I love my coun­try, that is the rea­son I will not be silent on the gang infes­ta­tion and acts of crim­i­nal­i­ty that have tak­en over our country.
Jamaica, our beloved land of wood and water, is at a cross­roads. Once cel­e­brat­ed for its rich cul­ture, breath­tak­ing land­scapes, and vibrant peo­ple, it is now grap­pling with a dev­as­tat­ing surge in crime that threat­ens the very fab­ric of our soci­ety. As a proud Jamaican, I refuse to sit idly by and watch as fear and vio­lence engulf our com­mu­ni­ties. Silence in the face of such tur­moil is not an option, for it is in speak­ing out and tak­ing action that change begins.
Crime has seeped into every cor­ner of our soci­ety — rob­bing fam­i­lies of loved ones, dis­rupt­ing liveli­hoods, and sow­ing dis­trust among neigh­bors. Every act of vio­lence chips away at our col­lec­tive hope and steals oppor­tu­ni­ties from future gen­er­a­tions. This is not the Jamaica we dream of; this is not the lega­cy we wish to leave behind.

But I will not let despair win. My voice, your voice, and the voic­es of every con­cerned Jamaican must come togeth­er to demand bet­ter. We must hold our lead­ers account­able, advo­cate for stronger poli­cies, and push for invest­ments in edu­ca­tion, job cre­ation, and social pro­grams. Tackling crime requires address­ing its root caus­es — pover­ty, inequal­i­ty, and lack of opportunity.
Moreover, we, as cit­i­zens, must also play our part. Community uni­ty is our great­est weapon against crime. We must fos­ter a cul­ture of respect, rebuild trust, and stand togeth­er to pro­tect what is ours. Turning a blind eye to crim­i­nal activ­i­ty or accept­ing it as “just how things are” can­not con­tin­ue. Jamaica is more than its chal­lenges. We are resilient, inno­v­a­tive, and deeply con­nect­ed by our shared iden­ti­ty. The road ahead will not be easy, but I believe in our abil­i­ty to reclaim our coun­try from the grip of crime. I will not be silent, for silence is com­plic­i­ty. I will speak out, act bold­ly, and fight for a Jamaica that is safe, just, and pros­per­ous — for all of us.

The time to stand up is now. Let us not wait until it’s too late.

Amidst idle chat­ter by mouth­pieces at INDECOM about police fatal shoot­ings, gang­land com­mu­ni­ties con­tin­ue to try to turn our coun­try into anoth­er iter­a­tion of a law­less Haiti.

A tense stand-off erupt­ed in Elderslie Pen, also known as Capture Land, in Spanish Town, St Catherine, ear­ly this morn­ing fol­low­ing a police oper­a­tion tar­get­ing want­ed men.
Residents, angered by the oper­a­tion, report­ed­ly attacked mem­bers of the secu­ri­ty forces with stones and bot­tles, forc­ing them to fire warn­ing shots into the air.
The pro­test­ers esca­lat­ed ten­sions by block­ing roads lead­ing into the com­mu­ni­ty and slash­ing the tires of police vehi­cles, ham­per­ing the mobil­i­ty of law enforcement.
Sporadic gun­fire has been report­ed as police and mil­i­tary per­son­nel work to regain con­trol of the volatile area. 
The oper­a­tion, report­ed­ly car­ried out by the Fugitive Apprehension Squad, failed to cap­ture its intend­ed tar­get, who man­aged to escape amid the chaos. (As report­ed by one local publication)

This is not a new phe­nom­e­non in our coun­try, this usu­al­ly hap­pens with the media act­ing as will­ing cheer­lead­ers to the anar­chy in depressed com­mu­ni­ties across the coun­try where bleached-out skin ema­ci­at­ed-look­ing thugs hold sway under the pow­er of the gun.
In these com­mu­ni­ties, many res­i­dents who ben­e­fit from the chop­ping, extor­tion, mur­der, and rob­beries are will­ing to put their lives on the line to defend the bleached-out skin mon­sters who rule like kings in the rusty zinc fief­doms of despair and degradation.
Adding to the may­hem are the many groups of sym­pa­thiz­ers pre­tend­ing to be human rights orga­ni­za­tions. Their pro­pa­gan­da cam­paign rivals Hitler’s Goebbels in effectiveness.
Worst yet, are the tax­pay­er-fund­ed ones at INDECOM, an Agency formed to offer police over­sight which off the bat mor­phed into an inef­fec­tive par­a­site on law-abid­ing tax­pay­ers and anoth­er acces­so­ry to the nation’s crime epidemic.

Was this the first time this kind of thing hap­pened in these com­mu­ni­ties that should be bull­dozed for all intents and pur­pos­es? No, and it will not be the last. One fact remains con­stant and that is the silence by the fraud­u­lent crim­i­nal sup­port­ing pro­pa­gan­dists that give aid and com­fort to the anar­chists, includ­ing the leech­es liv­ing off tax­pay­ers at INDECOM.
It is very dif­fi­cult to find anoth­er coun­try where a Government Agency ignores its job and spends time crit­i­ciz­ing anoth­er Agency. 
The present Government allows this to hap­pen and the oppo­si­tion PNP that craves pow­er is worse. Among its ranks are peo­ple worse than those slash­ing the tires and attack­ing the police.
How does this kind of unchecked law­less­ness work with the lofty goals of the gov­ern­ment to pro­pel the coun­try into devel­oped nation sta­tus through what it calls Vision 2030″, which aims to achieve devel­oped coun­try sta­tus by the year 2030 through a com­pre­hen­sive nation­al devel­op­ment plan focused on improv­ing the econ­o­my, social cohe­sion, and envi­ron­men­tal sus­tain­abil­i­ty; essen­tial­ly posi­tion­ing Jamaica as “the place of choice to live, work, raise fam­i­lies and do busi­ness.”. 

A few road­ways built by the Chinese do not a devel­oped coun­try make, amidst a rot­ting, crum­bling social struc­ture. If the nation is to ever remote­ly begin that upward path it must dis­en­tan­gle itself from the cheap parochial par­ti­san pol­i­tics that has suf­fo­cat­ed the progress we deserve just so that low-life politi­cians can attain power.

Jamaica’s author­i­ties have grave­ly erred by suc­cumb­ing to the loud and mis­guid­ed rhetoric of far-left anti-police reac­tionar­ies. These indi­vid­u­als, cloak­ing their agen­das in the lan­guage of social jus­tice, have long mil­i­tat­ed for “soft” laws and lenien­cy that embold­en crim­i­nals while dis­man­tling the deter­rents that once kept vio­lence at bay. The trag­ic result is a nation where police offi­cers are gunned down with impuni­ty, their killers rev­el­ing in cel­e­bra­tion, and a jus­tice sys­tem that is increas­ing­ly com­plic­it in this descent into lawlessness.

The People’s National Party (PNP) bears sig­nif­i­cant his­tor­i­cal respon­si­bil­i­ty for this cri­sis. Under the guise of cham­pi­oning the poor, the PNP has con­sis­tent­ly aligned itself with crim­i­nal ele­ments, exploit­ing them as a polit­i­cal strat­e­gy. For decades, the par­ty has care­ful­ly cul­ti­vat­ed a nar­ra­tive of faux con­cern for mar­gin­al­ized com­mu­ni­ties while using these same com­mu­ni­ties as a breed­ing ground for vio­lence and intim­i­da­tion to secure votes. This cyn­i­cal exploita­tion has done noth­ing to alle­vi­ate pover­ty or empow­er the vul­ner­a­ble. Instead, it has cre­at­ed a cul­ture in which crim­i­nal­i­ty is tol­er­at­ed, if not open­ly cel­e­brat­ed, while gen­uine law enforce­ment is under­mined at every turn.

The cur­rent Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) admin­is­tra­tion has fared lit­tle bet­ter. While it osten­si­bly rejects the PNP’s pro-crim­i­nal lega­cy, it has failed to draw a deci­sive line of demar­ca­tion between itself and its oppo­si­tion on the issue of crime. The JLP’s inac­tion has per­pet­u­at­ed a cul­ture of weak gov­er­nance, where the state is unwill­ing or unable to stand up to both vio­lent offend­ers and the élite enablers who roman­ti­cize them. The line sep­a­rat­ing jus­tice from chaos has blurred, leav­ing a void where once the rule of law prevailed.

Two or three decades ago, such brazen­ness as the mur­der of police offi­cers would have been unthink­able. Perpetrators would have been swift­ly brought to jus­tice, serv­ing as a stark warn­ing to oth­ers. Today, how­ev­er, Jamaica has degen­er­at­ed into a soci­ety where crim­i­nal­i­ty is nor­mal­ized. Far-left elites — lawyers, aca­d­e­mics, and even polit­i­cal rep­re­sen­ta­tives — have worked tire­less­ly to erode pub­lic con­fi­dence in law enforce­ment, all while empow­er­ing crim­i­nals. Their rhetoric has borne bit­ter fruit: a Jamaica where the killers of police offi­cers, the lat­est being Corporal Christopher Smith of the Kingston Western Division, drink and cel­e­brate with impuni­ty, mock­ing the very con­cept of justice.
The police high com­mand, a prod­uct of new-age polic­ing, has zero con­cepts of how to attack the killers who roam the streets, and nei­ther does its sup­port­ing cast of men and women who serve under it. Frankly, they make me sick.
Press brief­in­gs promis­ing thor­ough probes into the deaths of police offi­cers are not worth the paper they are writ­ten on. There was a time when we brought cop-killers to jus­tice or brought jus­tice to them; their choice.

This is not the Jamaica that once stood firm against vio­lence and law­less­ness. The cur­rent state of affairs reflects the tri­umph of a dan­ger­ous ide­ol­o­gy that pri­or­i­tizes the rights of crim­i­nals over the safe­ty of cit­i­zens and the jus­tice sys­tem’s integri­ty. Until Jamaica’s lead­ers reject the influ­ence of far-left reac­tionar­ies, dis­man­tle the net­works of crim­i­nal enablers, and restore account­abil­i­ty to both offend­ers and the elites who shield them, the island’s descent into anar­chy will con­tin­ue unabated.
It is time for Jamaica to reclaim its lega­cy of law and order — not mere­ly as a polit­i­cal talk­ing point but as a foun­da­tion­al prin­ci­ple. The lives of police offi­cers and the safe­ty of all Jamaicans depend on it.

After about 5 hours of delib­er­a­tions, a jury found one for­mer Memphis police offi­cer guilty of civ­il rights vio­la­tions con­nect­ed to the fatal police beat­ing of Tyre Nichols over 20 months ago. The jury found Demetrius Haley guilty of using exces­sive force, being delib­er­ate­ly indif­fer­ent to Nichols’ med­ical needs, and con­spir­ing to wit­ness tam­per and wit­ness tam­per­ing. While Haley was found guilty on all counts, the jury found that on the first two counts ― using exces­sive force and being delib­er­ate­ly indif­fer­ent to Nichols’ med­ical needs ― it result­ed in injury, not death, and con­vict­ed him on less­er charges. Tadarrius Bean and Justin Smith Jr. were found guilty of wit­ness tampering.

They were charged along­side for­mer offi­cers Emmitt Martin III and Desmond Mills Jr. Both Martin and Mills took plea deals — plead­ing guilty to using exces­sive force and con­spir­ing to wit­ness tam­per — ahead of tri­al. Both men also tes­ti­fied for the pros­e­cu­tion at tri­al. Mills’ plea came with a rec­om­mend­ed 15-year sen­tence by pros­e­cu­tors and Martin’s came with a rec­om­mend­ed 40-year sen­tence, though both will ulti­mate­ly be decid­ed by Judge Mark S. Norris. All three con­vict­ed offi­cers were imme­di­ate­ly tak­en into cus­tody and a hear­ing will be held Monday to deter­mine if they can be released on bond before their sen­tenc­ing. A sen­tenc­ing hear­ing is set for Jan. 22. The max­i­mum sen­tence for the oth­er three was life in fed­er­al prison based on the orig­i­nal charges. There is no parole in the fed­er­al sys­tem, so each defen­dant will serve the entire­ty of their sentence.

Civil rights attor­ney Ben Crump said when the offi­cers were all found guilty of at least one charge, Nichols’ par­ents imme­di­ate­ly said “Thank God.” “Thank God all of them are going to jail for what they did to my boy,” Rodney Wells said after Norris said all three offi­cers would be imme­di­ate­ly tak­en into custody.

The Vybz Kartel Controversy delves deep into the intri­cate and con­tro­ver­sial release of the pop­u­lar Dancehall artist Vybz Kartel from prison. This video is a fol­low-up to our pre­vi­ous dis­cus­sion, address­ing the lat­est devel­op­ments con­cern­ing the Jamaican Court of Appeals’ rul­ing on the mur­der case involv­ing Clive “Lizard” Williams and accused Adidja Palmer, known as Vybz Kartel. The sad irony lies in how the jus­tice sys­tem appears to be nur­tur­ing crim­i­nals rather than uphold­ing the rule of law. The video explores the war being waged with­in the Jamaican judi­cia­ry, a cold war of lib­er­al­ism ver­sus strict jus­tice. We need to shift our focus toward self-reliance and a vic­tim-cen­tric approach to jus­tice? Our polit­i­cal analy­sis uncov­ers the nuances behind the court’s deci­sion, high­light­ing issues such as juror mis­con­duct, wit­ness avail­abil­i­ty, and the declin­ing health of the accused. But what about the rights of Clive “Lizard” Williams and his fam­i­ly? This video chal­lenges view­ers to think crit­i­cal­ly about the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem’s pri­or­i­ties and the broad­er impli­ca­tions for the African-American com­mu­ni­ty, civ­il rights, and the eco­nom­ic future. Share your thoughts in the com­ments, sub­scribe for more in-depth analy­sis, and like the video if you sup­port these cru­cial discussions.

In this reveal­ing analy­sis, we delve into the dis­turb­ing hero wor­ship in Jamaica, expos­ing the unset­tling phe­nom­e­non where some peo­ple idol­ize the worst actors in soci­ety. From his­tor­i­cal fig­ures like CA and Starky to con­tem­po­rary names like Ninja Man and Vybz Kartel, there is an abun­dance of data point­ing to the hero wor­ship of these mis­cre­ants. The sad irony lies in how these fig­ures, often tied to mul­ti­ple mur­ders and egre­gious crimes, are revered by a sig­nif­i­cant sub­set of the Jamaican pop­u­la­tion, solid­i­fy­ing their sta­tus as soci­etal cancers.

This video explores the war being waged with­in the Jamaican psy­che, a cold war where self-reliance is over­shad­owed by alle­giance to those who per­pet­u­ate vio­lence and chaos. Drawing par­al­lels between the inte­gra­tion into a burn­ing house and the his­tor­i­cal strug­gle of the African-American com­mu­ni­ty against white suprema­cy, we exam­ine how these dynam­ics reflect on Jamaica’s cur­rent socio-polit­i­cal landscape.

Join the con­ver­sa­tion as we dis­sect the psy­cho­log­i­cal and soci­etal fac­tors behind this dis­turb­ing trend. Share your thoughts in the com­ments, sub­scribe for more in-depth polit­i­cal analy­sis, and like the video to sup­port these crit­i­cal dis­cus­sions. Together, let’s explore the com­plex­i­ties of civ­il rights, eco­nom­ic future, and the path to a bet­ter, more self-reliant society.

Yesterday, I dis­cussed Jamaican polic­ing with a career police offi­cer who served in the JCF and var­i­ous law enforce­ment enti­ties in the United States.
I had not seen or spo­ken to Mister —- in over three decades. I was shocked when he hit me up on social media with his num­ber and request­ed that I call him. He was a good cop in Jamaica, so I was hap­py to return his call.
After exchang­ing pleas­antries, he asked me if the peo­ple in Jamaica who make deci­sions on polic­ing read my work. 
I laughed because it would be mighty lofty to assume that my beloved Jamaica’s very well-edu­cat­ed bureau­crats and tech­nocrats would lis­ten to any­body except the fawn­ing voic­es in their echo chamber.

We spoke defin­i­tive­ly on a cou­ple of top­ics. He has com­plet­ed the full obsta­cle course on polic­ing in the United States, and I have done much research and writ­ing on polic­ing for over a decade. We talked about the incom­pe­tence of the Police High Command in Jamaica and its fail­ure to look at inci­dents involv­ing junior offi­cers on the streets. Their fail­ure to dis­sect video and events frame by frame and take cor­rec­tive steps to ensure that those things nev­er hap­pen again, and if they do, offi­cers are equipped to deal effec­tive­ly with them.
We dis­cussed the lack of action on events where offi­cers are placed in mor­tal dan­ger deal­ing with a vio­lent and law­less soci­ety that feels oblig­at­ed to vio­lent­ly engage the police in the law­ful exe­cu­tion of their duties.
We dis­cussed the lack of pol­i­cy designed to cut response time to the low­est pos­si­ble sec­ond, a mea­sure I feel would pro­tect the cit­i­zen­ry and go a long way in dis­suad­ing those try­ing to fight with and obstruct offi­cers exe­cut­ing their duties.
This lat­ter point is par­tic­u­lar­ly impor­tant to me because the Jamaican police do not get the leg­isla­tive sup­port they need to do their jobs effec­tive­ly. Worse, even with the lax and crim­i­nal-friend­ly laws, the judges are the worst ene­mies of the police and the rule of law.
I con­stant­ly write that the police hier­ar­chy must do a bet­ter job pro­tect­ing its offi­cers, giv­en the hos­tile polit­i­cal and judi­cial land­scape in which they operate.

Most impor­tant­ly, we dis­cussed that Jamaican police offi­cers are the only pro­fes­sion­als asked to do their jobs with­out the required tools. Teachers have books, pen­cils and pens, com­put­ers, etc. Doctors are equipped, police offi­cers are giv­en a gun they are not allowed to use (based on the pro-crim­i­nal laws) and when they do use them to pro­tect their very lives, they are raked over the coals by every arm­chair general.
Officers do not have the all-impor­tant less lethal taser that would be a game chang­er in deal­ing with the bel­liger­ent and, worse, those who see it as their duty to inject them­selves into law­ful operations.
The aver­age guy on the street knows the lim­i­ta­tions the police offi­cers face, and they open­ly engage the police and tell them what they can­not do. No oth­er cat­e­go­ry of work­ers in our coun­try is asked to per­form their duties at the per­il of death.
No oth­er cat­e­go­ry of work­ers is asked to per­form their jobs at the per­il of death with­out the means to defend themselves.
There is a strange per­cep­tion in our coun­try that makes every dis­ci­pline a stand-alone except policing.
It requires a farmer to be a farmer. A doc­tor must be a doc­tor; a nurse must be a nurse; car­pen­ters, masons, plumbers, fire­fight­ers, elec­tri­cians, etc., all require peo­ple steeped in their own discipline.
This is not so with polic­ing; there is a per­cep­tion that polic­ing requires a Ph.D., Jurist Doctorates, and all kinds of degrees that must be earned from the intel­lec­tu­al ghetto.

https://​mike​beck​les​.com/​t​h​e​-​i​m​a​g​e​s​-​d​o​-​n​o​t​-​l​i​e​-​o​u​r​-​p​o​l​i​c​e​-​n​e​e​d​s​-​t​r​a​i​n​i​n​g​-​a​n​d​-​s​u​p​p​o​rt/

The present head of the Constabulary, Kevin Blake, was cho­sen because he holds a Ph.D. in Sustainable Development from the University of the West Indies. His dis­ser­ta­tion was in the fields of Information Systems and Policing.
On that basis, he was cho­sen to head the Force. It makes sense in Jamaica, a nation steeped in celebri­ty and the big-man cul­ture. In the real world, it doesn’t. 
It requires a com­pe­tent cop to be a fuck­ing cop. The com­mis­sion­er of police does not need to be a doc­tor, lawyer, priest, or par­son; they need to be a damn good cop who knows polic­ing inside out.
At the end of our con­ver­sa­tion, we both agreed that noth­ing would change because the polit­i­cal lead­er­ship could not have a police force that was com­pe­tent and unafraid to inves­ti­gate and throw them in jail for their crim­i­nal conduct.
For its incom­pe­tent part, the high com­mand is con­tent with being lap­dogs to a polit­i­cal sys­tem that rel­e­gates it to a placeholder.
Truth be told, most of the peo­ple who make up the high com­mand know noth­ing about actu­al polic­ing; they have degrees from Mona, and that qual­i­fies them to be polic­ing lead­ers. Most polic­ing lead­ers in Jamaica have nev­er arrest­ed any­one, inves­ti­gat­ed a case of sim­ple lar­ce­ny to a pos­i­tive con­clu­sion, and nev­er expe­ri­enced what real polic­ing in Jamaica entails, yet they are lead­ing our young people.
Poppyshows..

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

So often, I write on the sub­ject of Jamaican police’s lack of train­ing that I sound like a bro­ken record. Many of my for­mer col­leagues have said it is a lost cause; many argue that the force is beyond repair, even as politi­cians, prog­nos­ti­ca­tors, and pon­tif­i­ca­tors tell us about the new JCF and how cour­te­ous offi­cers have become.
It is as if a well-trained, pro­fes­sion­al, com­pe­tent, and cour­te­ous police depart­ment is mutu­al­ly exclu­sive. Having con­sumed the cool-aid thrown into the well of the Jamaican ecosys­tem by Carolyn Gomez, Terrence Williams, and Horace Levy, and oth­ers, we now have a coun­try that believes the Government’s first respon­si­bil­i­ty is to pro­tect crim­i­nals, not law-abid­ing Jamaicans.

The Police depart­ment has been repur­posed to fit that new belief, and now we have a police depart­ment that is com­plete­ly clue­less and inept, inca­pable of attack­ing crim­i­nal­i­ty in our coun­try in a way that makes crim­i­nals rethink com­mit­ting crimes.
The JCF has become a dump­ing ground for posers and self-absorbed indi­vid­u­als who are sin­gu­lar­ly focused on what they can get from the JCF, not how they can contribute.

The images speak for them­selves; offi­cers are not exhibit­ing train­ing in sub­du­ing offend­ers or esprit d corps the uni­ver­sal code of offi­cers look­ing out for the safe­ty of oth­er offi­cers. Either they are not trained in the afore­men­tioned, or they are too afraid of the sys­tem crim­i­nal­iz­ing them for doing their jobs. This is exact­ly what Carolyn Gomez, Horace Levy, and Terrence Williams want­ed to see in their cam­paign to neuter the police force com­plete­ly. They have suc­ceed­ed beyond their own imaginations.

This is not an indi­vid­ual act of care­less­ness, cow­ardice, or incom­pe­tence by an offi­cer. It runs deep­er; it smacks of care­less­ness, cow­ardice, and incom­pe­tence, but we see this kind of behav­ior from offi­cers all the time. Officers are social­ized to believe that when a col­league is com­mit­ted to an arrest, it is up to them to effec­tu­ate that arrest. 
This male offi­cer is the worst iter­a­tion of what is wrong with the JCF. Separate and apart from the fact that it is an offi­cer’s respon­si­bil­i­ty to assist in sub­du­ing and cuff­ing a sus­pect, it is out­ra­geous that a male offi­cer would stand around while a female col­league is wrestling to bring a sus­pect under con­trol, male or female.
This male cop is garbage and a lia­bil­i­ty to the secu­ri­ty of his col­leagues; trust me, I know I worked with cops who ran away while I was shot and bleeding.

Even though this female offi­cer was res­olute and did not allow the sus­pect to over­whelm her, her lack of train­ing was evi­dent. She should have tak­en the sus­pect to the ground and sub­dued her. Officers have no respon­si­bil­i­ty to pro­tect a sus­pect who has decid­ed to fight with them. As a young con­sta­ble doing the beats in down­town Kingston, a woman did exact­ly what the woman in these videos did to this female offi­cer, to me.
I guar­an­tee that woman nev­er con­tem­plat­ed ever doing that to anoth­er police offi­cer; even more com­mend­able, the judge, hav­ing heard the evi­dence of what she did, made an exam­ple of her.
Of course, that was when we had anti-crime judges in our coun­try. It is hard to dis­tin­guish judges today from crim­i­nals based on their rul­ings, but that is a dif­fer­ent con­ver­sa­tion for anoth­er day.
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Mike Beckles is a for­mer Police Detective, busi­ness­man, free­lance writer, black achiev­er hon­oree, and cre­ator of the blog mike​beck​les​.com.

It is not a democ­ra­cy when the elect­ed rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the peo­ple appoint bureau­crats to life­time posi­tions over which they there­after have no oversight.
The idea of a Supreme Court pop­u­lat­ed with unelect­ed bureau­crats not elect­ed by the peo­ple and that only answers to itself runs counter to every tenet of a demo­c­ra­t­ic society.
A Supreme Court that no one has the pow­er to police is a court with­out account­abil­i­ty. A court that refus­es to respond to gross eth­i­cal ques­tions about its mem­bers, even to the rep­re­sen­ta­tives who appoint­ed them, is ille­git­i­mate and, for all intents and pur­pos­es, a monarchy.

A Monarchy that rules by decree and takes away rights that cit­i­zens have come to enjoy for decades.
This is the supreme monarchy.

Cons Ricardo Fairclough, who is attached to the St Ann Divisional Support Unit, was shot and killed last night a short dis­tance from the St Ann’s Bay Police Station.
The Officer was report­ed­ly killed respond­ing to a call of a robbery.

The police offi­cer was report­ed­ly alert­ed by the sound of gun­fire; he went to inves­ti­gate. The inci­dent turned out to be a woman get­ting shot; on the offi­cer’s approach, the gun­man turned his weapon on the officer.
Both the offi­cer and the injured woman were tak­en to the hos­pi­tal. The Officer died, and the woman is report­ed­ly in crit­i­cal condition.

Newly released body­cam footage reveals the may­hem that unfold­ed in a res­i­den­tial neigh­bor­hood when Chicago police fired as many as 96 bul­lets toward a man dur­ing a traf­fic stop, killing the 26-year-old and rais­ing ques­tions about whether offi­cers used exces­sive force.
While a pre­lim­i­nary inves­ti­ga­tion sug­gests the dri­ver opened fire on offi­cers first, his fam­i­ly and attor­neys ques­tion why plain-clothed offi­cers swarmed Dexter Reed’s car with guns drawn and fired dozens of shots at him.
The fatal encounter hap­pened in the city’s Garfield Park neigh­bor­hood on March 21. Several graph­ic body­cam videos were released Tuesday by Chicago’s Civilian Office of Police Accountability.
Across the coun­try, police body­cam footage has played an increas­ing role in rais­ing aware­ness and under­stand­ing about offi­cer-involved shootings.
Such evi­dence has been used to help con­vict some offi­cers of crimes, while oth­er offi­cers have avoid­ed crim­i­nal charges after the release of body­cam footage. While the dis­turb­ing videos from Chicago bring more clar­i­ty to what hap­pened, they also raise a pletho­ra of new questions

What the videos show

In one video, an offi­cer wear­ing a hood­ed jack­et, a base­ball cap and a tac­ti­cal vest with a badge on it approach­es the dri­ver of a white vehi­cle with dark-tint­ed win­dows. “Roll the win­dow down. Roll the win­dow down,” the offi­cer tells the dri­ver. The dri­ver ini­tial­ly rolled his win­dow down but then kept rolling it back up. “What are you doing?” the offi­cer asks. “Don’t roll the win­dow up. Do not roll the win­dow up!” The offi­cer pulls on the driver’s door han­dle – which appears to be locked – and then draws a gun. “Unlock the doors now! Unlock the doors now!” the offi­cer screams as anoth­er offi­cer shouts the same demands. The dri­ver appar­ent­ly says, “OK, I’m try­ing to.” Seconds lat­er, as the offi­cer retreats from the vehi­cle, gun­fire breaks out. Dozens of gun­shots are then heard in rapid suc­ces­sion. Other body­cam videos show at least two oth­er offi­cers fir­ing toward Reed from across the street in the res­i­den­tial neigh­bor­hood. Both of those offi­cers paused to reload their guns

After the bar­rage of gun­fire ends, Reed’s body is found lying face down behind the vehi­cle. “He start­ed shoot­ing at us,” an offi­cer said in one of the videos. About a minute lat­er, an offi­cer exam­ines Reed’s bul­let-rid­den car. “The gun’s right there,” the offi­cer says, shin­ing a flash­light into the vehi­cle. One offi­cer was shot in the wrist dur­ing the gun­fire and was hos­pi­tal­ized in good con­di­tion, Chicago police said. Now, mul­ti­ple agen­cies are inves­ti­gat­ing whether the offi­cers’ actions were justified.

The traffic stop stemmed from a seat belt violation, agency says

“Preliminary reports indi­cate that this inci­dent began when five Chicago Police offi­cers assigned to an 11^th District tac­ti­cal unit engaged in a traf­fic stop of Dexter Reed, Jr. for pur­port­ed­ly not wear­ing a seat­belt,” the Civilian Office of Police Accountability said in a state­ment Tuesday. COPA is the city agency respon­si­ble for inves­ti­gat­ing alle­ga­tions of police mis­con­duct and all police shoot­ings. “Upon stop­ping Mr. Reed, mul­ti­ple offi­cers sur­round­ed his vehi­cle while giv­ing ver­bal com­mands. When Mr. Reed did not com­ply with these com­mands, offi­cers point­ed their firearms at Mr. Reed and ulti­mate­ly there was an exchange of gun­fire which left Mr. Reed dead and an offi­cer shot in the fore­arm,” COPA said. “Review of video footage and ini­tial reports appears to con­firm that Mr. Reed fired first, strik­ing the offi­cer and four offi­cers returned fire,” the office said. It was not imme­di­ate­ly clear from CNN’s review of body­cam footage who fired first.

“Available pre­lim­i­nary evi­dence also con­firms that offi­cers returned fire approx­i­mate­ly 96 times over a peri­od of 41 sec­onds, includ­ing after Mr. Reed exit­ed his vehi­cle and fell to the ground,” COPA said. “Mr. Reed was struck by gun­fire mul­ti­ple times and was trans­port­ed to the hos­pi­tal and lat­er pro­nounced deceased. A gun was recov­ered on the front pas­sen­ger seat of Mr. Reed’s vehicle.”

‘That is nothing but plain murder to me’

Reed’s fam­i­ly mem­bers and their attor­neys said they can’t under­stand why the offi­cers – sev­er­al of whom were wear­ing plain clothes with their tac­ti­cal vests – swarmed his car with guns. “Dexter was pulled over for fail­ing to wear his seat belt. Now this leaves many, many ques­tions,” attor­ney Steven Hart said. “Why were tac­ti­cal offi­cers jump­ing out of an unmarked police car with their guns drawn for a sim­ple traf­fic vio­la­tion of not wear­ing a seatbelt?”

Reed’s uncle Roosevelt Banks said he would pan­ic in that sce­nario. “If I was in that sit­u­a­tion, I would be ter­ri­fied. I wouldn’t know how to … react oth­er than to pro­tect myself,” Banks said after watch­ing the police footage. “After he was shot up … you added clips to your gun? That is noth­ing but plain mur­der to me.” But the pres­i­dent of a Chicago police union, the Fraternal Order of Police Chicago Lodge #7, defend­ed the offi­cers’ response. “Of course we have a clear defense of our offi­cer s’ actions,” John Catanzara Jr. wrote in an email to CNN.

What happens next

“This shoot­ing remains under inves­ti­ga­tion by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) with the full coöper­a­tion of the Chicago Police Department,” the police depart­ment said in a state­ment Tuesday. “We can­not make a deter­mi­na­tion on this shoot­ing until all the facts are known and this inves­ti­ga­tion has con­clud­ed.” It’s not clear whether any of the offi­cers involved in the shoot­ing will face crim­i­nal charges, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx said Tuesday. “It will be our job, based on the total­i­ty of the evi­dence, to deter­mine whether the use of force in this case was beyond that force which is allow­able under the law,” Foxx said. “Our Law Enforcement Accountability Division – also called LEAD – will care­ful­ly exam­ine the total­i­ty of the cir­cum­stances and deter­mine whether the force used here by the offi­cers was war­rant­ed or con­sti­tute grounds for crim­i­nal charges.”

When you have pathet­ic cow­ards flex­ing as macho Rambos.

Newly released video shows the moment an unarmed teenage girl was fatal­ly shot by police in Hesperia, California, after she had alleged­ly been kid­napped by her dad.

Savannah Graziano, 15, watched her father, Anthony, shoot and kill her moth­er — his estranged wife — out­side a school on Sept. 26, 2022, after which the 45-year-old report­ed­ly abduct­ed the girl and went on the run. An Amber Alert was issued, and cops tasked with res­cu­ing Savannah spot­ted Graziano’s truck the fol­low­ing day.

After a high-speed chase last­ing some 70 miles, San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies boxed in the vehi­cle on an embank­ment off a free­way in Hesperia, rough­ly 80 miles east of Los Angeles. Shots were fired at the pur­su­ing deputies from inside the truck, some of which author­i­ties claimed had come from the pas­sen­ger side, where Savannah was sitting.

In video footage released by the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department pur­suant to a records request, offi­cers can be heard say­ing that bul­lets are fly­ing and telling oth­ers to “take your cover.”

“Shots are fired, shots are fired,” one says over the radio.

Savannah is then ordered out of the truck by police, and she is seen in the video emerg­ing on the high­way shoul­der. She was report­ed­ly wear­ing tac­ti­cal gear, though her spe­cif­ic attire is not clear­ly vis­i­ble in the footage.

“Passenger, get out!” one of the cops is heard yelling. “Passenger get out! Get out! Get out! Get out! Passenger, get out! Get out!

“She’s out,” an offi­cer can be heard say­ing over the radio. “She’s out on the pas­sen­ger side.”

“Come here! Come here! Come to me! Come to me!” anoth­er offi­cer instructs Savannah. “Come, come, come, come! Walk, walk, walk, walk!”

As Savannah begins walk­ing toward police, she is struck down by gun­fire. The deputy who was shout­ing at her to walk towards him now begins to yell at his fel­low offi­cers: “Stop! Stop shoot­ing her! He’s in the car! Stop! She’s OK! He’s in the car! Stop!”

“Oh, no,” the police dis­patch­er can be heard saying.

Savannah was tak­en to the hos­pi­tal, where she was pro­nounced dead. Her father was shot and killed at the scene. Deputies said they recov­ered numer­ous guns, hun­dreds of rounds of ammo, flash bangs, smoke grenades, tac­ti­cal hel­mets, and body armor from Graziano’s truck.

Savannah’s uncle told The Guardian that his niece “didn’t have to die.”

“There needs to be bet­ter train­ing so that unarmed peo­ple aren’t killed,” CJ Wyatt told the out­let. “Hopefully this video can be used for train­ing — some­thing has to be done differently.”

After fed­er­al agents raid­ed the rap­per’s mul­ti-mil­lion dol­lar homes in Miami and Los Angeles on March 25, sources with knowl­edge told NBC News on March 26 that firearms were found at both prop­er­ties. Additionally, Homeland Security Investigations seized Combs’ phones in Miami before he was sched­uled to depart for a trip to the Bahamas.
While the inves­ti­ga­tion is ongo­ing, a source close to the inves­ti­ga­tion told NBC News that the raid was con­nect­ed to alle­ga­tions of sex traf­fick­ing and sex­u­al assault and the solic­i­ta­tion and dis­tri­b­u­tion of ille­gal nar­cotics and firearms. 
Three women and one man had been inter­viewed by fed­er­al offi­cials in Manhattan in rela­tion to the inves­ti­ga­tion, the source shared.
In a March 25 state­ment to E! News, a rep for Homeland Security Investigations said they had “exe­cut­ed law enforce­ment actions as part of an ongo­ing inves­ti­ga­tion” and would “pro­vide fur­ther infor­ma­tion as it becomes available.”
One day after the raids, Combs addressed the sit­u­a­tion through his attor­ney, Aaron Dyer.

Yesterday, there was a gross overuse of mil­i­tary-lev­el force as search war­rants were exe­cut­ed at Mr. Combs’ res­i­dences,” Dyer said in a state­ment to E! News March 26. “There is no excuse for the exces­sive show of force and hos­til­i­ty exhib­it­ed by author­i­ties or the way his chil­dren and employ­ees were treat­ed.” He not­ed that it was an “unprece­dent­ed ambush” and that the rap­per was not detained. He also called the raids “a witch hunt,” adding that Combs had “spoke to and coop­er­at­ed with author­i­ties.” “There has been no find­ing of crim­i­nal or civ­il lia­bil­i­ty with any of these alle­ga­tions,” Dyer con­tin­ued. “Mr. Combs is inno­cent and will con­tin­ue to fight every sin­gle day to clear his name.”
E! News has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for com­ment on Combs’ alle­ga­tions and has not heard back.

Regardless of what occurs in any giv­en sce­nario, no coun­try can claim con­trol if its secu­ri­ty forces must beg cer­tain com­mu­ni­ties to allow them to enter. Citizens have a right to air their griev­ances against and to their gov­ern­ment. Every demo­c­ra­t­ic nation has that right. What cit­i­zens do not have a right to do is block road­ways, start fires, and dam­age and destroy property.
Over the last sev­er­al decades, block­ing road­ways, set­ting fires in the streets, dam­ag­ing and destroy­ing road­ways, and destroy­ing pri­vate and pub­lic prop­er­ty have become a sta­ple of civ­il dis­obe­di­ence. Nothing has been done leg­isla­tive­ly to stop this prac­tice, so peo­ple believe they have a con­sti­tu­tion­al right to com­mit these crimes.
In the same way that the leg­is­la­ture has not act­ed to pro­tect police offi­cers by mak­ing it a felony to hit an offi­cer, it has failed to act to pro­tect the infra­struc­ture of the nation.
People who would attack or fight with offi­cers, or worse, those who inject them­selves into law­ful police actions and assault offi­cers [must] know that there are con­se­quences for doing so. If peo­ple are aware that fight­ing with attack­ing police or resist­ing arrests brings strong penal­ties, they will be less inclined to engage in those activities.
They are much more like­ly to be seri­ous­ly harmed or killed when they engage in these acts of criminality.
Those against seri­ous leg­isla­tive action on these issues have cer­tain­ly not giv­en this much thought. It is shock­ing that as the present gov­ern­ment preens its feath­ers and ban­ters about the new and improved force for good that it has cre­at­ed, there has been no thought about pro­tect­ing offi­cers leg­isla­tive­ly from the law­less ani­mals they are forced to encounter daily.
https://​mike​beck​les​.com/​n​o​r​m​a​n​-​h​e​y​w​o​o​d​s​-​d​e​r​e​l​i​c​t​i​o​n​-​o​f​-​d​u​t​y​-​a​-​d​i​s​g​r​a​c​e​-​a​n​d​-​a​-​s​t​a​i​n​-​o​n​-​t​h​e​-​c​o​n​s​t​a​b​u​l​a​ry/

On Saturday, March 23^rd, Police offi­cers con­front­ed crim­i­nals in Old Harbor Bay; of course, (gang­sters don’t tek talk), so they decid­ed to shoot it out with the cops. When you choose to fight the law, the law will win most of the time. So they lost, and offi­cers recov­ered two firearms from the two who went home to be with their maker.
Of course, there were the oblig­a­tory demon­stra­tions, road block­ing, and set­ting of fires. The laugh­able part is that the hood­lums in the com­mu­ni­ty told the cheer­lead­ing media that INDECOM was wel­come to enter the com­mu­ni­ty, but the police weren’t. What kind of coun­try do we have when peo­ple can say to the police where they can and can­not go?
Worse yet, Superintendent Hopeton Nicholson of the St Catherine South Police Division has appealed for calm in the area and urged the res­i­dents to exer­cise restraint and allow secu­ri­ty per­son­nel safe pas­sage.
What the fuck? Police beg crim­i­nal ele­ments who are com­mit­ting felonies, destruc­tion of gov­ern­ment prop­er­ty, and arson per­mis­sion to enter to do their jobs. In what world is this a thing?
The new police com­mis­sion­er, Kevin Blake, bragged that this force is the best resourced it has ever been. The incom­ing Kevin Blake, the out­go­ing Antony Anderson, and the National Security Minister Horace Chang were all beside them­selves with effu­sive praise about their job in reform­ing, reform­ing, and rebrand­ing the JCF.

They bragged that the force is the most resourced it has ever been and rat­tled off a litany of improve­ments made under the Andrew Holness Government.
They also cel­e­brat­ed that the force was up to speed regard­ing per­son­nel, boast­ing a record 15,000 sworn officers.
In light of these devel­op­ments, we would not be for­ward in ask­ing the Jamaican peo­ple if they feel safer in their homes and communities.
The Jamaican peo­ple I refer to are not the typ­i­cal hood­lums who block roads, set road­ways alight, and destroy prop­er­ty but the peo­ple who want the crim­i­nals like those who chal­lenged the police last Saturday removed from their com­mu­ni­ties but are too afraid to speak out.
When law-abid­ing cit­i­zens are too ter­ri­fied to speak out, the loud nois­es you hear come from crim­i­nals. Both polit­i­cal par­ties have con­sis­tent­ly failed our coun­try to the extent that not only do Jamaicans have a sense that they can do just about any­thing with­out con­se­quence, but for­eign­ers now believe Jamaica is the place to go and get buck wild by break­ing our laws.
As I have repeat­ed­ly said, the force’s lead­er­ship is so incom­pe­tent that the young offi­cers are left to fend for them­selves with­out leadership.
As has always been the case, young offi­cers com­ing into the depart­ment have nev­er shied away from doing the work. It has always been the lead­er­ship’s incom­pe­tence, cou­pled with the lack of leg­isla­tive sup­port, that helps to fos­ter the turn­stile of attri­tion from the JCF.
It is becom­ing clear­er by the day that the Jamaica Constabulary Force is not in con­trol. This force for good is not doing so well and is not offer­ing much ser­vice to the silent peo­ple who do not share in this madness.
When a com­mu­ni­ty defends crim­i­nals who engage police offi­cers in gun­bat­tle, those peo­ple are not cit­i­zens seek­ing redress from their gov­ern­ment. They are crim­i­nals who should be treat­ed as such.

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

I dedicate this Article to you, former Inspector of Police Dadrick Henry. Rest in Peace as you are funeralized today. Your valiant fight for the rule of law in our country without proper support from the corrupt system inspired many.
Those who knew and worked with you salute you for your fearless and invaluable service to our country.
As for me, I spit on the idea of national honors because you have not been recognized and honored for your work; they mean nothing to me. (MB)

It is dif­fi­cult not to make the case that our coun­try is a crim­i­nal-lov­ing nation that cel­e­brates killers and not their victims.
How else can law-abid­ing peo­ple feel based on our his­to­ry and our present?
Our laws are incom­pre­hen­si­bly skewed toward the rights of crim­i­nals, with hard­ly any pro­tec­tions for their victims.
Our insti­tu­tions of high­er learn­ing pride them­selves on pro­duc­ing hun­dreds of grad­u­ates who are schooled in the art of dis­rupt­ing the system.
Academia does­n’t both­er teach­ing civic duties to stu­dents any­more, so they grad­u­ate with a sense of enti­tle­ment and the belief that the gov­ern­ment owes them a living.
Those tasked with the duty of care to pro­tect our sacred insti­tu­tions of jus­tice mort­gage the nation’s trust in the altar of nepo­tism, pop­ulism, and idol worship.
Consequently, repeat felons are allowed to become court offi­cers, where they con­tin­ue prac­tic­ing the destruc­tion of the rule of law.

https://​mike​beck​les​.com/​s​i​d​e​-​s​h​o​w​s​-​m​a​y​-​l​e​a​d​-​t​o​-​a​n​-​a​c​q​u​i​t​t​a​l​-​o​r​-​i​n​c​r​e​a​s​e​s​-​t​h​e​-​l​i​k​e​l​y​-​h​o​o​d​-​o​f​-​a​-​s​u​c​c​e​s​s​f​u​l​-​a​p​p​e​a​l​-​u​p​o​n​-​c​o​n​v​i​c​t​i​on/

Judges ignore the trust placed in them to be impar­tial tri­ers of facts and judi­cious dis­pen­sators of jus­tice by kow­tow­ing to crim­i­nals rather than hon­or­ing their oaths to the rule of law.
There is a lack of account­abil­i­ty or a sense of decen­cy at every turn. People vying for elect­ed lead­er­ship are open cheer­lead­ers of criminality.
But our peo­ple have always been this way. They cheered for Three-Finger Jack, Rigen, Natty Morgan, Coppa, Sandokan, Zeeks, Jim Brown, Dudus, and every oth­er two-bit crim­i­nal seek­ing infamy through crime.
They demand­ed that a con­vict­ed rapist Ja Cure be freed with zero con­sid­er­a­tion for the trau­ma suf­fered by that mon­ster’s victim.
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They have been active­ly engaged in vocif­er­ous calls for the con­vict­ed mur­der­ers Adija Palmer and his cohorts, Shawn Storm’ Campbell, Kahira Jones, and Andre St John, to be freed from prison with­out a sin­gle thought for the dam­age done to the rule of law when mur­der­ers walk free with­out consequence.
And now there is total igno­rant jubi­la­tion at the Privy Council’s deci­sion to quash their conviction.
The deci­sion does not exon­er­ate the con­victs or demand their release from prison. The jury mis­con­duct issue was the sole basis of the Privy Council’s deci­sion to quash the appel­lants’ con­vic­tions. The deci­sion does not speak to their inno­cence or guilt; it speaks to the tri­al judge’s deci­sion to allow the empan­eled jury to con­tin­ue after it was dis­cov­ered that a juror had tried to bribe oth­ers to arrive at a not-guilty ver­dict for the accused men.
https://​mike​beck​les​.com/​j​u​r​y​-​h​e​a​r​i​n​g​-​k​a​r​t​e​l​-​m​u​r​d​e​r​-​c​a​s​e​-​s​h​o​u​l​d​-​b​e​-​d​i​s​m​i​s​s​e​d​-​a​n​d​-​t​h​e​-​c​a​s​e​-​r​e​s​t​a​r​t​ed/

No one on the pros­e­cu­tion side attempt­ed to tar­nish the jury pool. A crim­i­nal from the defense side attempt­ed to cir­cum­vent the rule of law by brib­ing the jury to reach a not-guilty decision.
If these crim­i­nals were inno­cent, why were they afraid of a free and fair trial?
And to (the liars), I meant lawyers who would have the low-infor­ma­tion peo­ple who hero-wor­ship the con­vict­ed crim­i­nals and them­selves believe they won a great vic­to­ry- stop the fuck­ing lies.
You all know that you did not win on the crit­i­cal issue of guilt; a deci­sion was made on whether the tri­al judge should have allowed the case to pro­ceed using the same jury. He should not have.
This writer speaks ad nau­se­am about the actions of the Island’s judges. In the arti­cles linked above, I have talked specif­i­cal­ly about tri­al judge Lennox Campbell and how judges like him hin­der the rule of law. I even pre­dict­ed that based on his actions in this very case of Vybz Kartel, we would arrive exact­ly where we are today.
If the tri­al judge’s actions harmed any­one, it was not the mur­der defen­dants but the insti­tu­tion of jus­tice. So let’s halt the damn back-slap­ping and the jubi­la­tion, par­tic­u­lar­ly by Lawyer Bert Samuels and the shame­less and gra­tu­itous pro­mo­tion of his daugh­ter, as if they moved Mount Everest.
Given the cir­cum­stances, this deci­sion was the only deci­sion the Privy Council could have reached.
I made that call on January 7^th, 2014…

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

The ele­va­tion of Kevin Blake to be the next Commissioner of Police seems like an excel­lent move for the casu­al observ­er. Blake was not appoint­ed to head the Department with zero polic­ing bona fides like his pre­de­ces­sors, Antony Anderson, Hardley Lewin, and Trevor McMillian, who were appoint­ed sim­ply because they were soldiers.
No oth­er rea­sons were giv­en for why the three were appoint­ed to the job, so we are left with the com­mon denom­i­na­tor between them: they were all soldiers.
On the face of it, Kevin Blake seems to tick all the box­es — a guy from hum­ble begin­nings who made good through edu­ca­tion. For that alone, this writer applauds the new commissioner.
According to one fawn­ing local pub­li­ca­tion, Blake worked with National Commercial Bank and Decision Support System, a soft­ware devel­op­ment company. 
Then Blake’s sto­ry fell apart for me.…..\

Zero cred­i­bil­i­ty in actu­al polic­ing. Zero engage­ment with Jamaica’s grit­ty inner-city com­mu­ni­ties. Zero under­stand­ing of what hon­est police offi­cers are forced to deal with dai­ly. On that basis, Kevin Blake should have spent his time offer­ing the tech­ni­cal ser­vices he pro­vides to the force, not as Commissioner of Police.
We should not keep mak­ing the mis­take of appoint­ing peo­ple to roles they have no prepa­ra­tion for.
Worse yet, the fact that peo­ple like Mark Shields and Hardly Lewin sup­port Kevin Blake should dis­cred­it this appointment.
Shields, a secu­ri­ty con­sul­tant, said that in an era where tech­nol­o­gy plays an increas­ing­ly vital role in law enforce­ment, Blake’s insights will be invalu­able in enhanc­ing the force’s capa­bil­i­ties in com­bat­ing crime and dis­or­der. Addressing the high rates of mur­ders and firearm offens­es in Jamaica requires strong lead­er­ship and deci­sive action. First of all, who cares what Mark Shields thinks? 
Secondly, a force may have all of the tech­no­log­i­cal know-how, but it is all for naught if its offi­cers do not have the train­ing, knowl­edge, and exper­tise to deal with the crimes the nation faces.
I have no idea why any­one would care what those fail­ures think any­way; they had their chances and looked at where the coun­try is today. Mark Shields was giv­en a plum posi­tion he could not have got­ten in his own country.
Didn’t bring shit to the table but took all he could from Jamaica, includ­ing the wife he married.
Great Mark Shields, the stu­pid knuck­le­heads were mes­mer­ized by your white skin, so you made out like a ban­dit; now go away and sit some­where. Not all of us are behold­en to Bucky Massa.
Both Trevor McMillian and Hardly Lewin had their chance, and the only thing they proved was that friend­ship appoint­ments to posi­tions of respon­si­bil­i­ty are not in the pub­lic’s interest.

Kevin Blake joined the JCF on a spe­cial-entry pro­gram as an assis­tant super­in­ten­dent and rose to assis­tant com­mis­sion­er of police in 2013. Former head of the Public Safety and Traffic Enforcement Branch, National Intelligence Bureau, Area 3 Police. Promoted to DCP in June 2020. Blake entered the force in 2002.
Blake’s exper­tise, what­ev­er that is, has been well reward­ed from the very start. The rank of assis­tant super­in­ten­dent leapfrogs five ranks: con­sta­ble, act­ing cor­po­ral, cor­po­ral, sergeant, and inspector. 
Those ranks give a real police offi­cer the nec­es­sary bona fides to be an effec­tive com­mis­sion­er of police, crit­i­cal knowl­edge based on expe­ri­ence, and the abil­i­ty to under­stand and empathize with the peo­ple under his command.
The fact that a per­son has a Ph.D. or may spend twen­ty-plus years in the depart­ment is com­mend­able. Still, it does not qual­i­fy them to lead and com­mand offi­cers in the bruis­ing busi­ness of polic­ing Jamaica’s law­less streets.
Kevin Blake has been with the JCF for twen­ty-two years. In that time, as one of the force’s lead­ers, vio­lent crime has con­tin­ued to increase, and the train­ing our offi­cers receive is woe­ful­ly inad­e­quate, as evi­denced by their encoun­ters with law­less ele­ments on the nation’s streets.
If he did not see these inad­e­qua­cies and make rec­om­men­da­tions to Antony Anderson, a man whose tenure has been dogged by increased crim­i­nal­i­ty, how would Blake be a change agent?