Breaking The Laws With The Best Intentions Is Still Criminal.….

For every claim, there may be a coun­ter­claim, for every glow­ing trib­ute one offer about an indi­vid­ual some­one may have remained silent with a sto­ry which is not so complimentary.

Such is the sto­ry regard­ing Dr. Jephtah Ford a med­ical doc­tor who for decades oper­at­ed a prac­tice on Red Hills Road in Kingston 8.
Ford and his twin broth­er Jeptah are col­or­ful fig­ures who are icon­ic not just by virtue of their med­ical prac­tice but by virtue of their involve­ment in politics.

Jephthah Ford has a long and sto­ried his­to­ry on Red Hills Road and in the wider Jamaica sole­ly on the basis of his med­ical prac­tice. Throw in his con­nec­tions and a life of pol­i­tics and the guy is freak­ing rock star.
You do not spend years and years in a neigh­bor­hood doing busi­ness and not build up a well of goodwill.,
At the same time, Ford has anoth­er side unknown to many, known to some who do not care as long as he stretched his hand and gave them a gift or a pat on the back

Many oth­ers know the man Jephthah Ford and their view of him is not so favorable.
Yet Jamaica is a coun­try in which one can have a Robin Hood per­sona and no one cares. Jamaica is the coun­try which roman­ti­cized ThreeFinger Jack.
It is the Country which roman­ti­cizes Lester Lloyd Coke, Christopher dud­dus Coke, Coppa, Rigen, Sandokan, and a long list of anoth­er scum­bag murderers.

In Jamaica, the nation which has an 84% cor­rup­tion rat­ing accord­ing to Transparency International, those who hand out the good­ies are the sec­ond com­ing of Jesus Christ personified.

That is metaphor­i­cal­ly speak­ing, whether Jephthah Ford is a Robin-hood type per­son­al­i­ty depends on who you speak to.
So it’s not out of the ordi­nary in a coun­try like Jamaica where pol­i­tics and the big man per­sona earns a Doctor Jephthah Ford type plau­dits and praise in the com­mu­ni­ty in which he oper­ates and beyond, regard­less of his alter ego dual personality.

It’s not extra­or­di­nary that politi­cians and Police, Pastors and Peasants are lin­ing up, call­ing for a non-cus­to­di­al sen­tence for Ford who was recent­ly con­vict­ed on two counts of attempt­ing to per­vert the course of justice.
None of that mat­ters in Jamaica as long as the trans­gres­sor is con­nect­ed and benev­o­lent it does not mat­ter what bad he/​she does, it’s all a‑okay.
To those who tes­ti­fy on his behalf he is a hero, to the police offi­cers who patrol the streets who are not blind­ed by par­ty pol­i­tics Ford rep­re­sents the worse of his profession.
To the silent who have been wronged not just by Ford but by the [shit-stym] which nur­tures and cul­ti­vate the Jephthah Fords, they don’t think that six months is enough.

Ford has had a tumul­tuous rela­tion­ship with many cops, good cops who cor­rect­ly believe that no Doctor should treat a per­son who com­mits crimes and turn up to him with gun­shot wounds and not noti­fy police.
Many will quick­ly say he has an oblig­a­tion to treat every­one, they may also say he treats crim­i­nals because his life could poten­tial­ly be in dan­ger from those criminals.
I say speak to the cops involved in those cas­es past and present and see if Ford was a Robin Hood. Get their opin­ions on whether he was doing it because of his hip­po­crat­ic oath?

This is big­ger than Ford how­ev­er, it demon­strates the rot­ten core of a deca­dent soci­ety which has sur­ren­dered all mod­icum of decen­cy and integri­ty and gone astray.
It does not mat­ter what an indi­vid­ual does in the dark as long as he steps into the light with clean hands it’s all good.
This not to sug­gest that Jephthah Ford is a mon­ster but nei­ther is he Mother Theresa. Jamaicans have a his­to­ry of cod­dling the most per­verse and despi­ca­ble human crea­tures all because they hand out a few trin­kets and a few bot­tles of beers.

If I treat a bunch of peo­ple kind­ly what does any of it have to do with any­thing if I com­mit a crime,? Should I sim­ply walk free because of my pre­vi­ous good deeds?
Throw in the peo­ple I treat­ed shit­ty and the ques­tion is what right do I have to expect def­er­ence from the jus­tice sys­tem when I com­mit myself?
It makes absolute­ly no sense, what do Ford’s per­ceived good deeds have to do with the courts’ decision?
The court has a duty to hear them but the court is duty bound to bal­ance what­ev­er char­ac­ter evi­dence may be prof­fered on his behalf against the greater good of the com­mu­ni­ty and it’s respon­si­bil­i­ty to the fideli­ty of the rule of law.

The court was beyond gra­cious in tap­ping Ford on the wrist with two six-month sen­tences to run concurrently.
In my esti­ma­tion, the court should have sent a strong mes­sage with this sen­tence, which would encour­age oth­er police offi­cers to fol­low suit in avoid­ing cor­rup­tion and those who would cor­rupt pub­lic officials.
The courts have an oblig­a­tion to do it’s part in the equi­table dis­pen­sa­tion of jus­tice regard­less of one’s affil­i­a­tions and connections.

Was there any won­der that Christopher Coke was nev­er con­vict­ed of a crime in Jamaica?
What hap­pened to the Kern Spencer cor­rup­tion case? It was the same sto­ry when Al Miller was pros­e­cut­ed for his crimes and found guilty.
Prison can­not be only for the poor­est class of peo­ple while the big man receives a tap on the wrist.
What hap­pened to FINSAC? Is there any won­der that ordi­nary peo­ple feel they have the right to ignore the nation’s laws?
Unless this coun­try ignores the cries for lenien­cy on the rare occa­sions when renowned peo­ple are caught red-hand­ed there will be hell to pay as the coun­try is engulfed more and more with crim­i­nal­i­ty, because the men­tal­i­ty of the peo­ple is becom­ing increas­ing­ly per­verse and twisted.

The laws are there for the pro­tec­tion of all Jamaicans, no one is big­ger than the laws no one is sub­servient to the laws.
All we have to do is to do our best to avoid break­ing them.
Good inten­tions are not a free pass for break­ing the laws, at best it may mit­i­gate one’s sen­tence but no one should expect that regard­less of their crimes they will be allowed to go home, that is not jus­tice and it should not hap­pen in this case.