com­mit seri­ous gun and drug-relat­ed offences was draconian.

One thing is appar­ent , and that is that both sides of the polit­i­cal divide, play polit­i­cal games with crime when they are in oppo­si­tion, recent state­ments from Delroy Chuch (now Justice Minister) and Peter Bunting from the PNP made them unqual­i­fied to hold any office that has to do with crime and nation­al security.These hacks should nev­er be privy to any­thing that has to do with security.

Unfortunately these are the civil­lian boss­es of the Police force and Military, it’s a damn dis­grace that these morons who dis­parge police and the rule of law from their perch­es on the oppo­si­tion bench­es , when elect­ed pre­tend that they are bas­tions of sup­port for the rule of law. These guys should not even be allowed in to clean the floors of the peo­ple’s house of Parliament.

The Ruling of the Supreme Court in this mat­ter shows a cou­ple of things, .(1) That the Architects of this piece of leg­is­la­tion did not take enough legal coun­sel to ensure that it would pass the Constitutional smell test.(2) That Jamaica’s Judges sim­ply does not get it. Now let me has­ten to say I am not a Lawyer, and I must also add that if the piece of Legislation is Unconstitutional then the learned Judges has a duty to strike it down. Clearly from their actions they believe that it was Unconstitutional as con­sti­tut­ed. This brings us to the meat of the matter:Who were the part­ners with the Government in draft­ing this piece of Legislation? it clear­ly could not be the Opposition Party in Jamaica, clear­ly every­one knows that they will take no action against crim­i­nal­i­ty or Terror , .This left the Government with no grown ups , with whom to debate, a com­po­nent impor­tant in get­ting the best results possible.

The Jamaican pub­lic, clear­ly an opin­ion­at­ed but nonethe­less large­ly uninformed,uneducated pub­lic must under­stand that this forms part of the rea­son the leg­is­la­tion was ruled Unconstitutional. On the oth­er hand it is Interesting to take note as we crow about the fact that our Democracy works, that we must ask our­selves ” work for whom” Does this Ruling work for the almost two Thousand peo­ple whom are slaugh­tered each year?. Does it work for the Hundreds of chil­dren mur­dered.? Does it work for the hun­dreds of women Raped each year? Does it work for the peo­ple liv­ing in the Garrisons whose daugh­ters are being abused by Local thugs ‚who are unable to speak out because of fear of their lives and their prop­er­ty.? Does it work for the peo­ple who are chased out of their homes, their homes razed with fire , or tak­en over by thugs.? Does it work for the Police Officers and sol­diers who toil to remove the ter­ror­ists from the streets only to see them released back onto the streets as soon as they are tak­en in.? Does it work for the silent Jamaicans who are too scared or too pow­er­less to open­ly declare that yes they do sup­port the mea­sures of the Government ‚at least in rec­og­niz­ing that there needs to be tough new, appro­pri­ate Legislation enact­ed that have com­men­su­rate penal­ty for the crimes being com­mit­ted. When we remove all of the afore­men­tioned from the equa­tion , just who should be proud of the Supreme Court’s Ruling? Is it the Elitists that reside in the Mansions above Cross Roads,or the Criminals that lit­er­al­ly run the streets ?.

Either way this is real­ly no great vic­to­ry for dea­cent Jamaican people.!!!!

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JAMAICA DAILY GLEANER GAY ADVOCACY:

On the 13th of July 2011 The Daily Gleaner Editorial Titled, SSP BAILEY’S MOUTHFUL OF MADNESS AND MISCHIEF.
On July 18th 2011 the Gleaner Editorial was Titled,JCF IN SHADOW OF SSP BAILEY.
The com­mon thread tying these two Editorials togeth­er ‚was the unadul­ter­at­ed sup­port for Gays in Jamaica, their lifestyle, and their Right to com­mit crimes with­out being held to account.
One thing was obvi­ous ‚was the desire of the Editor to see SSP Bailey dis­ci­plined for his free speech, which from threads allowed on the Gleaner’s own web­site, indi­cate that SSP Bailey made a more than ade­quate expla­na­tion of, and sup­plied the con­text in which he made the assertions.

Last time we checked the Editor of the Gleaner was not a Police Senior Officer, not privy to sen­si­tive Police Data, and as such is speak­ing from a posi­tion of big­otry toward SSP Bailey or, is him or her­self a clos­et­ed mem­ber of the Gay community.

Lets deal with the vit­ri­olic Bile spewed out of the mouth of this Editor :

Jamaica’s rigid caste sys­tem has always dic­tat­ed that dark­er skinned peo­ple not from upper Saint Andrew , who make up the mid­dle class, should be seen but not heard, that group includes Teachers ‚Firemen ‚Nurses, Police . it has always been obvi­ous they were more both­ered by the Police ‚than they were of the oth­er cat­e­go­ry of work­ers aforementioned.

While I served in the JCF we often joked that the ran­cor was as a result of the pow­er of arrest vest­ed in us, oth­er work­ers posed no threat to them.The Colonial pic­ture of the Night Watchman, dressed in short pants , walk­ing around with a heavy spiked hel­met, sym­bols of a time some in Jamaica are yearn­ing for , is far divorced from the real­ties of Police Officers with Masters in Busssiness Administration and oth­er dis­ci­plines, the trans­for­ma­tion has not yet trans­formed from the Caterpillar to the Butterfly in the heads or psy­che of Jamaica’s Élite, to include the Gleaner Editor.

How else could any­one view this ran­cid cor­ro­sive bile of an attack on a ded­i­cat­ed Public Servant, this cow­ard­ly attack using space usu­al­ly reserved for impor­tant Editorial mus­ings, has now being reduced to a tool of het­ero­sex­u­al bashing.

This brings us to the sec­ond pos­si­ble conclusion:

Is the Gleaner Editor a clos­et Homosexual ? This writer has no judge­ment call to make regard­ing those of my broth­ers and sis­ters who prac­tice this lifestyle,I will not say I have gay friends, I don’t have gay peo­ple com­ing to my house , not because I try not to have them , but because I do not apply a lit­mus test on peo­ple with whom I asso­ciate , the truth is what some­one does in the pri­va­cy of his or her home is their busi­ness, as a small busi­ness own­er I deal with peo­ple dai­ly ‚gay and straight , they are equal to me , as a Christian God charged us to love the sin­ner, but hate the sin,I am a sin­ner, who come short of the glo­ry of God dai­ly, this dis­qual­i­fies me to deter­mine who is going to Heaven or Hell.

What SSP Bailey did was not to deter­mine who goes to hell or heav­en , he was speak­ing to the ques­tion of peo­ple whom are known homo­sex­u­al that are dis­pro­por­tion­ate­ly involved in a cer­tain kind of criminality.There is a false argu­ment being made about pro­fil­ing, as a Police Officer it is your duty to profile,determining in an effec­tive and sur­gi­cal way who is doing what.

Most of the Village Lawyers (some trained) in Jamaica who would open their mouths about Policing have no clue what they are talk­ing about, and these Editorials fall with­in that category.

So let me say Yes SSP Bailey you are indeed a Police Officer wor­thy of your pay , you do under­stand the val­ue of pro­fil­ing., it is an effec­tive tool in the tool box that shows that you know whom you are tar­get­ing , rather than be feel­ing around in the dark.When Police use large drag­net to coral large groups of peo­ple ‚then sift out the peo­ple of inter­est and those want­ed to answer to crim­i­nal charges , those now talk­ing out of the side of their mouths are the first to cry foul, they are th first to argue for a more intel­li­gence based type of Policing, now they get that type of Policing they have a problem.

I would argue that what they want is a Criminal Empire, a safe haven for crim­i­nals, this seem to be the desire of these talk­ing head hyp­ocrites, damned if you do , damned if you don’t .I sug­gest the Police enforce the exist­ing laws, archa­ic and use­less as they are,criminals break them wil­ful­ly , know­ing obey­ing the laws are more often than not more detri­men­tal to them than break­ing them.(see the alleged shoot­er of kha­jeel Mais refus­ing to turn over his weapon to the police,and the poten­tial penalty.

If SSP Bailey has data to back up his claim, which I am sure he does have, since he is the per­son on the ground, trained , and charged with those respon­si­bil­i­ties, and not the Elitist Editor, then he should not be detered by cheap ‚cow­ard­ly attacks from those who are too chick­en to face him , but rather throw stones and hides behind an Editorial.

Commissioner Ellington on this issue is as wrong as wrong can be, there comes a time when one has to draw a line in the sand , stand up and say I will back up no fur­ther. Lions, Tigers, and count­less oth­er species do this, they find a tree uri­nate on it, and define their ter­ri­to­ry, inter­lop­ers beware.

On his ascen­sion to the Office of Chief Constable I wrote a let­ter ‚which the Gleaner was gra­cious enough to publish.

In the let­ter I charged Ellington to be wary of those on the cock­tail cir­cuit who would invite him to their functions,I remind­ed him that they mere­ly tol­er­at­ed him .(see com­ments on Jamaica’s caste system)

As a police Officer I was acute­ly aware of the fact that some peo­ple were hap­py to be around me because of my val­ue to them , no more,no less, this is true of an offi­cer, irre­spec­tive of Rank,the Chief Constable being no exception.

The Chief Constable by step­ping in to give an expla­na­tion of what SSP Bailey meant, was as gaso­line to fire to this Bigoted Editor, rather than serv­ing as water. The truth is, no amount of truth in what SSP Bailey said will be allowed to get in the way, if this Editor has his/​her way, as I have indi­cat­ed Gays do not seek par­i­ty or equal­i­tyy, what they seek is to forcibly shove their way of life down our throats ‚mak­ing us crim­i­nals for dar­ing to speak out against homosexuality.

In the unit­ed States they real­ized they would not be able to get to mar­ry, or receive ben­e­fits that are accord­ed to mar­ried het­ero­sex­u­al peo­ple in one fell swoop , what they did was splin­ter and attacked State leg­is­la­tures , tar­get­ing indi­vid­ual leg­is­la­tors who cow­ard­ly capit­u­lat­ed , going against their moral beliefs, sac­ri­fic­ing their morals on the altar of job security.The result? more and more States are rolling over to the Gay lob­by , there­by enact­ing the Gay Agenda.

Jamaica is no dif­fer­ent, there are Gays in posi­tions of pow­er , and as can be seen from these two piles of garbage of July 13th and 18th on the Gleaner’s Editorial pages they have immense power.

What they want is for SSP Bailey to be put in his place , any­one who dare speak out against them, wrong or right, they adopt a scorched earth pol­i­cy of destruction.

What the Gay Lobby in Jamaica is say­ing we are above scruti­ny, we are are the new untouch­ables, so far they seem to be get­ting away with it.

If the writer(s) of the two Articles is/​are homo­sex­u­als the Gleaner, and Editorial board, owes the Jamaican peo­ple an expla­na­tion , not because they are gay and should under­go a lit­mus test, but the Nation needs to know that the garbage being spewed from that Editorial page is not an objec­tive assess­ment of facts, but rather a bla­tant unmit­i­gat­ed attempt at Gay Rights Advocacy.

Mike beck­les:

Have your say.

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ALL ABOARD , THE TRAINS ARE BACK.

The re-emer­gence of Train ser­vice to some areas of Jamaica is a wel­come relief to many, sep­a­rate and apart from the fact that the trains fill a sig­nif­i­cant trans­porta­tion need of many, it is a charm­ing addi­tion to the Tourism product.
This medi­um would like to salute the JRC for this ini­tia­tive , whilst in the same breadth I chal­lenge the Agency to make this ser­vice to the peo­ple afford­able and safe.
The Jamaican peo­ple are hurt­ing , as are most mid­dle and low-income peo­ple around the world, this means of trans­porta­tion goes a long way in alle­vi­at­ing some of the trans­porta­tions needs of thou­sands of our people.
Going for­ward we hope that Government, irre­spec­tive of which Party forms the Government, will not only con­tin­ue this ser­vice, but find ways to expand it .This will sig­nif­i­cant­ly stitch the coun­try togeth­er , a move that will ease some of the urban sprawl in Kingston and Montego Bay.
We hope that the pet­ti­ness and tit-for- tat that has char­ac­ter­ized Jamaica’s Political iden­ti­ty will not be allowed to cause this new inno­va­tion to die again.
MAKE FERN GULLY A NATIONAL PARK
I implore the pow­ers that be, to des­ig­nate Fern Gully a National Park ‚and a National attrac­tion, this should mean divert­ing vehic­u­lar traf­fic to an alter­nate route as soon as possible.
According to Scientists ‚some of the vari­eties of Fern found there are found nowhere else in the world , this infor­ma­tion by itself ought to inspire us as a Nation to want to pre­serve this National treasure.
However due to exhaust fumes from vehi­cles tra­vers­ing through the Gully,certain species are dis­ap­pear­ing , nev­er to be seen again.
This Information ought to moti­vate us to want to arrest this destruc­tion and hur­ried­ly seek to estab­lish order and san­i­ty in pre­serv­ing our National trea­sures for the next generation.

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THE MAD LIBERAL AGENDA OF JAMAICA’S COURTS:

THE MAD LIBERAL AGENDA OF JAMAICA’S COURTS.

THE SUPREME Court yes­ter­day struck down con­tro­ver­sial amend­ments to the Bail Act. The amend­ments allowed for per­sons charged with seri­ous offences to be dis­qual­i­fied for bail for a max­i­mum of 60 days.Supreme Court judges Horace March, Patrick Brooks, and Leighton Pusey heard the motion and grant­ed dec­la­ra­tions that the amend­ments were uncon­sti­tu­tion­al and void.

The fore­gone was the lead para­graph in a the Jamaica Gleaner sto­ry regard­ing Jamaica’s Supreme Court Ruling strik­ing down the Government’s amend­ment to the Bail Act.

Attorneys-at-law Norman Godfrey and Marcus Greenwood, who rep­re­sent­ed two per­sons who were being detained under the Bail Act, took the issue to the Supreme Court in May. They argued that the amend­ments were uncon­sti­tu­tion­al, inhu­mane, and inter­fered with the judge’s dis­cre­tion to grant bail for cer­tain offences, includ­ing mur­der. They also argued that the amend­ments removed a cit­i­zen’s fun­da­men­tal right to bail.(glean­er quote)

The Government, in an attempt to curb the high crime rate, had amend­ed the Bail Act in July last year for one year. The act was extend­ed recently.(gleaner quote)

The Supreme court has a right to rule on the Constitutionality and the Un-con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of any law, .
The Parliament, the peo­ple’s rep­re­sen­ta­tives, have a right to make new laws, alter or repeal old, use­less ‚or archa­ic ones ‚and even amend the Constitution.
Those who pre­tend that the peo­ple’s rep­re­sen­ta­tives have no busi­ness inter­fer­ing with laws sim­ply do not under­stand how the sys­tem works , or are disin­gen­u­ous , with acts to grind (enter the tri­al lawyers).
If stronger mea­sures are required to ensure good order ‚then what is need­ed is an amend­ment to the out­dat­ed con­sti­tu­tion, or throw it out all togeth­er, my vote is for the latter.
Over the years the Jamaican Courts have stead­fast­ly refused to keep pace with the rest of the world in the way seri­ous crimes are addressed,the Courts which takes it’s cue from England clear­ly has missed the boat on how to deal with crim­i­nals and terrorists.
Listed here I will show a few cas­es of total mad­ness by Jamaica’s learned Judges , you be the Judge, (no pun intended)

(1) 04/​21/​2010Jamaica Star: Judge grant­ed bail to 6 men who alleged­ly beat a mar­ried cou­ple who were engaged in inti­ma­cy in the pri­va­cy of their own home.The scums alleged­ly accused the cou­ple of freaky sex,then report­ed­ly beat both hus­band and wife with bats, after which they com­menced to gang rape the woman, report­ed­ly doing the same thing the man was doing to his wife in a con­sen­su­al manner,They report­ed­ly then put a gun to her head and forced her to per­form oral sex on all of them.She report­ed­ly passed out.all six were grant­ed bail in the sum of J$300,000.
Presiding Judge MARCIA DUNBAR-GREEN
(2) 04/​21/​2010 Star : Judge pur­port­ed­ly tells Police Officer to col­lect state­ment from inmate Oniel Fraser,The inmate, Oneil Fraser, charged with wound­ing with intent, told the court that he was being abused by the police offi­cers at the Kingston Central jail and that an Inspector stabbed at him with a knife,Superintendent Cornel Messam of the Kingston Central Police Station told THE STAR that he was aware of the accu­sa­tions made by the inmate. However, he men­tioned that the senior offi­cer was wrong­ful­ly accused.

“I am aware of the mat­ter, how­ev­er, the inmate is not being truth­ful about the mat­ter,” said Messam.According to the senior offi­cer, Fraser has been involved in a num­ber of inci­dents at the facil­i­ty since his trans­fer from the Half-Way Tree lock-up. Messam added that such a claim is impos­si­ble, since weapons are strict­ly pro­hib­it­ed from enter­ing the lock-ups,
“I know that inmate, he is a trou­ble­mak­er that was trans­ferred from the Half-Way Tree lock-up … Such alle­ga­tions are impos­si­ble because knives and guns are not car­ried into jail,” said the senior officer.

Fraser was sen­tenced to three months in prison last week for using a pad­lock to cause injury to an inmate.

The police said that the mat­ter is being investigated.
Resident Magistrate Georgiana Fraser was very con­cerned about this accu­sa­tion and imme­di­ate­ly asked that a police offi­cer take a state­ment from the inmate and ensure that it is report­ed to the Complaints Division.

(3) Friday July 16th 2010 Activist Judge Judith Pusey grant­ed bail to a 51 yr old moth­er, and her 15-year-old daugh­ter, in the sum of J$150,00, and J$50,000 respectively,the equiv­a­lent of US1’685.00, and US$561.00 , both women were charged with blud­geon­ing to death the 55 yr old father and boyfriend of both accused,nothing more to be said here this is unimag­in­able this is what life is worth in Jamaica the price of a park­ing ticket.

(4) cor­po­rate area Court:A judge releas­es two men with sus­pend­ed sen­tences of one year , after they con­fessed to putting a bul­let through the back of a taxi dri­ver whom they robbed so they could have mon­ey for new sneak­ers and jack­ets to wear to the dance the night of the killing, the deceased left a wife and three chil­dren with­out any form of finan­cial support.
The Judges com­ment on releas­ing them ? I don’t want you men to become more hard­ened crim­i­nals by send­ing you to prison.
My ques­tion is, how much more hard­ened can one become beyond being an armed rob­ber and a murderer? .
If I was to haz­ard a guess I would say this is not the first crim­i­nal act they had com­mit­ted, nor the first life they had taken.

This par­tic­u­lar case has left me stunned beyond words.

The cas­es of Judaical abuse and absolute­ly insan­i­ty are too many to men­tion , but now here in this forum we will be hold­ing their feet to the fire, we will be call­ing them out. and we will not be deterred,

Have your say.

Mike beck­les:

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JFJ’S PREDICTABLE HYPOCRISY

By now most peo­ple in Jamaica and a sig­nif­i­cant por­tion of Jamaicans liv­ing out­side the Country are famil­iar with the mur­der of 17-year-old Kingston College stu­dent Khajeel Mais .
Young mis­ter Mais lost his life under the most egre­gious of cir­cum­stances ‚infor­ma­tion from the Jamaican Media and the Police sug­gest young mis­ter Mais was a lone pas­sen­ger rid­ing in the back seat of a cab to a fete being held at the Meadowbrook High school in Saint Andrew, the cab report­ed­ly rear end­ed a lux­u­ry BMW ‑x6 Sport Utility Vehicle , upon which all hell broke loose.
The reports alleged the dri­ver of the Sport util­i­ty, alight­ed from his vehi­cle gun in hand and opened fire at the cab , the dri­ver real­iz­ing he was being shot at ‚turned his cab around and sped off in the oppo­site direc­tion, he lat­er real­ized his young pas­sen­ger was dead.
Shot through the head.!!
This shoot­ing has evoked a firestorm of con­dem­na­tion and anger from all quar­ters of Jamaica , and the Jamaican com­mu­ni­ty liv­ing in oth­er Countries,the blog sites and social media has lit up with almost every­one call­ing for a swift res­o­lu­tion to this case .The demands are clear, find the shoot­er and bring him to Justice.!!
Most peo­ple read­ing the reports on a dai­ly basis were infu­ri­at­ed upon learn­ing that the shoot­er cow­ard­ly high­tailed it out of the Country after the shoot­ing, as more infor­ma­tion trick­led in it was report­ed he was an American Citizen , since then the shoot­er has report­ed­ly returned to the Island under the advise of his high-priced Attorney Patrick Atkinson, was detained by the Police, who up to the time of this post still has not released his name.
This has inflamed anoth­er fire storm of con­dem­na­tion, with most of those demand­ing more Information, claim­ing spe­cial treat­ment is being afford­ed the alleged mur­der­er. Despite how we feel about the actions of the Police ‚one thing we all share, is a com­mon out­rage that this young man’s life was snuffed out in this man­ner, now every­one has a right to due process, to the ben­e­fit of the doubt, and despite our out­rage I am sure the accused man has a sto­ry to tell, and so we await his day in Court, when hope­ful­ly we will get a chance to hear his ratio­nale, to what most peo­ple char­ac­ter­ize as a bar­bar­ic act. Now despite the National and International out­rage ema­nat­ing from this inci­dent, we have heard not one word from the car­ing peo­ple at Jamaicans for jus­tice, not one iota,not one peep of com­ment , no con­dem­na­tion, noth­ing that would assuage some of the hurt and pain the fam­i­ly of young Khajeel Mais must be feel­ing at this time. Yet true to form,as is their modus operan­di , despite expla­na­tion from oth­ers ‚and the Commissioner of Police, regard­ing the rea­son his Agency has made the deci­sion not to release the sus­pec­t’s name, the peo­ple at JFJ fear­ing irrel­e­vance, jumped onto this issue . Despite all the out­pour­ing of love and sup­port for the fam­i­ly of Khajeel Mais the peo­ple at Jamaicans for Justice has decid­ed that rather than con­demn the shoot­er , they would rather crit­i­cize the Police.

michael beck­les:

Have your say:

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SMOKE AND MIRRORS

Jamaica’s Police Commissioner has suc­cumbed to pub­lic pres­sure and has final­ly bro­ken his silence in the mat­ter in the mur­der of 17 years old Kingston College stu­dent Khajeel Mais.
Young Mais a pas­sen­ger in a taxi-cab, on his way to a fete at anoth­er High School, lost his life when the cab in which he was a pas­sen­ger was involved in an acci­dent, the cab alleged­ly rear end­ed a lux­u­ry BMW-x6 sport util­i­ty vehicle.
Reports are that the dri­ver of the BMW emerged from his vehi­cle gun in hand, and com­menced to fire on the cab,the dri­ver real­iz­ing that he was being shot at, turned his cab around and fled in the oppo­site direction.
He lat­er real­ized that his young pas­sen­ger was dead, a bul­let to the head, the cab dri­ver escaped phys­i­cal injury.
The state­ment from the Commissioner yes­ter­day defend­ing his Department’s han­dling of this mat­ter was an intel­li­gent, well thought con­cise and delib­er­ate Thesis on Policy and pro­ce­dure, A state­ment I would have been proud of, if the cir­cum­stances of its deliv­ery were different,.
However, despite all of what Mister Ellington has explained he still has not giv­en a plau­si­ble rea­son for the fact that to date the name of the sus­pect has not been released.
We can under­stand the expla­na­tion he gave regard­ing the fact that the sus­pect is a cit­i­zen of the United States and the poten­tial prob­lems releas­ing his name could have caused,we get that, how­ev­er the sus­pect by the Commissioner’s own admis­sion is back in the Country, and in his cus­tody, by all indi­ca­tions the sus­pect will be charged crim­i­nal­ly with the death of young mis­ter Mais,if this is cor­rect, whether he will face an Identification Parade or not there is no log­i­cal rea­son for the pub­lic to be kept in the dark as to his identity.
And while we are at it let’s hope that the JCF is not build­ing a case on the evi­dence gleaned from a poten­tial ID Parade alone.
The Commissioner , despite his expla­na­tions knows ful­ly well that the deci­sion he and the oth­er prin­ci­pals he named made to keep the pub­lic in the dark is one that is disingenuous,and does noth­ing to engen­der trust or respect for an Agency floun­der­ing from lack of both.
When all is said and done the charges made by the pub­lic about a per­ceived dou­ble stan­dard in the Police han­dling of this case still stands , when all the plat­i­tudes are peeled back, what we are left with is noth­ing more than smoke and mirrors.
How say you?
mike beckles

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JAMAICAN POLICE STILL HAS NOT RELEASED NAME OF SUSPECT

The Jamaican Police up to the time of this post still has not released the name of the shoot­er in their cus­tody accused of killing 17 years old school­boy Khajeel Mais in an appar­ent case of road rage gone ter­ri­bly wrong .
Young Mais, an inno­cent vic­tim, rid­ing in the back of a Cab to a fête at a high School, became the vic­tim of a ter­ri­ble case of road rage when the cab in which he was a pas­sen­ger alleged­ly ran into the back of a BMW-x6 sport util­i­ty vehicle.
Its is alleged that the dri­ver of the sport util­i­ty vehi­cle emerged from the vehi­cle fir­ing at the cab, the cab dri­ver it is report­ed turned his cab around and head­ed in the oppo­site direc­tion ‚with the x6 dri­ver still firing.
It is the trag­ic tale of how a promis­ing young life was snuffed out in a sense­less act of total madness.
The Police for their part has stead­fast­ly refused to name the shoot­er, even though it is report­ed he fled the Island for the United States, has since returned to the Country ‚and from their own account, is in custody.
This case has gen­er­at­ed wide­spread out­cry, and cor­rect­ly so, there are also accu­sa­tions of cov­er up and cor­rup­tion lev­eled at the Police in the way they have han­dled this case, in a man­ner that is incon­sis­tent with their (modus operan­di )mode of oper­a­tion, sim­ply put ‚the police have a duty to inform the pub­lic of the progress, of the case, they work for the pub­lic, and the rea­sons giv­en by sev­er­al per­sons with­in the Department includ­ing the Commissioner sim­ply does not add up.
We are well aware that there are cir­cum­stances that pre­vent the Police from divulging every­thing they know ‚we are also aware there are ways to keep the Public apprised with­out jeop­ar­diz­ing the case.
The Police has by their actions, shift­ed some of the pub­lic’s anger from the sus­pect onto them­selves, some­thing the Department can ill afford to do.
How say you.?