One of the grenades reportedly failed to detonate, one police officer was injured by the other which exploded sending shrapnel flying in all directions, the injured officer was taken to hospital with a piece of shrapnel lodged in his chest. Treleven was found some distance from the building suffering from gunshot wounds. He later died. Residents were stunned at the gunfire and explosion from the grenade which jolted them out of their sleep just after midnight. https://mikebeckles.com/just-another-day-of-grenades-and-dead-cops-welcome-to-jamaica/
Despite this radical escalation , (not of the assault on law enforcement, assault on the police is a daily occurrence), but in terms of the weaponry in the arsenal of the criminal underworld there was no statement from the government.
COPMURDERED
Corporal Kevin Mclean
On Friday March 24th a police officer was shot dead in Frankfield, Clarendon after he attempted to stop a robbery while on his way home. The police say 37-year-old Corporal Kevin McLean was on his way home at about 7:40 pm when he witnessed men robbing two Chinese nationals. Corporal McLean attempted to intervene and the gunmen opened fire, hitting him. He was rushed to the hospital where he was pronounced dead. The Government was deathly silent.
Jamaica averages 100 murders per month. That’s an average of 1200 hundred homicides per year . That figure does not include people who are shot, stabbed or otherwise assaulted which result in death at a later date. The police reported there were 1192 murders reported to them in 2015 . That figure represented a 20% increase in homicides over the year 2014.
Jamaica had about 45 killings per 100,000 people in 2015. This makes Jamaica one of the most violent countries in the world. The United Nations lists the island as having the world’s sixth-worst homicide rate. For it’s part the World Bank ranked Jamaica in the top five most murderous countries in the world in 2013. By comparison, Chicago, which has roughly the same population as Jamaica at 2.7 million, had 468 killings in 2015.
In 2005 the Island recorded over 1600 homicides. Those homicide numbers must be viewed withing the context of other serious crimes like shootings, wounding. rapes and other violent felonies. Those other crimes which does not result in death, vastly outnumber the homicide numbers. Added together crime is a very very serious issue on the Island. In brief Jamaica is an extremely violent murderous place.
This level of violence makes Jamaica uniquely challenging to police. With all of their ills and what has been written about them , Jamaican police do the best they can with the hand they are dealt by the political class. The irony of the Jamaican experience is that the majority, which is the poorer class, largely do not understand the crippling negative effect crime, corruption and violence has on their lives. The ruling elites are in no hurry to convince them of those facts.
The Prime Minister, just over a year in office, seem to begin to understand that his much vaunted campaign promises of “prosperity” will have as much chance of becoming a reality as a snowball in hell, has been talking about a new legislative initiative on crime. While campaigning, Holness promised Jamaicans would be able to sleep with their doors open at nights. Since taking office crime has gone up 20%. Neither the present crime situation nor the escalation should be laid at the feet of the Prime Minister . Not just yet ! Nevertheless Andrew Holness is the guy with the big desk at which the buck stops. Holness seem to care more about appeasing the phalanx of human rights organizations which has set up shop in the country rather than attend to the existential crime problem facing the country.
The following is the text of statements the Prime Minister gave on new Legislative mechanisms his administration is putting in place to deal with crime. It is important to note that one of the hallmark of the Prime Minister’s initiative is that the police will be allowed to carry out raids and other activities in certain areas designated Zones of Special Operations. I believe we all know those so called zones of special operations will mean the most depressed and impoverished communities. It is worth mentioning that the vast majority of the crimes being committed are not random crimes but are rather crimes which spin off from the Lotto scam and gang activities.
It’s also important to note that these crimes generally have nothing to do with the poorest of our people who neither benef from the lotto scam or gang activity in any significant way. But the most striking thing about the Prime Ministers piece of legislation, the Special Security and Community Development Measures Act, 2017 , is that it is not a crime fighting tool given to the Police to aid them in fighting the scourge of heinous crimes and terror which is engulfing the Island. It is a gift to the so-called Human Rights and pressure groups arrayed in the Island against the rule of law under the disguise of rights.
Andrew Holness
Prime Minister Andrew Holness, says mechanisms will be put in place to ensure that citizens’ rights are not violated during operations.This is specifically in relation to plans for the designation of zones of special operations for security and community development in areas with high levels of crime. Responding to questions posed by journalists during his post-Budget Debate presentation press conference at the Office of the Prime Minister on March 22, the Holness noted that under the new measures, specific members from the Jamaica Defence Force and the Jamaica Constabulary Force will be selected to form a joint command to carry out operations in these communities.
They will be trained in human rights practices, use of force and community-building. “So, the officers who will be in charge won’t be just randomly plucked from the various arms of the security forces. They will have to have training or be trained. This is not something that we intend to just apply in a knee-jerk way. We will actually have a cadre of officers who are specifically trained and understand what their command in such a situation means,” he said.
Holness added that security officers from the army and the police already have such training, “and they will have to be brought to the fore”. He said it has to be ensured that the security forces understand that the powers they are being given “are not powers to go and arbitrarily deprive people of their human rights and dignity”. “The powers that we are giving to them are to preserve life and secure their human rights and the security of the people,” he emphasized. Holness further assured that the special powers that will be given to security personnel are not meant to be used without justifiable cause. “When we designed this (security measure), we have actually written into the law an accountability framework and we have made it an offence for the officers not to follow the accountability framework,” he said.
Guidelines for how operations will be undertaken under this new security arrangement are set out in the Zones of Special Operations, Special Security and Community Development Measures Act, 2017, which the Prime Minister tabled during his Budget presentation in the House on March 21. The Bill seeks to establish the legal framework in which the Prime Minister, acting on the advice of the National Security Council, may declare any high-crime area of Jamaica a zone for special security operations and community development measures.
The Prime Minister said this mechanism will only be put into use if he is advised by the Council that “a particular area is a grave threat to the security of the nation, the rule of law and public order, the safety and well-being of the public, the productivity and prosperity of the economy, and that people’s lives, liberty and independence are being threatened”. He further noted that the declaration of zones will also be a data-driven process, supported by evidence. “That work is being done and will be intensified. We know by geo-mapping where the crimes are being committed and where the areas of concentration are. We know the hotspots, but we also need more information; we need historical information,” the Prime Minister said.
He pointed out that the activities of the joint command in the area will be monitored at the highest level, and that the Council will undertake “almost a daily review” of the operations “so that if for any reason things were to go opposite to what we expect, we would immediately be able to rein in, call it off, shut it down, take corrective actions. So, this is not going to just be left up to a joint command”. Mr. Holness further informed that as soon as the joint command is established, a development committee will be set up that will look at all the areas of need within the targeted community. “Just using security measures to clear the area does not restore the rule of law; it does not restore public order. Some may make citizens safe, but will the citizens observe the law after you leave? We are taking a very comprehensive approach,” he said. The Prime Minister stressed that the Government is not relying on security measures wholly and solely to normalize communities with elevated crime levels.
“The history of such interventions shows that they may bring short-term relief, but the communities, ultimately, go back to elevated crime levels, if we do not restore community leadership and organisations, provide basic needs, improve infrastructure and provide education and training and attachment for young people,” he said.
This is not a crime fighting tool for the Police and military to root out the killers who prey on the innocent. This is Tivoli Gardens 2.0 . In the address the Prime Minister made not a single mention of the fact that our police officers face the most dangerous weapons including grenades. He made no mention of the fact that just days ago a police officer was brutally slaughtered after he intervened to stop a robbery in Clarendon. There is no mention of the police officers killed just this year alone. There is no mention of the police officers who are killed each year because they dared to be police officers. There is no mention of the numerous unpunished assaults on police officers each day which even the courts are wont to punish.
Holness’s bill is nothing more than a shit sandwich wrapped in a new paper with a bow on top. What the Prime Minister does in this bill is what Bruce Golding did when he handed the nation INDECOM and a resultant continued increase in crime as a consequence. This Legislation is a travesty which will do nothing to address the every evolving crime problem. It is a Bill which ask the security forces to do the impossible to wage war on Jamaica’s terrorists without shedding blood. It asks Police and soldiers to go into the most volatile situations walking on egg shells. It sets up members of the security forces to take the fall in any situation in which they are forced to use force to neutralize threats.
Holness’s Bill is cynical , transparent and an insult to the security forces who take the risk. Clearly from the Prime minister’s own words , this bill places all of the blame on officers in the event of outcry but absolves his administration and gives political cover to himand his party. This is Tivoli Gardens 2.0 and the police and military who have to go into these areas and contend with these murderous scumbags should see it for what it is. I daresay that Andrew Holness would not allow either of his boys to join the security forces and face the dangers they face. More importantly he would not go into war with his hands tied behind his back neither would he allow his children to do it. Why then would he want other people’s sons and daughters to go to war and not make a stir?
Police corruption is something no decent law abiding person likes or want in their society. It erodes trust, increases crime and creates a society in which jungle justice becomes the law of the land, among other ills. On that basis, I join with everyone, regardless of where they live, in condemning police abuse and corruption in all its ugly forms.
In the interest of full disclosure, I must declare my 10-year law enforcement history which I must admit have influenced how I look at all issues which deal with law enforcement. Nevertheless, I am with anyone who wants police officers who follow the laws and do what’s right. We need to be able to trust the word of our police officers. The stakes are simply too high and the consequences too severe when the people we depend on to be the first link in the chain of justice are corrupted and compromised.
Since we depend on the integrity of our police, it is critical that when they tell us that they arrested someone for a crime, it is important that the person arrested is indeed the correct person. If by an measure the arrested party was arrested wrongfully, it must be attributed to an error and should never be the result of police malfeasance or collusion to incriminate that arrestee wrongfully.
Every instance of an officer taking a bribe is a betrayal of the sacred oath that officer took to uphold the laws faithfully, without fear or favor, malice or ill will toward none. Whether that bribe is a cup of coffee, or a million dollars, the corrosive result is the same.
Hence it is crucial that all of our officers are of the best character. In much of what I write, I have received criticism for what some see as not enough credence given to the issue of police corruption. I sometimes make the mistake in assuming that everyone knows and understand my aversion to corruption wherever it rears its ugly head. I also assume sometimes unwittingly, that they knew that during my decade as a police officer I was instrumental in weeding out a few dirty cops. For that, I apologize.
Even though I speak out about police corruption I am particularly hesitant about being caught up in the weeds where many wouldn’t mind having supporters of the rule of law like myself ensnared. If they can silence us by getting us into a defensive posture of defending police corruption their job would have been done. So even though we abhor these ignoble acts of corruption and malfeasance it is important that we keep our focus on crime in all its forms including crimes committed by those who wear the uniform of police officers. There are more than enough people out there with fingers pointed at the police, so it’s important that at least for this writer my eyes remain singularly focused on crime in general.
Police departments are made up of people, fallible people who are prone to fall victim to the wiles and lure of those who would compromise them. These humans, have the same character flaws as the rest of us. Unfortunately, a few months or a couple of years training is never enough to cleanse everyone of the flaws in their characters. In fact, sometimes the more time a person spends on a police department is the more corrupt and compromised they become. Hence the reason it is important that there be checks and balances in who we allow on our police departments and who we promote to higher positions.
It’s also important that we look closer at those in whom we have placed even more confidence than we place in the police. I speak about those we ask to police the police. Now I certainly understand that our police do not come from Utopia or some planet sanitized of crime and corruption. They are humans, subject to human frailties. But as we look at our police let us also look at those policing the police. I believe it is only fair that since we hold our police to certain standards of fidelity it is even more important that we are clear-eyed about the character of those we ask to keep the police honest.
It is natural for many in my country of birth to demonize and demagogue police officers. It can hardly be said that the police have not brought much of it on themselves. Nevertheless, some of the blame has attribution elsewhere, we will not bother to address those today. So as we admit to the need for oversight of the police lets dig a little into the lives of those who have been put in place to police the police.
Let us look at Hamish Campbell deputy Commissioner of INDECOM.
Detective Chief Inspector Hamish Campbell.
♠
The fabrication of evidence against Ira Thomas
On 30 June 1988, one Freddy Brett was shot at close range in the thigh by a tall black man wearing, according to a witness, a light-colored coat. It happened outside the Hope & Anchor pub on the River Lee Navigation in north London, an area covered by what later became the very notorious Stoke Newington Police Station.
Ira Thomas was also a tall black man. But he was not the person who shot and injured Brett.
Ira Thomas was convicted of the shooting a year later — but on 13 February 1992, after 2½ years in prison, the Appeal Court, most unusually, quashed the jury’s verdict. The Appeal judges’ verdict was withering: “The victim’s account of events was simply ludicrous”, but also, more relevantly to this article, “The so-called forensic evidence was unavailing”.
Brian Moore, who together with Hamish Campbell may have organized the placing of firearms residue in Barry Bulsara’s pocket, was, in 1988, a senior officer in the Crime Squad in the corruption-ridden Stoke Newington police station. An anti-corruption probe, Operation Jackpot, was set up later and resulted in the conviction of several officers for co-operating with drugs and crime lords in the area. Many corrupt officers, however, escaped conviction.
The original SIO in the Ira Thomas case was Detective Sergeant Gordon Livingstone. Shortly after the shooting of Freddy Brett, however, Livingstone was promoted to the Flying Squad at Rigg Approach, another group of senior officers also riddled with corruption.
On 25 April 1989, two officers, acting on an anonymous but false tip-off, arrested Ira Thomas for the attempted murder of Freddy Brett. One Terry McGuinness searched Thomas’s flat, finding nothing of interest. He did not believe there was any evidence against Thomas. Later that day, at 4.15pm, McGuinness released Thomas, stating on the custody record that the matter had been ‘dealt with’.
Livingstone had meanwhile recently been replaced as the Head of the Stoke Newington Crime Squad by Brian Moore, now an acting Detective Inspector. At this point in the investigation into the shooting of Freddy Brett, he took over the reins of the investigation.
At 7.25pm, Brian Moore amended the custody record in bold black ink, as follows:
“With reference to the entry [by McGuinness] timed at 4.15pm, I have now traced a number of statements, which were not available to DC McGuinness at the time he advised the custody officer that this matter had been dealt with. The grievous bodily harm and firearms offenses have NOT been concluded and my inquiries are ongoing”.
For whatever reason, maybe to protect the real shooter of Brett, Moore was determined to charge Thomas with the shooting. He refused to release Thomas from custody.
He asked two other detectives, Peter McCullough and Dave Edwards, to search Thomas’s flat again for a ‘light-coloured coat’ which a witness claimed to have seen a black man wearing after the shooting incident with Brett. Two such coats were found and taken for forensic evidence – I will deal with that evidence in a moment.
There are then two wholly conflicting accounts of what happened next at Stoke Newington police cells.
Brian Moore said that Ira Thomas:
a) refused to come out for an interview
b) admitted to shooting Brett, but refused to sign the officer’s notes recording his confession and
c) demanded to see a particular solicitor.
Moore said he called Solicitors Les Brown and Co. – later to be involved in corruption allegations. The custody record states that Les Brown called the police station at 10.48pm saying he would contact Moore in the morning. Moreover, it states that Thomas was ‘checked hourly’ and was ‘asleep until given breakfast at 8.45pm’.
Ira Thomas gave a wholly different account. Gillard and Flynn comment wryly that it remains “‘an abiding mystery how Thomas’s version of events was so radically different”.
This was Thomas’s account of events, which in the light of subsequent events appears to be the truthful one. He says that what occurred that night was as follows:
a) he made no admission of guilt
b) Moore shouted at him
c) Thomas asked to be represented by his solicitors Goodman Ray; Moore refused
d) Instead, Moore arranged for solicitor Les Brown to attend. When he did so, Thomas asked him: ‘Do you work for Goodman Ray?’ When he said ‘No’, Thomas said ‘F___off, then’.
e) a white man claiming to be a fraudster was placed in his cell. Thomas said: ‘He kept asking me what I was in for and did I do it. I was suspicious he was undercover police…I demanded that he be removed’
f) a black man allegedly arrested for theft was then placed in his cell. He had with him a quantity of cocaine which he offered Thomas. Once again Thomas was suspicious that he was a ‘plant’ of some kind and successfully asked for him to be removed from his cell.
That same night, police officers McCullough and Edwards searched Thomas’s flat again and, contrary to police procedures, did so without an independent person present. They removed two coats, a beige mac, and a camel-haired coat, shown to Thomas the following morning. Thomas and his flat-mate both insisted they belonged to his flat-mate.
On 6 June, Moore ’phoned Thomas’s solicitor, Anne Chiarini, to say that no firearms residue had been found on either coat.
Yet less than two months later, on 2 August, Thomas was re-arrested and told that “a second forensic test had found firearms residue in both cuffs of the beige mac, because the scientist carrying out the first test hadn’t rolled down the cuffs properly the first time”.
Thomas was asked to comment on the new evidence against him. He replied: “Yes. You are trying to fit me up”.
Subsequently, Stoke Newington Police blocked the release of the original April custody record, but was eventually forced to release it. This caused g Thomas to ‘go ballistic’, because it was evidently wholly false.
The prosecution of Thomas came to court on 19 March 1990 at the Old Bailey.
A sensational moment in the trial came when the forensic scientist, Robin Keeley from the Forensic Science Service (the same forensic scientist used in the Jill Dando case) said that he had found three specks of firearms residue, two on the outer surface of the mac and only one inside the cuff.
He solemnly told the court that any residue left on the outside of the mac ‘I would expect to have fallen away within 12 hours of a gun being fired’. Moreover, he said that the police had told him that the man had been lying ‘undisturbed’ inside a wardrobe for a long time.
Thomas and his flatmate, by contrast, pointed out that they had no wardrobe, only a rail on which clothes were hung, and that the coat had been regularly worn and even machine-washed a few weeks before the officers seized it.
Judge Herrod QC gave a very fair summing-up of the evidence, calling the scientific evidence ‘insubstantial’, and pointing out numerous other flaws in the prosecution’s evidence. Despite this, the jury returned a majority guilty verdict. Most unusually, the judge in the case, who was bound of course to accept the jury’s verdict, wrote to the defense barrister and said: ‘You will obviously be appealing’.
The Appeal Court heard the appeal on 13 February 1992 and quashed the jury’s majority decision. Thomas was immediately released from prison.
After the trial, new evidence came to light. One Lee Pritchard approached Thomas’s solicitors and told them that officers from Stoke Newington Police Station had approached him and offered him sizeable quantities of heroin if he would make a false statement, saying that he had seen Ira Thomas on the same toad where Brett was shot, carrying a gun in his hand. The offer had been repeated many times, but Pritchard refused to help the police.
Moore’s career then took a steep upward path, despite his actions in the Ira Thomas case. He was promoted to a top anti-corruption intelligence unit, CIB3, known as ‘The Untouchables’, and later left that élite but corrupt squad to become a DCS at Belgravia Police Station in the Met, soon afterward becoming the SIO on the Dando case. One would have to raise a question about how a man who was deeply involved with what looked like a deliberate plot to frame an innocent man by planting firearms residue on a coat could ever have been chosen to lead such a high-profile investigation as the Jill Dando murder hunt.
Brian Moore and Roy Clark
A further question arises as to who placed Brian Moore as SIO and Hamish Campbell as IO in the Dando investigation, thus replacing the previous SIO and IO. It was one Roy Clark. I am going to take a few paragraphs to examine a few aspects of Clark’s career.
Moore’s career had become entwined with that of Roy Clark.
In 1998, Roy Clark put Moore in charge of investigating allegations of serious corruption at the Flying Squad, based at Rigg Approach. This was a highly questionable appointment because “Moore knew many of the detectives he was now investigating because they had previously worked together at Stoke Newington Police Station” (“The Untouchables, p. 427).
Brian Moore, as we have seen, was central to the ‘fitting-up’ of Ira Thomas, and the SIO in charge of the deeply flawed arrest and charging of Brian Bulsara over the murder of Jill Dando.
What sort of man put Brian Moore in charge of investigating corruption of a group of officers (at Stoke Newington Police Station), amongst whom he had worked, and where he had been involved in the ‘fitting up’ of a man who wrongly served 2½ years in prison for an offense he did not commit?
This article is an examination of the man chosen as the Senior Investigating Officer for Operation Grange, the review of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. Its remit was eventually prised out of the Metropolitan Police by means of a Freedom of Information Act question. It was:
“To examine the [disappearance of Madeleine McCann] and seek to determine (as if the abduction occurred in the UK) what additional, new investigative approaches we would take and which can assist the Portuguese authorities in progressing the matter….The ‘investigative review’ will be conducted with transparency, openness, and thoroughness”.
Although when the investigation had been archived in Portugal two main alternatives were suggested — either abduction, or the hiding of Madeleine’s body by her parents — those who set up Operation Grange were clear. From the Prime Minister to the Home Secretary to the then head of the Met, Sir Paul Stephenson, abduction was the only hypothesis to be investigated. The review, as the Prime Minister’s spokesman clarified, was ‘to help the family’ (the McCanns).
Every police investigation or review of a serious crime has an investigation coördinator, known as the Senior Investigating Officer (SIO), and a deputy, called the Investigating Officer (IO). The role of the SIO is to set an investigation strategy and to decide and obtain the resources he needs to do the work required – in this case, a review. The job of the IO is basically to carry out the agreed strategy and to direct operations.
Sir Paul Stephenson decided to appoint one Hamish Campbellas the SIO, with an additional requirement for the SIO to present his report to one Simon Foy. Andy Redwood, a Detective Chief Inspector, was appointed as the IO. Before long, Campbell and Redwood determined that they would need a staff of around 35 to 40 to carry out the review.
The main purpose of this article is to look at the background history and connections of Hamish Campbell.
The murder of Jill Dando
Seven years ago, on 28 April 2007, the McCanns set off from East Midlands Airport for their ill-fated holiday in the Portuguese Algarve resort of Praia da Luz.
It was also on 28 April, 15 years ago, in 1999, that TV Crimewatch presenter Jill Dando was shot dead at point-blank range in a killing that had all the hallmarks of a professional contract killing.
Two individuals connected with the investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann were also connected with the investigation into the murder of Jill Dando.
They are:
Clarence Mitchell — who was at the time working for the BBC as their senior crime reporter. He was apparently the very first reporter at the scene of the crime, and covered the investigation into Jill Dando’s murder in the months following her death
Hamish Campbell — who was the investigation’s IO — placed in charge of the day-to-day investigation into Jill Dando’s murder in 1999. He was primarily responsible for the arrest and charging of Barry Bulsara, known also as ‘Barry George’, with the murder of Dando. Bulsara was sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering Jill Dando but subsequently acquitted, seven years later, on appeal.
Years later…
Clarence Mitchell, three days after Madeleine McCann was reported missing, was asked by the Prime Minister Tony Blair to cease his full-time job as Head of the Media Monitoring Unit and work full-time on public relations and reputation management for the McCanns
and
Hamish Campbell was appointed in May 2011 as the SIO for Operation Grange, the review — now re-investigation — into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann being conducted by Scotland Yard.
This article will also examine aspects of the background of Ian Horrocks, the ex-detective, hailed as one of Britain’s foremost investigators, who was sent out to the Algarve by Rupert Murdoch’s Sun newspaper in February 2012 and delivered reports to the Sun and SKYNEWS backing the McCanns’ abduction claims and heavily criticising the Portuguese police.
The Jill Dando investigation was run out of Belgravia Police Station, London. So is Operation Grange.
Here are some basic facts about the ill-fated investigation into Jill Dando’s death, led by Hamish Campbell:
A. It was carried out at the time the McPherson report on the murder of Stephen Lawrence had been published. The Metropolitan Police was disgraced by that report. Scotland Yard’s reputation was in tatters.
B. Barry Bulsara was wrongly convicted by a jury and served several years in jail for an offense he didn’t commit.
C. The only forensic evidence against him was a speck of firearms residue said to have been ‘found’ in his coat pocket.
D. Cliff Richard, a friend of Jill Dando, was interviewed ‘a number of times’ by the police investigating Dando’s killing.
E. No-one apart from Barry Bulsara has ever been charged with killing Jill Dando. Her killer, and anybody who may have hired the killer, remain at large.
F. The main theory, put forward repeatedly by the police themselves and regularly in the mainstream media, is that a Serbian hit-man carried out the attack in revenge for NATO bombing the TV station in Belgrade.
G. A second theory, with some circumstantial evidence to back it up, is that Dando was murdered by a hit-man on the instructions of a career criminal and drugs lord Kenneth Noye.
H. A third theory, with – as far as I am aware – no evidence to back it up, is that Dando had become aware of a high-level pedophile ring, and was killed by hit-man acting on behalf of one of the country’s security forces.
The Dando investigation and the role of Hamish Campbell
In November 1999, a detective named Brian Moore was promoted from the rank of Detective Superintendent (DS) to Detective Chief Superintendent (DCS). At the same time, he left a top secret and very corrupt intelligence unit, CIB3, known as ‘The Untouchables’. The corrupt nature of ‘The Untouchables’ is dealt with at length in a book of the same name by Michael Gillard and Laurie Flynn, published in late 2004, nearly 10 years ago. Michael Gillard has recently been at the center of exposes in the national print media about extensive corruption at the heart of the Metropolitan Police Force. He has researched links between very senior officers in the Met, and a number of leading drugs lords.
Brian Moore’s first job in his new role as DCS was to take over the faltering investigation, codenamed ‘Operation Oxborough’, into the murder of Jill Dando. He became the investigation coördinator, or ‘Senior Investigating Officer’ (SIO), on 6 December 1999. By this time, Dando had been dead for over 7 months. In this respect, his role matched that of Dr Goncalo Amaral, who headed up and co-ordinated the initial investigation into Madeleine McCann’s disappearance, before he was removed from the investigation less than four weeks after he had made the McCanns formal suspects in the disappearance of Madeleine.
Moore appointed Hamish Campbell as his day-to-day chief investigator, or ‘Investigating Officer’ (IO).
Prior to the appointment of Moore and Campbell to run the case, the investigation had found nothing of interest, despite over 7 months on the case. The Met had thousands of registered informants. Not one of them had come up with any information at all about who might have killed Jill Dando and why. A reward of £250,000 for information (about £½ million today) had produced nothing. Operation Oxborough had interviewed in depth Dando’s family, friends, lovers (of whom there had been many) and colleagues. As Gillard and Flynn correctly observed in their book (p. 428), “The murder investigation was at an impasse”.
All that was to change once Moore and Campbell took over the investigation.
As an aside, there was a significant amount of at least low-level corruption at Belgravia Police Stationat the time. Belgravia Police Station is close to Harrods, owned by Al-Fayed. Al-Fayed did favors for Belgravia-based police officers. Police officers returned the favors. Indeed, there was already an anti-corruption investigation at that time into the so-called ‘Hamper Squad’, a group of Belgravia-based officers who would arrest and harass anyone, including his own employees, suspected of aiding and abetting his bitter business enemy, Lonrho tycoon ‘Tiny’ Rowland. The greedy officers had a continuous supply of free hampers and huge discounts on Harrods goods. Indeed, one honest officer, Bob Loftus, gave the anti-corruption unit the actual names of police officers who had accepted these bribes. No police officer, however, was ever prosecuted for these criminal offenses.
At the time, Al-Fayed owned the now-defunct satirical magazine, Punch. Officers also leaked details of the Dando investigation to Punch, prompting a leak inquiry.
By March 2000, the team of Moore-&-Campbell was homing in on Barry Bulsara, though quite why they did so is unclear. He was an obsessional and deluded loner, fascinated with himself, and lived in a pig-sty. There was no evidence that he was capable of carrying out a cold-blooded, professional killing, though he did have an interest in guns. Eleven days before the anniversary of Jill Dando’s death, Bulsara’s flat was searched, and a blue Cecil Gee overcoat was seized.
At the same time, mainstream media crime correspondents were briefed that the investigation had identified an obsessive loner as the profile most likely to have committed the crime. This seemed at odds with a killing at point-blank range, apparently with a sawn-off shotgun fitted with a silencer.
DCI Hamish Campbell appeared on Crimewatch to reinforce in the public’s mind that it was an obsessive loner they were looking for. He asked for the public’s help in identifying such a person.
It was a full 15 days after the Cecil Gee coat was seized that it was taken to a Mr. Robin Keeley of the Forensic Science Service on 2 May 2000. That 15-day delay has never been explained. He then found a single speck of firearm residue inside the left pocket, and said that it was consistent with the type of firearm used to kill Dando. This was to form the crux of the case against Bulsara, even though no other firearm residue or tools for modifying guns were found in his flat. At his trial at the Old Bailey in May 2001, prosecution barrister Orlando Pownall claimed it was ‘compelling evidence of Bulsara’s guilt’.
During the trial, it emerged that during the forensic procedure, Bulsara’s coat was first of all taken to a police studio where it was photographed on a tailor’s dummy. Firearms had previously been photographed at the same studio, raising the possibility of accidental contamination. This extraordinary decision, according to Detective Sergeant Andy Rowell, was made byDCI Hamish Campbell. Campbell later denied this, but since he was the IO, this convinced no-one.
As we now know, Bulsara was convicted. He appealed against conviction, but his first appeal was rejected in July 2002. He appealed again in 2008 — and this time his appeal succeeded.
In April 2010 it emerged that the Ministry of Justice had denied Barry’s claim of £1.4 million compensation.
The decision was made by Jack Straw, Justice Secretary at the time. A High Court application for compensation was also refused, with judges rejecting his claim that the Justice Secretary had ‘unfairly and unlawfully decided he was not innocent enough’. A year later, a further claim was turned down when High Court judges ruled: “There was indeed a case upon which a reasonable jury, properly directed, could have convicted the claimant of murder.”
The question obviously arose as to whether the police might have fabricated the case against Bulsara by deliberately placing a speck of firearm residue in his coat pocket. This suggestion has been given added credibility by the involvement of DCS Brian Moore, the SIO in this case, in another case of a man being fitted up — Ira Thomas.
Given that senior Met officers chose Brian Moore to act as the SIO in the case of Jill Dando’s murder, it is instructive to look at his major role in another case where it was accepted that an innocent man had been ‘fitted up’.
TALKINGABOUTCORRUPTION
In 1987 private investigator Daniel Morgan was reported to be on the verge of revealing extremely damaging information of massive corruption in the Metropolitan Police. Mr. Morgan, was found in a pub car park with an Axe buried in his head in 1987. According to the Telegraph.com Mr Morgan’s murder was the subject of a long-running and complex investigation. Thousands of lines of inquiry were pursued and over three-quarters of a million documents examined. No-one was brought to justice despite five police inquiries and three years of legal hearings, estimated to have cost around £30 million. Five people were arrested in 2008 but two, including a former detective accused of perverting justice, were discharged after a string of supergrasses were discredited.
INDECOM’s own Hamish Campbell who was Detective Chief Superintendent at the time and a senior Scotland Yard detective, apologized to Mr. Morgan’s family after the Crown Prosecution Service dropped the case against the remaining three suspects, admitting that police corruption was a “debilitating factor”.
In May of 2013 then Home Secretary and Now Prime Minister Theresa May ordered an inquiry into the killing of mister Morgan. Two years after the Inquiry was ordered Metropolitan Police had not turned over a single document to investigators.
A senior backbench MP also criticized the Metropolitan police, blaming the force for delaying the start of the inquiry. Labor MP Tom Watson said: “It is extraordinary that a case involving police corruption has taken nearly two years to yield even a single document. Even for the Met, it is a remarkable state of affairs.“They are clearly refusing to coöperate with an inquiry that is in the public interest and has the authority of the home secretary.”
Since Hamish Campbell could not get a conviction in a case involving his very own colleagues who have been accused of murder and massive corruption, including failure to act as it relates to a legitimate Inquiry Order from the home secretary, what makes him qualified or competent to investigate cops in Jamaica? Speaking to Nationwide News in October of 2016 Hamish Campbell told reporters that DCP Glenmore Hinds comments were shameful, disappointing and untrue. Hinds had told the Parliamentary committee that Terrence Williams INDECOM commissioner had been problematic.
I submit that it was the failure of Hamish Campbell to bring his own colleagues to justice which was shameful. It was Hamish Campbell’s action in the case of Ira Thomas the black accused which was not only shameful, but I submit reprehensible, to say the least.,
Nevertheless, Hamish Campbell is now on the payroll of the Jamaican people, he could not bring any of the high profile cases he was tasked with investigating to an appropriate conclusion. Campbell never once acknowledged the deep corruption which has been endemic in the Metropolitan Police. He is however in Jamaica passing judgment on Police officers. So this writer ask, what is it which impressed the Government of Jamaica about Campbell, outside, of course, the color of his skin?
Admit it or chose to cover it up, but there is one truth that cannot be denied, Jamaica is on a collision course with anarchy. Anarchy is a precursor to, and an advanced component of a failed state.
Now let me be real clear for the faux patriots who believe that pointing out what ails our country is tantamount to airing dirty linen in public. I do not give a rats backside about what you think. If you believe sweeping the dirt under the rug means you have a clean house that’s on you . It’s just not a theory to which I subscribe. Let me disabuse others of your ilk who believe that because you did not get a visa to leave the country , or that you chose to stay home gives you a monopoly on patriotism . To you I say, get over your stupid selves. Those who make those arguments are comparable to a man who stepped in s**t and got so accustomed to the stench he can no longer smell it.
In the course of just this week there have been reported high profile kidnappings, Murder of police officers and even the use of grenades in response to police attempts to arrest wanted murderers. This is not business as usual! This means that the stakes have been raised and they haven’t been raised by the Government. Not only are they killing our police officers with high powered weapons, we have a Government agency whose sole mandate is to seek to imprison officers who fight back using their weapons. We now have the criminal underworld lobbing grenades at our police officers, and the Government is deathly silent.
Prime Minister Andrew Holness promised people would be able to sleep with open doors.
This is an alarming escalation in the war against the rule of law. Yet neither the Prime Minister the Minister of National Security nor the Opposition party held a press conference to address this escalation.
The JLP Government is deathly silent . The Opposition PNP is singularly preoccupied devising schemes to get back state power so they may get their grubby little kleptomaniac fingers on state money. As our police officers are wounded and murdered with high powered weapons and other weapons which belong only on battlefields, the inept Government continue to pretend that the platitudes it has uttered thus far since taking office are enough smoke screen up the nation’s ass ‚to divert from the stark reality that it came to office with no desire to do a damn thing about crime.
In the meantime I am yet to hear of a corresponding press conference from Terrence Williams the tool Bruce Golding and the PNP gave to the nation, which they unequivocally knew would cause an escalation in crime.
Those of you who are clear eyed about contemporary events will recall that it was just two weeks ago that the lying self-serving snake Terrence Williams called a Press Conference at his Dumfies Road Office to lament the fact that police shootings had gone up for January/February over the corresponding period of the past year.
What the deceptive liar never bothered telling reporters at the time was that , not only had killings and other crimes increased but that none of the killings by officers were deemed to be bad shootings. Remember it is Williams own Agency INDECOM which is tasked with investigating all police shootings. Since his office found no wrongdoing in the shootings what was the purpose of his press conference except to smear the JCF and gin up animosity against the police?’ Rather than lament the increase in violent crimes against women, little girls, and generally all law abiding Jamaicans, Terrence the snake oil salesman was engaged in demagoguery against the police. On March 1st , I said that his Press conference would create more animus against the police further endangering their lives. I was right.
Notice how silent he is with the death of these officers? Notice how silent the government and opposition are as well? Had terrorists used live grenades against police officers in any other country it would have been huge news. Things would come to a halt . There would have been a joint statement of support for the security forces . Parliament would have been united against the forces of anarchy.
The British Parliament was united in support for their country and their police officers against a single terrorist who used a knife and a vehicle to kill. In Jamaica our officers are injured and slaughtered using battlefield weapons and it’s business as usual. Smart people must now come to recognize that their Government does not care how many of them are killed. Neither does their elected officials care about the dangerous escalation which has occurred.
The Jamaican people must decide whether they want INDECOM to remain while their sons daughters mothers and wives are raped and murdered for Terrence Williams’ ego. It’s up to the people to decide whether this Government is serious about removing this dangerous scourge of crime and terror which is threatening to destroy them all.
Clarendon cop murdered in attempt to thwart robbery.
FRANKFIELD, Clarendon — A policeman was shot dead in Frankfield, Clarendon last night after he attempted to intervene in a robbery while on his way home yesterday. Reports from the police are that 37-year-old Corporal Kevin McLean was on his way home at about 7:40 pm when he witnessed men robbing two Chinese nationals. McLean attempted to intervene and the gunmen opened fire, hitting him. He was rushed to the hospital where he was pronounced dead. McLean was assigned to the Chapelton police. Read more here http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/latestnews/Clarendon-cop-murdered-in-attempt-to-thwart-robbery
Restaurant owners killed in Hanover triple murder.
HANOVER, Jamaica — Three people are dead and one injured after a shooting at a restaurant in the Dias community of Kingsvale, Hanover last night. Initial reports from the police are that 47-year-old Marcia Johnson and her common-law-husband Authur Noël Muir, 49, both of Clinic in Hanover were killed, along with another 49-year-old man, Peter Aitchison. Johnson and Muir owned the restaurant, and Aitchison reportedly operated a nearby bar. An unnamed person was injured in the incident, which took place around 9:00 pm. Read more here: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Restaurant-owners-killed-in-Hanover-triple-murder.
Police seek 26-y‑o in relation to St Ann grenade incident.
STANN, Jamaica — The police are this afternoon seeking a man implicated in a grenade-throwing incident on Thursday, in which a police sergeant was injured and an alleged gunman killed. The police are seeking 26 year-old Sadan Lloyd Mullings of Elgin Town, Lucea in Hanover, who they say is wanted in connection with several serious crimes in western Jamaica and St Ann.
The police are urging Mullings to immediately turn himself in to the nearest police station. Reports are that about 9:00 pm last night a team of police from the Mobile Reserve and Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) was conducting operations at Armadale, Alexandria in St Ann in search of men implicated in the quadruple murder in Westmoreland on Saturday, March 18. Ream more here: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/latestnews/UPDATE – Police-seek-26-y-o-in-relation-to-St-Ann-grenade-incident
Business owner killed, 3 injured in employee pipe attack.
KINGSTON, Jamaica — One of the co-owners of a St Andrew furniture store, Moncrieffe’s Patio Shop, is dead and three people injured following an attack by a male employee at the establishment today. Barbara Moncrieffe was confirmed dead by police and her husband Vassell Moncrieffe, better known as ‘Teddy’, as well as two employees, reported as being in hospital for treatment. The police are yet to confirm the details of the incident but according to eyewitness reports, the employee came to the business place on Old Hope Road around 12:30 pm, where an altercation ensued. The employee in question, who is yet to be identified, was said to have used a broken pipe to assault the four people for reasons unknown. Read more here: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/latestnews/Business-owner-killed – 3‑injured-in-employee-pipe-attack.
Search On For Gunmen Who Attacked Police With Grenades, Injuring A Cop.
Élan Powell
Sleuths have launched a hunt for a man who yesterday hurled two grenades at a police team, injuring a cop, when they turned up to arrest him at a house in Armadale, Alexandria, St Ann. Assistant Police Commissioner Ealan Powell said the cops had gone to the house to arrest Sadan Mullings, also called ‘Saddam’, and his crony, Nickoy Treleven, who were both reportedly wanted for a string of murders and shootings in the western parishes.
But just as police officers surrounded the house, calling to the men inside, the fugitives reportedly threw two grenades from the building and exited with guns blazing at the officers. One of the grenades reportedly failed to detonate, while a policeman was injured by the other, which jolted the Alexandria community from its sleep shortly after midnight. Treleven was found some distance from the building suffering from gunshot wounds. He later died, said Powell.
ARMEDANDDANGEROUS
“We are appealing to Saddam to turn himself in to the police by 6 p.m. tomorrow (today). And I want the public to know that he is a vicious and dangerous criminal who should be avoided,” Powell told The Gleaner yesterday.
“He is wanted for several murders and is known to turn his back on his friends and even family,” continued Powell, noting that the use of the grenades goes to show the “level of viciousness and how armed and dangerous he is”.
Powell described the policeman’s injuries as serious, but not life threatening. He confirmed that an illegal gun was taken from the dead man’s body. He could not immediately name the type of gun.
A fatal accident along the Bustamante Highway in Clarendon has claimed the life of a policeman attached to the Spanish Town police division.
The accident happened sometime after 6 o’clock yesterday evening. It is reported that the cop, who was driving a black infinity motor car, allegedly overtook a line of traffic and failed to keep left. He then collided into a truck, then lost control of the vehicle and slammed into the back of a truck which was parked along the road. A team from the Clarendon fire department had to be called in to cut him from the car. He was then rushed to the May Pen hospital where he was pronounced dead. Up to late last night his identity was being withheld. Read more here: http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/news/20170324/cop-killed-bustamante-highway-accident
Hunt On For Two Gunmen Who Kidnapped Manchester Businessmen.
The Manchester police have intensified their investigations into the kidnapping of two businessmen in the parish on Thursday. Both men were found unharmed and released after the police foiled the ransom drop. One suspect was arrested in connection with the crime, while the police continue the hunt for the two gunmen believed to be responsible. Head of the Manchester police, Superintendent Wayne Cameron, reported that the two businessmen were held up by gunmen at a house and taken into bushes. According to Cameron, one of the gunmen made contact with the wife of one of the businessmen demanding a ransom of $1 million. More here: http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/lead-stories/20170325/hunt-two-gunmen-who-kidnapped-manchester-businessmen
MONTEGOBAY, St James — Acting Commissioner of Police Novelette Grant has lashed out at people who warn wrongdoers of the police’s approach to their communities, in a scathing attack against residents who take the side of criminals.
“Don’t signal to them (criminals). Don’t give paralanguage and sign language, and all kind of sounds in the community, to tell them that we (police) are coming. Don’t do that because what you are doing is exposing yourself to even greater risks and danger,“ the acting police commissioner charged.
Acting Police Commissioner Novelette Grant did not mince words while speaking at the round-table talk, held under the theme ‘Beating the Odds for Success’, on Wednesday.
She also questioned why citizens are so unwilling to communicate what they know to the police when they can surreptitiously pass on information through Crime Stop and the Stay Alert app.
Newly assigned commanding officer for the parish of Hanover Sharon Beeput recently had this to say.
“It is our intention to dismantle the gangs operating in our space”. “I must inform that some members from those gangs [One Voice and One Link] have met their demise… Other members who are still associated with these gangs are still active within the spaces.” “We do have a challenge with the community policing. You might not have been seeing them in your spaces regularly, because we do have some resource challenges of which the high command is addressing presently. “Frequent raids in public spaces … just want you to be aware of this, that is going to happen. She added that the police will also be dominating public spaces such as the transport centers and markets, while frequent operations targeting criminal suspects and other persons of interest are also to continue.
Of course why not ?
Recent trends by the police, to police from behind desks, police through press releases, and of course other cartoon style measures like being DJ’s .This is what Jamaican Governments of both the JLP and the PNP has done to the JCF.
Total emasculation of our once proud police Force, the JCF was a force for good it is now reduced to a pathetic paper tiger worthy of ridicule and scorn.
Terrorism across the Globe is now a common occurrence,just yesterday terror struck in the heart of London. If we set aside the daily slaughter on the Island and ask ourselves what happens if there is a major terror attack on the Island ?Would this cast of cartoon characters be the ones investigating?
Are we to believe that we are insulated as a Nation to the point we should allow ourselves to be this woefully unprepared to deal with attacks ? There is nothing which precludes us from an attack , lets wrap our minds around that fact for a second . Even if our politics have not earned us any enemies who want to kill us, there are nations who have enemies who have assets in Jamaica. These assets may become targets for those who would use violence as a means of settling grudges and disputes.
Gangs have literally taken over our country. They traffic in arms and drugs. They extort citizens. The sell young girls into slavery. They rape and murder young girls and women at will. They break literally every law with impunity . Yet the Government has spent much of it efforts in coming up with strategies to further shackle the Island’s police officers under the guise of human rights.
Where will the leadership come from which will say “we will dismantle these gangs” , and mean it? Merely saying we know the gangs and “they are wreaking havoc in the public spaces” is a joke if you do not have the means or the know how to dismantle them.
Don’t you just love the new ways of speaking , the repeated use of the term “spaces”, which really does zero to allay the fears of residents.……But I digress. One of the things which have become abundantly clear is the fact that the JCF has not gotten better as a result of a massive influx of UWI graduates. No one will argue that they are not more stush and polished. No one can argue with their ability to pick up on new terms to bolster their vocabularies. The question is , how has this helped the country in bending the arc of crime?
Policing requires smart well trained dedicated and committed people. In the same way that there was harsh criticisms of dedicated police officers with little to no education, the same is justified with the new pack of so-called educated who have zero dedication, lack of desire to do the job, or even the ability to do it. At least many of the poorly educated big foot police officers were hard working men and women who knew where to sniff out criminals and they damn sure knew how to keep crime down.
Minister of national security Robert Montague
On a note of interest.…… I am interested to learn just how exactly will this senior officer dismantle these gangs? Last Year the Minister of National Security Robert Montague listed a set of principles he believes are necessary to dismantle and eliminate criminal Gangs. Those principles are as follows: 1. Effective policing through partnership with citizens. 2. Crime prevention through social development. 3. Situational prevention to reduce opportunities for crime and violence based on the position that the physical environment must be planned, designed and managed for safety. 4. Sure and swift justice processes to avoid delays in apprehension, prolonged prosecutions and diluted punishment which discourage law enforcer. 5. Reduction in re-offending, by redirecting offenders to become productive, law abiding citizens.
Here’s my take you be the judge..
(1)In order to dismantle gangs the first order of business is to give unequivocal support to our law-enforcement officers and prosecutors. (2)laws which gives prosecutors and law enforcement officers a leg up in tying gang related criminal activity together as a criminal enterprise as the Rico statute does.(see Rico statute, https://www.hg.org/rico-law.html). (3) Attach strict penalties to breaches of anti-gang laws, and other crimes which may be associated with gang activity. (4) Improve the prosecution timelines which allows courts to try offenders withing a year after they are arrested. (5)Detailed gang intelligence data collection. (6) Attach specially trained Investigators to investigate gang affiliations and have special prosecutors to prosecute them. (7) Anti-gang legislation must be such that potential offenders are scared to even be accused of gang activity.
Unless we make crime a thing potential offenders are afraid to commit, they will continue to commit crimes. I am diametrically opposed to the notion that crime, and in particular Gang activity is a derivative of poverty and poor socio economic conditions. Sure poverty forces people to steal to survive. Sure poverty forces people to hustle to survive. I am yet to hear a cohesive argument from the liberals who argue that gang activity and murder is a derivative of poverty. As I have said before, a simple response to that line of reasoning is that there are nations which are far more impoverished, than Jamaica, and which has far lower standards of living yet they have exponentially less serious crimes.
Yesterday I spoke to the need for simple workable solutions to Jamaica’s serious crime problem. In that article I suggested somewhat euphemistically, that leaders simply fix the problems and ditch the overly grandiose ideas.
In the Article I used the story of the little dutch boy who saw a small breech in a Dyke and decided that he would stick his finger into the hole to stop the leak. So he simply and smartly just just stuck his finger in . Just as he thought the water stopped flowing in. The downside was that he was now stuck there until help arrived. Help did arrive , in the form of one of the town’s leaders who stood by grandly while the child risked hypothermia.
More town elders arrived , the result of more grown-ups did not however fix the dyke they grandstanded about how the leak should be plugged and by whom.. Sound familiar? Sufficing to say that was not the end of the story, but the fable aptly describes our country and the way things.…. well ‚end up notgetting done.
Addressing the nation’s Parliament on Tuesday Prime Minister Andrew Holness told the Nation that his administration is once again unveiling yet another plan to address crime. Those of us who follow the day to day occurrences as it relates to crime have one response to this another crime plan, we roll our eyes. Calling for bipartisan support Holness outlined his administration’s latest initiative on crime .
The most comprehensive of the Bills — The Law Reform (Zones of Special Operations) (Special Security and Community Development Measures) — will give members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) and the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) essential powers, which the Government believes are necessary in addressing serious crimes, while upholding the rule of law and protecting the fundamental rights of citizens. The prime minister called for bipartisan support for the Bill, which seeks to establish a legal framework in which the prime minister, acting on the advice of the National Security Council, may declare any high-crime area of Jamaica a zone for special security operations and community development measures.
With all due deference to the esteemed Prime Minister and his administration, the problem in our country may hardly be attributed to a lack of laws to punish murderers. The will and testicular fortitude to say to critics of police tactics , “shut your mouths “is where that attribution belong. The lack of will to stand behind good police officers as they do their jobs is worthy of that attribution. Continuing to give credence to the nonsense that tough policing is synonymous to violating civil and human rights is stupidity of the worst order and a capitulation to the forces of darkness.
The Jamaican Prime Minister a product of the far left leaning University of the West Indies can hardly be counted on to understand the complexities of crime, it’s crippling consequences and repercussions on nations, and the simple yet resolute solutions which are required to solve them.
The issue of crime may be explained simply as two separate houses with two separate occupants.
SCENARIO#1
The difference inherently in a clean home. Adapted.
The occupant of house number one makes his bed each morning before leaving for work. He washes everything he uses and places stuff he uses back into their rightful places. At the end of each day occupant number one places the garbage in it’s receptacle in it’s allotted place at the back of his house. His home is always pristine, he is proud to show off his home to friends when they visit . Never mind that he never has to bother having a special cleaning in order to invite friends into his home.
SCENARIO#2
Imagery depicting filthy room. Adapted
Occupant of house number two gets up does not make his bed, does not wash dishes he uses , he simply drops towels, food wrappers, and other garbage on his floors. His kitchen sink is always filled with dirty dishes . The garbage container in his kitchen is filled with refuse , spilling over onto the filthy dirty floors. On his walls Cockroaches, Ants and other insects crawl leisurely and freely ‚filled from the food he leaves all over the house. He would like to bring visitors into his home but he is ashamed. He has a desire to see a clean house but lacks the will to clean up the filth ‚so he does nothing and the problem grows more severe.
CONCLUSION
There is no need to have a major cleanup if you simply put things in place as the need arise. There is no need for a monumental effort if you put the garbage in it’s place: If you fail to secure the refuse and place it outside in it’s assigned receptacle , you can be sure that Cockroaches and Termites are going to take over your house.
For decades those charged with taking care of the Jamaican house sat idly by refusing to put out the garbage. In fact it could logically, truthfully and reasonably be argued they invited garbage in. No matter how stink the garbage got they refused to lift a finger. They saw the Cockroaches and the Ants , they saw the Termites and still they did nothing because they liked the stench and the disorder.
The lack of testicular fortitude to put out the garbage has caused the Termites to take over the house . Now some want to embark on a major cleanup, but they need help. So they call to others to help, though understandably their calls will not generate a positive response because it’s simply too much work and they have other things to do.
The question now is, whether there is enough will to do the necessary cleanup and fumigation work, which would render the house fit for human habitation again. Or whether the option is simply to abandon the house to the Cockroaches and Termites?
In the short several days since Junior Justice Minister Pearnel Charles Jnr. announced tougher scrutiny in the nation’s penal institutions the Jamaica Observer reports there has been several instances of correctional officers attempting to smuggle mobile phones and other digital devices into prison facilities.This resulted in four correctional officers from the Tower Street Adult Correctional Facility being arrested and 36 mobile phones seized.
I am highly critical of the Government structure and the way it goes about executing it’s mandate. The reason I am hyper critical is not that I am necessarily contentious or that I believe there aren’t tough challenges in running a country. But from a pragmatic standpoint I believe we could have had a better more prosperous nation had those entrusted with it’s direction been more judicious with their charge.
I criticize because as a young man I too stepped forward in service to my country. It was a challenge I was giddy about accepting when I put my uniform on and stepped out onto the streets as a police officer. I served with honor and distinction even taking a bullet in the process. The privilege to serve has been one of the high honors of my life.
We cannot fix all of the things all at once, but we can fix some of the things one at a time one day at a time. I humbly submit the fable narrated by Dr. H. Albertus Boli, one which I read and fell in love with as a grade School student in North East St. Catherine. It is the story of the little dutch boy who saved Holland.
A LITTLEBITOFMETAPHOR…
Once there was a little Dutch boy who discovered a leak in the dike. What should he do? From a single leak, a terrible breach might grow. The whole country could be flooded, and everyone he knew would drown. So he did the only thing he could think of. He stuck his finger in the dike, and the leak stopped.
Of course, now he was stuck. He couldn’t move, because as soon as he did, the leak would start again. So he stood there for quite some time. He was rather tired, and his finger felt a bit numb from the effort of holding back the North Sea, but he knew he was doing his duty. At last the Burgomaster happened to pass by. “Young man,” he said with a certain amount of sternness, “why are you poking your finger in the dike?” “I am stopping a leak,” the boy explained. “I saw the dike leaking, so I stuck my finger in the hole.” “Heroic boy!” the Burgomaster exclaimed. “You shall be rewarded! Meanwhile, keep your finger there while I call the Burghers together.”
So the Burgomaster called a meeting of the Burghers, and they agreed that the boy had heroically saved Holland. “And now,” the Burgomaster asked, “what shall we do about the leak?” “It seems to me,” one of the Burghers replied, “that private enterprise has already found an admirable solution to the problem. The boy has stuck his finger in the dike, and the leak has stopped. You might describe it as voluntary self-regulation. There is no need for expensive government action.”
So the Burghers voted to award the boy a Certificate of Good Citizenship, which the Burgomaster was delighted to be able to present to him the next day. “Thank you,” the boy said politely, “but I still have my finger in this dike.” “And we appreciate that,” the Burgomaster replied. “I may confidently speak for the whole Council of Burghers in saying that your heroic action is universally admired.” So the boy stood there with his finger in the dike for a few more days. It was not long, however, before another leak sprang in the dike, a little bit farther down the way.
“What shall we do?” the Burgomaster asked the Burghers. “There is another leak.” “As private enterprise has so admirably solved the previous problem,” one of the Burghers responded, “the solution to this new leak is obvious. We need only persuade another heroic boy to stick his finger in it.” So they went into the local school and found another boy who, after much persuasion, was willing to stick his finger in the dike. It was, however, only a few days later that two more leaks appeared. This time it was much harder to persuade boys to stick their fingers in the holes; and when, a week later, half a dozen more leaks appeared, no volunteers were to be found. “What shall we do?” the Burgomaster asked the Council. “Private enterprise seems no longer to be adequate. We may have to repair the dike itself this time.”
“Nonsense,” said one of the Burghers. “The solution that worked before will work again. We must simply force private enterprise into action.” So the Council visited the school and dragged a number of young boys by the ears to the dike, where they were forced to plug the leaks with their fingers. But the dike, which was old and poorly maintained, continued to spring new leaks here and there, so that it was all the Burghers could do to find more boys to plug up the leaks with their fingers. At last the Burghers compelled every little boy in the Low Countries to stick his finger in a hole. All economic activity came to a halt, as it is well known that young boys are the leading consumers of skates and cheese, on which the economy of Holland depended at that time.
“What shall we do?” the Burgomaster asked the Council. “We have run out of heroic little boys. At this rate, we may have to plug the leaks with our own fingers.” “That would be moderately inconvenient,” one of the Burghers remarked. So the Council voted to remove the North Sea by digging a new seabed somewhere in Germany; and they voted themselves a number of solid gold spades, befitting their dignity, for the purpose. And if you go to suburban Wilhelmshaven right now, and look into the field to your right as you drive westward on the Friedenstrasse, you will see a number of Dutch burghers very busy with their spades, trying to dig a new bed for the North Sea. It is lucky for them that the people of Wilhelmshaven have mistaken the burghers for a party of archaeologists looking for ancient Saxon remains, which has allowed them to continue the work uninterrupted. https://drboli.wordpress.com/2009/03/06/the-little-dutch-boy-who-saved-holland/
There is much to assimilate from this piece of fiction. In fact it is an appose depiction of life imitating art , at least as far as my concerns are as it relates to our country. The little boy did his job, much the same way each average Joe gets up and does his in our country each and every day.
They are not the problem, a closer look at the actions of the Burgomasters gives one a clear-eyed, yet less than ostentatious perspective of how we become our own worst enemies when we should simply act, but fail to do so. Our country is a small bit of land, 4411 square miles with about 2.8 million people, it has it’s fair share of challenges , none of which are insurmountable.
Like the brave little boy who initially stuck his hand in the Dyke to save his country, so too has average Jamaicans arisen to the task of Nation-building. For decades average Jamaicans have stuck their fingers in the Dyke plugging the leaks as they wait for the Burgomasters to act so they can extricate their fingers from the hypothermic cold. And as the Burgomasters asked the boy, and eventually all boys ‚to sacrifice and sacrifice more, even as they themselves dither and pontificate, so has our nation’s leaders reneged on their responsibilities while average Jamaicans toil in vain.
Instead of simply plugging the Dyke our leaders have stood by, much the same way the Burgomasters did, adopting grandiose untenable solutions instead of simply plugging the dyke. Therein lies our problem.
Once again terrorists killers have struck snuffing out the lives of 4 men in the Parish of Westmoreland.
Carl Banhan.
According to Reporting four men on two motorcycles rode up to a popular cook-shop in the District of Bath Westmoreland at about 9.00pm where the four victims were and opened fire.
Dead are 68-year-old tyre repairman Glendon Nanan; 54-year-old ‘Duco man’ Carl Banhan; 24-year-old labourer Timothy Bernard; and 19-year-old Dimario McIntosh, who is unemployed — all of Bath district, Westmoreland. The police have yet to establish a motive for the killings.
Dimario McIntosh.
At this stage of the game it has to be clear to all concerned about Jamaica that the killings are terroristic in nature.
They are designed to sow fear. More than that however, is the sense of comfort those who kill have ‚which allows them to kill with such impunity.
Timothy Bernard.
Lets set aside our differences on how crime should be addressed for a minute.
Or whether it should even be addressed at all. I say the latter because having dealt with this issue for 35 years, I am convinced that many who are part of the debate does not want the Island’s crime problem solved because of their vested interests in it’s continuance.
At some point in time we all must come to a consensus, that no matter the reasons for the bloodshed it is un-sustainable.
We have to conclude that whether these people were bad people or not, killing them in that manner can hardly be the way we treat our own people.
Assuming that these four men whose ages range from older to hardly having lived, are innocent, we must say enough is enough. We simply cannot continue to exterminate ourselves.
Glendon Nanan.
We cannot continue to say people are only being killed because they are involved in lotto-scamming, or that they are minding other people’s business , or that they looked at someone the wrong way. Using that logic who will be left in the end? At what point does the Government ditch the failed strategy which has been in effect,. and place a boot ‑heel on this menace once and for all?
Or better yet ‚when will the Government discard the liberal dogma which emanated out of the University Campus of the West Indies ?
This Liberal cornerstone of our process since the early 1970’s has been a colossal failure.
This failed system gives/gave the benefit of the doubt to criminals , nurture and abet the worst among us , while giving little or no support to the rule, of law or those who enforce the laws.
We cannot continue to speak to the issue of police corruption without first understanding why we end up with a less than ideal police department. In order to arrive at that understanding we have to first acknowledge that it was the political leadership which was first corrupt, leading to the corruption of the various arms of Government.
Levy
Our political structure is rotten from the core outward. The emphasis on the Police or the Registrar General’s Department are at best hypocritical.
Everyone knew that people could not send money in letters from overseas because people who work in the Postal service opened the letters took the money and resealed the letters.
We all knew that no matter how great a driver you are, if you did not pay the Examiners you would not get a driver’s licence.
Same is true at the Registrar General’s Department , don’t bother trying to get a birth certificate if you have no money to pay for it. Passport , same deal. Literally everything which is part of Government’s function has to be paid for again despite the taxes we already paid.
People complained for decades about the corruption of the Prison Warders , the Government did nothing, because whether JLP or PNP the politicians were stealing billions so they did not care. Ordinary people wondered how could Customs Officers afford the luxurious homes and the fancy cars they drove. We knew, and the Politicians knew, but they did not care, because much of the taxation levied by these agents ended up in their pockets through one nefarious scheme or another.
Terrence Williams (Photo credit Jamaica Observer)
Remarkable the most visible Antagonists against the Police are deathly silent no matter the amount of innocent blood shed. There are no press conferences to announce their concern at the senseless killings. There is no hand-wringing, no lamenting the amount of children left without their parents. Because the ultimate aim is never the protection of the innocent but the continued shielding of the rights of accused and convicted murderers.
May God help our country as it struggles to pull it’s collective head from the dirt and it’s psyche from ignorance, misinformation and brainwashing.
Here again is the Police making statements ! How much longer can the police run this campaign of bravado without backing it up with results? The police like every other entity has a duty to produce results, not make grand pronouncements and issue threats. Of late all we have seen from the police are threats, warnings, and the issuance of gibberish.
So here we go again.……
In the wake of the capture of one of the country’s most wanted in Portland, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Oneil ‘Merciless’ Thompson has issued a warning to criminals seeking refuge in the peaceful parish.
Thompson, who is in charge of operations, said the police are well aware that criminal elements, whose activities have been disrupted in other parishes as a result of hard work by law enforcement, have been heading to what they believe are safer grounds to set up shop and resume their illegal activities and lifestyles.
“This parish is not a safe haven for killers, robbers, scammers, or anyone engaging in unlawful activities,” commented Thompson.
“The police are on high alert and no criminal mind or those with links to criminal activities will be entertained in this peaceful parish. The honest and law-abiding citizens will continue to enjoy the peace and tranquillity that they are accustomed to; and no gunman, rapist, extortionist, or those engaged in illicit activities will cause mayhem or anarchy on loving and caring residents,” he added. Sheniele Kemar Levy, unemployed of 9 Windward Road in Kingston, who is also known as ‘Reds’ or ‘Choppy’, was recaptured in Muriton Pen, Long Road, Portland, on Tuesday. He is wanted for murder, shooting with intent, and absconding bail. Read more @ http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/news/20170317/portland-no-safe-haven-criminals-cops-warn-migrating-thugs-after-one-nations.
One of the more daunting challenges facing the police in Jamaica is the rugged and hilly terrain. Jamaica is a very mountainous country. The rugged terrain lacks general planning, which ought to be in place to guide modern community creation better. In reality, people build structures on their property, and the next person builds on his land, and before you know it, there is an unplanned community. It’s not unusual to find beautiful homes on roads next to auto repair shops that spill out onto spaces where sidewalks should be. Alleyways, culverts, and artificial gullies all form part of the mish-mosh of chaos: Jamaican urban and suburban centers. Even in cases where there are elements of planning, the result falls woefully short of meeting modern community planning standards. The greater Portmore Area of Saint Catherine is a case study in what not to do. Yet, homes’ building continues unchecked using the same methods, which present severe challenges for first responders and have become a breeding ground for criminal activity.
Photo adapted
Homes are built with parking lots set apart, which forces homeowners to leave their cars or disembark public transportation and walk along narrow alleyways. This presents serious safety challenges to residents of these communities. In the event of fire or illness, ambulances and fire trucks are sometimes unable to get to residents in a timely fashion. All of this because there is inadequate planning. Never mind the unauthorized expansions on homes, and the use of homes as commercial entities.
More challenging for the police is the ever-present gully issue, which offers shooters easy escape routes during shoot-outs. As a former law enforcement officer, I know all too well the daunting challenges these scenarios pose to both officer safety and the perception of officer veracity.
Photo Adapted…
There are totally constructed communities from board and zinc, and the dirt alleyways are all hemmed in on both sides with corrugated zinc sheets. Add a heavy mixture of high-powered weapons to those slums, and the job of the police becomes exponentially more difficult. It is easy to criticize, second-guess, and Monday morning-quarterback police when they give their version of shooting events. But those of us who were forced to police these death-traps understand the methodologies the Island’s urban terrorists employ in defending those turfs from the rule of law. In the inner-city communities, women, and children quickly secure fallen shooters’ weapons, while other thugs lay down covering fire. This militaristic strategy has been a longtime staple of many communities, particularly the Political garrisons. The so-called area leaders and area dons understand that dead gangsters and no weapons mean police are in trouble and most likely will end up in prison.
The Jamaican media has been a willing and complicit partner of the criminal underworld; in other cases, the media unwittingly becomes the area’s Don’s mouthpiece. Over the years, the media has systematically cast doubt on the police versions of events as a matter of policy. The use of the word “allegedly” is used subtly to belie police version of events, while there are no such disclaimers when paid mourners come out to claim police murdered innocent choir boys. Those are facts for the Jamaican media! To a man, every single person of the 2.8 million Jamaicans knows that the people who turn out to mourn and claim they saw the police murder innocent youths in their beds at 3.00 in the morning are lying. Yet the Media give them megaphones to make the scurrilous, lying accusations anyway. This is not to give cover to police who betray their oaths. This writer has no such intention to cover for dirty rogue cops. This is not to suggest that there have not been incidents where some officers have acted outside the laws. I contend that the media and, subsequently, many in the so-called civil society have given aid and comfort to criminals for decades, while demonizing the police. This has created disrespect for the rule of law and contempt for those who enforce them.
Yes, it happens all the time men shoot at officers, officers respond, and there are dead bodies, and yes, sometimes there is no finding the weapon/s. The antagonistic Terrence Williams of INDECOM tells of a case where officers were fired on and returned fire, killing a subject. Officers combed the bushes and were unable to locate any weapon. He bragged that his investigators arrived on the scene and commenced to search for the fallen weapon. An INDECOM agent is reported to have found the weapon. Williams retells that story to make the police seem inept at finding evidence. The fact is that given the terrain in situations like we have in Jamaica, it is quite easy to miss crucial pieces of evidence, including weapons in places where there are thick underbrush, vegetation, and hilly and unpredictable terrain. It came as no surprise to me that the officers who were accused and slandered in the media as part of a supposed death squad operating in Clarendon were found not guilty by a jury just today, Wednesday, March 15th. The Police have every right to use lethal force in defense of their lives and the lives of others; even in cases where there are no guns, officers sometimes face dangerous offenders hell-bent on doing them harm.
Police officers have a right and an expectation to go home to their families at the end of their shift. We expect our officers to be men and women of character and good judgment. After all, they are invested with the power of life and death over others. We should expect no less. But in cases where they act appropriately in defense of their lives or that of the citizens, they swore to protect, and they have every expectation that they will be supported…
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Mike Beckles is a former Police Detective, businessman, freelance writer, a black achiever honoree, and publisher of the blog mikebeckles.com. He’s contributed to several websites. You may subscribe to his blogs, or subscribe to his Youtube channel @chatt-a-box, for the latest videos.
Police Corporal Roan Morrison and Constable Collis ‘Chucky’ Brown have been freed of criminal charges in the so called police death squad trial.
For almost five weeks, the cops were on trial for murder and wounding with intent. But after deliberating for one hour and 45 minutes, the jury found them not guilty. During the five-week trial, 18 witnesses were called. It’s relief for both men.
While in custody last night, Brown learned that his father had passed away. Justice Jennifer Straw, who presided over the trial, had told the jurors that they should arrive at a verdict based on the evidence before them. She also told them that, if possible, their verdict must be unanimous.
Just last week I wrote about a trend in the JCF to engage in what I call media policing. This phenomenon has become a norm for the Jamaican Police. It is Policing done from behind desks. The Police has shifted from actual real policing over the last two decades or less to a more Media oriented grandstanding which goes more to form than it does substance.
I am all for the police getting their side of the story out. But it’s important that they wait to have a side before making statements from behind desks. The hierarchy of the Police force seem to have completely bought into the concept of office policing , much to the demise and detriment of the country.
As I’ve asked in previous article,“why does the police feel obligated to make statements on every initiative they are about to embark on? Is there a strategy by these new age cops who now populate the higher echelons of the force to release strategy directions as a means of convincing the public that they are doing something about crime, even as crime continue unchecked?
CASEINPOINT…#1
Clifford Chambers ACP.
Last week the Police prematurely released information that they had commenced Investigations in cases of attempted extortion in three parishes.
Assistant Commissioner of Police Clifford Chambers bragged that business owners were now cooperating with the police and they actually knew who the offenders are.
Now I have turned that statement over and over in my mind, and I cannot find a single thing which gives credibility to that way of doing things. What could possibly be gained from this disclosure except to place the lives of business people in jeopardy, and sending the perpetrators into hiding?
The Clarendon Police announced an initiative to stop and search young men wearing hooded sweat shirts and others having their faces covered with handkerchiefs. Head of the Clarendon Police Division Superintendent Vendolyn Cameron Powell said that the drive to stop and search young men wearing hoodies was part of efforts to combat crime in the parish. She also questioned why anyone should need to wear hoodies in Jamaica’s tropical climate.
Part of my arguments about the police refraining from making too many statements relates to the fact that as a pragmatist I am results driven. Why not wait until you have something positive to report,-report it and move on, results speak a hell of a lot louder than verbal pronouncements. Imagine just how little pronouncements matter when there is nothing positive to report.
Secondly there are active forces within the country which are diametrically opposed to the rule of law . Not necessarily because they are criminals , but more that without a chasm and a sense of conflict between law enforcement and the citizenry they are absolutely irrelevant. But we will come back to that.……
We still have a country where people are free to wear what they want to wear. What we don’t have is a country in which people are free to break the laws. There is a fine line between that sense of individual liberty and freedom to do as we please and the right of the state to infringe on those rights to keep the majority in a sense of relative safety .
Powell
This particular police woman seem to have a serious problem with her mouth. It has not been the first second and it will not be the last time that she makes comments which she has no business making. Profiling is an integral part of policing, any smart police officer knows and understand this. If you are having a slew of robberies in a certain area, being committed by say young Asian men you simply do not go out looking for young Caucasian men. You look for young Asian men. That’s profiling .Profiling is something police use, not something police go around talking about.
Immediately the head of the Clarendon Police made that statement there was push-back. Remember I said I would come back to this? Enter Horace Levy the executive Director of Jamaican For Justice(JFJ)
Horace Levy
Quote :“There is no right (on the part of the police to implement such a strategy) to me. Just because there are some crimes being committed by guys with hoodies, you are to start searching every hooded guy? It’s a style and a matter of self-identification!” “I disagree with the police stopping and searching everybody wearing a hoodie. The police are to have a good reason for searching somebody to begin with. They don’t have the right to just stop and search everybody. To add to that, if they are stopping and searching everybody wearing a hoodie, that’s profiling, and that’s being quite discriminatory.”
There is nothing discriminatory if police exercise vigilance in looking out for criminals who wear hooded sweat shirts in 96 degrees weather so as to conceal their identities. If there is a general shift toward the wearing of hoodies in Jamaica’s blazing hot weather then the Police have a duty and indeed a responsibility to look at these guys.
The difference in all of this is that the police must stop telegraphing what they are about to do before they take action. What is this new alien concept of policing which tells exactly what it is about to do? How does the Police department expect to shake it’s cartoon-character persona when it continues to make unforced errors like this which elevates inconsequential eat-a-food characters like Horace Levy and others. It wasn’t too long ago that Horace Levy and other leeches of his Ilk were actively pushing back against the police wearing any type of protective gear which concealed their identities while on some operations. Neither Horace Levy nor his mentor Carolyn Gomes cared that police officers are sometimes forced to police volatile ares in which they themselves live, which necessitates the need for disguises.
Now these very same people are immediately arguing for the rights of men to wear hoodies when clearly their intent is to commit crimes and get away with doing so. I have consistently said that the police must be much smarter and more tactical in the way it goes about it’s business. The Media had no problem finding Horace Levy to get him on record as soon as Cameron Powell made another stupid statement. If only the Police could find a way to just shut the f**k up and just get the job done?
In response to Terrence Williams transparent attempt to smear members of the police department, the JCF under Acting Commissioner of Police Novelette Grant has shown more balls than any male Commissioner, Deputy or Assistant has, since the Albatross (indecom) was forced on to the Jamaican people.
In response to media whore Terrence Williams’ attention seeking faux concern about police killings last week, the Police high command responded with their own explanation of the numbers.
Addressing journalists at a press conference he called at his Dumfries Road offices last week the (indecom) anti-police agitator Terrence Williams all but shed tears at what he characterized as his concern for the amount of fatal shootings the police department was involved in for the months of January and February this years thus far.
Williams who has never seen a Television camera or a microphone he did not like, called a press conference to shed crocodile tears for what he saw as a quote “worrying upward trend in police shootings for the first two months of 2017”. Williams and his cohort Hamish Campbell a Scotland Yard agitator argued that there was a 55 per cent increase in police fatal shooting in the first two months of the year. They disclosed that over the period, a total of 31 people were shot dead by the police saying that this is worrying sign.
This Publication pushed back against that characterization immediately. In doing so I pointed out out that the lying deceptive Williams and his cohort were using numbers to convey a narrative which could not stand, because not only did it not tell the whole story, it was inherently done to create outrage against members of the security forces.
What I found utterly disgusting and shameful was that in the same week that Terrence Williams and Hamish Campbell were actively slandering the security forces, potentially placing their lives in more danger , a long serving police sergeant was gunned down in the Portmore area of St Catherine. What neither Terrence Williams nor Hamish Campbell bothered to state was that there are no charges against any officer which goes to the lawful nature of those shootings. What the two deceptive bastards did not say is that police officers are totally justified under the law in using lethal force to neutralize threats to their lives or the lives of others. Needless to say the disgusting Judas Iscariot who heads ( indecom)did not mention his killing.
In response to Williams’ dangerous demagoguery the Police released information directly challenging Williams and Campbell’s disingenuous notions and concocted concerns. According to the high command, an assessment of the data shows a direct correlation between an increased number of violent gun attacks against the security forces, increased gun murders and shooting of civilians and an increase in police use of deadly force when compared with the same period in 2016. It says a total of 45 gun assaults against cops were recorded for the first two months of 2017. The High Command says of the 31 police-involved shootings, 23 resulted from shootings at the police while eight were as a result of assault at common law against cops.
In addition to releasing the data the police called for (indecom), advocate groups, families and community members to support their appeal to armed criminal suspects to surrender peacefully and desist from attacking security personnel. When did police shooting criminals in defense of their lives become a concern ? And Why is Terrence Williams so upset that violent criminals are shot? Are we to understand that Terrence Williams prefer the killing of police officers?
That would not be my choice of language in addressing Williams and Campbell. But I understand that the Police like that goodly woman in that old British comedy, must ” keep up appearances”.
As I have said for years about this creepy little demagogue Terrence Williams, he understands the anti ‑law enforcement tendencies in the country and he has played it like a well tuned Stradivarius violin.
Why else would he go to the trouble to call a press conference to point out that police shootings have gone up while deliberately leaving out critical exculpatory information , unless his sole desire is to inflame passions against the security forces?
This really goes to the character and intent behind the leadership of (indecom), which needs serious, serious scrutiny. This writer is quite content to be the sole person yelling in the wind until our country comes to it’s senses. Understanding that the actions of Terrence Williams does not pass the smell test.
In the meantime I must offer a word of congratulation to Acting Commissioner of Police Novelette Grant who has demonstrated more gravitas and balls than every Commissioner of Police who have served in my lifetime. Bravo Novelette!!! Numbers do not lie. Political hacks with their own agendas do.
An educated non-political professional woman does not need to kow-tow to politicians and their well placed destructive lackeys. Our police officers have a job to do and they should do it without fear or favor, malice or ill will, and certainly despite crocodile tears from the enemies of our country and their local lackeys.
Never hesitate to hit back against these disingenuous lying charlatans who would shape public opinion against the hard working people who stand between innocent people and those who would destroy life. I applaud you on this International Women’s day Novelette Grant. You rock .
According to local media reporting Jamaican police Investigators are busy, supposedly tracking down at least three persons they believe are behind extortion letters received by business owners in three parishes.
Leading the Investigation is Assistant Commissioner of Police Clifford Chambers who brags that criminals underestimated the level of coöperation that exists between the police and the business community. Chambers heads the Counter-Terrorism and Organised Crime (C‑TOC) division. Said Chambers “Law enforcement is working in a better partnership with business entities, so the criminal underworld will realize that they are not cowering anymore.” For the sake of Jamaica I pray there is never a real terror incident which these people will be tasked with investigating.
Police officers in the old capital of Spanish Town…
How about conducting the Investigation ‚arrest and charge the perpetrators, then have a press conference with them in full view of the cameras ? That’s called Perp shaming !!! If the Police love the idea of speaking in front of cameras why not wait until they have something to crow about which does not jeopardize complainants lives Talking about coöperation at this early stage serves no useful purpose. It endangers business owners. It send perpetrators into hiding. What could possibly be gained from this disclosure except to place the lives of business people/complainants in danger, and sending the perpetrators into hiding?
How about Police get back to doing Policing and less showboating for the Media? On a point of note, it’s remarkable that simple matters like these could become a major Investigation worthy of the office of an Assistant Commissioners of Police. Back in my time one corporal and a constable, or a single constable would remove these criminals from the streets without any fanfare. Oh how has time changed.……
The Jamaican people continue to be deceived by the very people they put in place to look out for their interest. Someone said to me this morning that Jamaica may be too far gone. I could not concur or disagree as that is above my pay-grade. One thing is certain, it will be extremely difficult to turn around our country because of it’s lack of checks and balances ‚and a people who have for over fifty years being encouraged to break the laws by their own Government’s lethargy.
Governments are put in place to take care of the affairs of nations since the beginning of recorded history. The primary responsibility of nation’s leadership has been the security of their people. As time progressed Governments evolved into taking care of more of their citizens’ needs , though not at the expense of national security. The United States the World’s second largest democracy (by population) designates a large part of it’s annual budget to it’s National security . That is a clear understanding of what Government’s main role is.
Government has a right to lead, not through decree or pronouncements, but through legislation on which consensus has been arrived at. When Government lead through that process and follow the laws like everyone else , the citizenry follow . It is through those processes that the Governed acquiesces to the dictates of those who Govern.
If there is a perception that music being produced in prison is having negative consequences on the nation’s youth, the Government should be leading the charge to ensure that-that does not happen. Government further has a responsibility to ensure that there is nothing untoward happening in any of it’s arms which are against the greater good.
Even if recording is allowed as part of the rehabilitative process of inmates there must be standards which precludes convicted felons (least of all murderers) from doing further harm to society through that supposed rehabilitative process. That’s common sense leadership if a country believes in the rule of law. It goes without saying that the Government would be attuned to ensuring that the interest of hundreds of thousands of innocent young minds take precedent over the rights of convicted murderers.
NOTSOINJAMAICA
Pearnel Charles Jr..
According to the Jamaica Observer ‚state minister for national security, Senator Pearnel Charles Jnr, says he has asked a legal team and the Commissioner of Corrections Ina Hunter to provide a clear understanding of the interpretation of the laws and regulations governing the production of music in maximum security prisons.
Charles, in the meantime, said he is not in agreement with the recent suggestion by Hanna of the wholesale banning of the intellectual property of murder convicts. “It’s a very simplistic view to say you’re convicted, and you’re making this impact, so we are going to sensor your music. Remember, sometimes you may be the creator of the music and may have sold the rights to your music. That is why we have to have a clear and cogent discussion on several issues: banning somebody’s music because they are convicted, and banning music that arises from unauthorized recordings (which) wouldn’t be banning. That music is just illegal,” he said.
If there is a case where a convicted criminal sold his music to someone else then the thing to do is to plug that gap with legislation. Stop it from happening. It’s not too difficult to pass a law which ensures that no convicted criminal may benefit from the proceeds of anything he/she does whilst incarcerated.
There has been much support for this in Jamaica if social media responses on the issue can be used as a barometer. But even more importantly , the Government has a responsibility and a duty to pull the plug from any such recording as soon as there are allegations that it is doing damage to society.
But this goes even further than simply pulling the plug on the music of convicted felons. There should have been no murder misogynist music being played on public airwaves in the first place. What Pearnel Charles Jr’s, has shown by his statement, is that he is more concerned about protecting the rights of convicted murderers to perpetuate and promulgate misogynist, murder madness, than to protect the nations impressionable children.
How will there ever be a turn-around of the chaos and lawlessness in this country when those elected to lead have stridently abdicated their responsibility to do so? Why would a junior Minister be asking down to legal teams and the commissioner of corrections what the protocols are? Disallow the damn practice , period!
“We have to have a clear and cogent discussion on several issues: banning somebody’s music because they are convicted, and banning music that arises from unauthorized recordings (which) wouldn’t be banning. That music is just illegal”. Said Charles a junior minister in the justice ministry and a lawyer.
You cannot make this up. This is the kind of leadership happening in our country. Jamaica averages over 100 murders each month, many people wonder how it is that a country which sells itself as a place where everything is all right, has been anything but. Well there you have it , you determine whether this is leadership or is it pandering of the worst order to the worst elements in our country? The thing which bothers me is that he did it while pretending that he wants to follow the law.
Terrence Williams the Commissioner of INDECOM is doing a tremendous disservice to our country he knows it, and he doesn’t care . For Terrence Williams it’s about blind ambition. It’s about personal aggrandizement.
For Williams it’s about his personal career , his personal legacy. If Carolyn Gomes can receive a National honor it’s just a matter of time before he receives his. You see Terrence Williams is loyal to.……well, he is loyal to Terrence Williams’ ego.
Terrence Williams (Photo credit Jamaica Observer)
Williams served as Director of Public Prosecutions in the British Virgin Islands for a decade? In an interview with the JamaicaObserver Williams unwittingly offered a window into his soul. “A lot of persons think when you go to a smaller Caribbean island all you do is sit under a coconut tree”. (In reference to his role as a prosecutor Williams said). That’s what I was doing and I was pretty happy with that, and then this came up. So this was unexpected. (In reference to the job as head of INDECOM)
So Terrence Williams the guy who was a deputy in the office of Director of Public Prosecution in Jamaica , who then went to the British virgin Island to work as a Prosecutor ‚and who was happy with his job there ‚just happened to learn about the job opening as commissioner of the yet to be formed Independent Commission of Investigations!
Did it really just come up though? If so how did that happen? Of the hundreds of Lawyers on the Island of Jamaica there was no one suitable for the job of Commissioner of the neophyte agency? It’s strange because there is nothing in the law which stipulates that the Commissioner of the agency has to be a lawyer. So just on the face of that, the pool of people who could have gotten the job just got exponentially larger. If Williams was serving in another capacity in a foreign country, how could an opening simply come up to him ? Did he resign the job in the BVI pack up his things and go home then apply for the job? Doesn’t seem to make sense to me! If not , did he submit an application ? Were there other applicants for the job? Did Terrence Williams go back to Jamaica to be interviewed for the job, or was the job simply tailor made for him as an attack dog?Was he anointed as such against the Nation’s law enforcement Agencies by Bruce Golding with the full acquiescence of the PNP?
Hamish Campbell
We can suspend reality, or we can take a slightly closer look to see whether Terrence Williams’ story hold water. How naïve would we have to be to believe that Terrence Williams was happy in his job under the coconut tree in the BVI and the job of commissioner of INDECOM just dropped from the coconut tree into his lap , or as he says “this came up”?
Never mind that Terrence Williams also wanted the job of DPP in Jamaica, but Paula Llewellyn got that. Ouch that had to hurt. There’s no doubt that Williams’ many publicized fights with Ms Llewellyn after being made Commissioner of INDECOM has to do with sour grapes.
Alexander Williams (Photo credit Jamaica Observer)
Lets also not forget the little fact that JLP Senator Alexander (Alex) Williams who was at the time opposition spokesman for justice just happen to be the brother of Terence Williams. Coincidence ? You decide ! With those understandings we get a slightly clearer picture of just how the job of INDECOM commissioner” just came up” for Terrence Williams. Alex Williams Terrence’s brother told the Media then “INDECOM was established mainly as the initiative of former Prime Minister Bruce Golding and was given strong support by the then Opposition PNP. If you still doubt that the two political parties on the Island are anything but two crime families you deserve them.
The question now remain ‘should this vindictive , overly ambitious, rapacious little man’s ego be allowed to continue to cause untold innocent lives? Look, we know Bruce Golding placed him in this position of power . We also know that he did it with the criminally complicit PNP. Of course the Police department was way out of hand with all of the things it’s members were engaging in. But does anyone doubt for a moment that it was the decades of interference , neglect and criminal conduct by members of both the PNP and JLP which caused the deterioration of the Police Force?
Since being handed the Job as head of INDECOM Terrence Williams has led a campaign of deception, lies, and half truths, which can only be countered with the conclusion that he wants to poison the mind of the public against it’s law enforcement agencies. Stunningly Williams have been able to accomplish this feat with frightening alacrity and effectiveness much to the detriment of citizens and police alike.
Craolyn Gomes and her foreign funded JFJ has been on the forefront of of the creation of indecom. These people are responsible for the wave of murders and rapes sweeping the country. They are untouched by the carnage…
With Jamaica being a country with a large illiterate and semi literate population it is not too difficult to see just how Williams could be so successful in such a short period of time. Carolyn Gomes a Mulatto pediatric Doctor was able to do much damage before the facts caught up with her and she was forced to step aside. Of course not before she received a National honor for tearing down the rule of law and corrupting the youth.
Williams however is not doing this by himself we all know that Jamaicans don’t take too kindly to their black brothers and sisters presenting them with facts. So how do you get around that ? You throw a Mulatto or white in the mix and the word is now gospel.
So adding former Scotland Yard cop Hamish Campbell to INDECOM was sure to not only enhance the capability of the agency, it gives authenticity and credibility to it. If the white man or the Mulatto woman say it’s so it must be so. Sadly we are still programmed that way.
Terrence Williams flanked by Hamish Campbell told reporters at his office a few days ago that 19 people were shot by police since the start of the year who did not have guns. A slick sleigh of hand if your intent is to deceive. A slick sleigh of hand if you know the dimwit reporters are not going to ask how many officers have been charged as a result of these actions which clearly has to be criminal right?
What neither Terrence Williams nor Hamish Campbell bothered to state was that there are no charges because the police officers acted lawfully. What these two enemies of the state does not say is that police officers are totally justified under the law in using lethal force to neutralize threats to their lives or the lives of others.
Literally everything can be used as a weapon by an offender intent on causing bodily harm. An officer is under no obligation to wait to be injured or killed before responding to that threat. July 14th 2015 22-year-old Constable Curtis Lewis signaled a motorcyclist to stop . The driver refused ramming Lewis instead ripping his leg from his body, killing him. The young officer’s leg was recovered over twenty five feet away from where he was run over. At the time of this tragedy Superintendent Beau Rigabie described Constable Lewis as a model cop.“He was very professional and thorough. Words are insufficient to describe him. He was a very, very, very good cop.”
Had constable Lewis pulled his service weapon and stopped the threat Terrence Williams would have been on National Television blasting the young officer for killing an unarmed motorcyclist. Constable Lewis unfortunately was not a cop cut from the same cloth from which I was cut. As long as you are legally and morally justified , neutralize that threat. A good cop knows and understand when to end that threat. Poor Constable Lewis was a good human being , that does not always translate into a good cop.
My colleague Constable Sieveright was the only student constable to take his bible with him to the Academy. A nicer, quieter person there hardly was. That niceness caused him to be the first officer from our batch to be killed. He died on the Mandela Highway his stomach filled with bullets from a scumbag in a taxi-cab.
Drive a car at a cop and he has a right to open fire into the vehicle to save his or his colleagues lives or any other lives which may be imperiled as a consequence. Each case rests on it’s own individual set of circumstances. Those are the facts the lying deceptive little weasel Terrence Williams just happen to leave out of his narrative.
It’s real easy to sell that to a cop hating media and a country which is largely corrupt and populated with a large percentage of hustlers, thieves, rapists and murderers. In this environment of the blind, the one eyed deceiver Terrence Williams is King.
You almost feel like here we go again.Terrence Williams the Commissioner of (INDECOM) pointed out that his Agency is worried about the number of police fatal shootings for the months of January and February.
Terrence William commissioner of (indecom)
Terrence Williams told the Media gathered at a Press conference at his Dumfries Road Office that he was worried about the number of people killed so far this year by police. Williams released statistics which indicated that 19 people were shot and killed by the police in January, while another 12 were shot and killed in February. Assistant (indecom) Commissioner Hamish Campbell said January’s fatalities represented a 55 per cent increase over last year, which saw only seven fatal shootings by the police. Another 11 people, Campbell said, were also shot and injured during the first two months of the year.
There was no mention about the heightened levels of abductions, rapes, and murder of little girls and young women , and everyone else ‚as well as the general sense of lawlessness sweeping the Island There was no mention of the Police officers killed in the line of duty at the hands of the callous killers who kill at will. There was no mention of the senior police sergeant who was killed in the Portmore area just days ago. There was no mention of the propensity of Jamaicans to shoot at police officers, and there was certainly no mention of the sophisticated weaponry these punks have in their possessions. What Terrence Williams and his treasonous anti Jamaica cabal are concerned about are dead criminals.
https://mikebeckles.com/terrence-williams-not-investigating-dirty-cops-self-promotion-grandstanding-smear/ HEREARETHEFACTS Terrence Williams has been given immense investigative powers under the ill conceived (INDECOM) Act. Those powers include, but are not confined to, the power to arrest police offices, members of the military and corrections departments in the event there is evidence of wrongdoing on their part. Despite those Powers much of what Terrence Williams have been able to accomplish has been Media whoring and grandiose self promotion. Not much else, by it’s own reporting(indecom) has been forced to admit that the vast majority of complaints it has investigated involving the police , the police have been found to have acted professionally and lawfully.
Portia Simpson Miller
It is a tragic state of affairs when tax payers funds are used to finance witch hunts of security personnel. Even more tragic is the fact that higher incidences of police shooting criminals is sold as evidence of police wrong doing rather than a need for alarm at the near civil war status of the country. That is the twisted logic Terrence Williams, Hamish Campbell the British slave master, and (indecom), has engaged in since it’s inception.
It has become clear then that we have to see (indecom) ‚Terrence Williams, and Hamish Campbell for what they truly are.Agents against the Jamaican people. Inevitably Jamaica will have to ask itself whether (indecom) serves it’s interest or that of Williams’ foreign handlers who have an interest in Jamaica’s continued beggar status. Certainly this cannot be outside the scope of the comprehension of the Island’s leadership.
Jamaica is kept in a state of perpetual poverty which creates dependency. Out of that poverty and dependency crime germinate and metastasize. Like an epidemic crime takes on new life as a virus does given the right conditions. If an antidote is not employed in a timely and decisive manner, given those same circumstances that epidemic quickly evolve into a full blown pandemic.
Such has the virus of crime in Jamaica been allowed to thrive . In fact the political class which doubles as the criminal class has used their perches of power to usurp the rule of law, creating the conditions which exist today .
As Michael Manley and Edward Seaga and their cabal of criminals did in the 1970’, our country was turned into a veritable war zone through the process of balkanization and the proliferation of guns.
Percival James Patterson former PM presided over years of corruption and failed leadership..
Percival James Patterson and Portia Simpson Miller also profited from the same kind of politics . Through encouragement, nurturing and enhancement of Garrison Dons and the decimation of the Police department. As a result it was an easy coup de gras for Bruce Golding to unleash his brand of destruction on the country. No not his defense of Christopher Coke . I“m talking about his gift of (indecom) to the country, and now nurtured by Andrew Holness.
At a time when a Member of Parliament is being threatened for daring to speak out on policy . At a time when Women and children are being brutally raped and murdered . At a time when there is no compunction about killing police officers , not to mention the near take over of the Jamaican state by criminals in 2010, we have leaders who are more interested in holding state power than doing whats right.
I know it’s a stretch to appeal to the ability of much of our people to do simple reasoning…But I have to try.
CONSIDERTHIS.…
Lets consider that Britain colonized our land , enslaved our people for over four hundred years, through which they slaughtered untold millions. Then Consider that at it’s earliest convenience (1962), broke and irrelevant , it’s former empire a thing of the past ‚Britain cut Jamaica loose with nothing with which to help ourselves. (We stupidly refer to this period as the time we gained independence). Fast forward to Present day, and it’s Trojan Horse Prison deal which would have seen hundreds of criminals dumped on Jamaica, many of whom have never been to Jamaica Considering all of the other trifling things England has done in recent times with the distinct objective of hurting Jamaica and Jamaicans, why would anyone believe they have our interest at heart”
Edward Seaga..
THINKPEOPLE
If Britain was serious about helping local law enforcement and the rule of law in Jamaica, wouldn’t that country help train our detectives in Forensics and other areas? Has it occurred to anyone , least of all the shit for brains so called leaders on the Island that there is something fishy about their willingness to help with tying the hands of our police vis-a-vis (indecom) , while they do not give a shit about how many innocents gets killed each year.
HEREARE A FEWFACTS
In the entire 20 boroughs of London combined, there are less murders committed each year than are committed in a single month in St James Jamaica. Despite these low homicide numbers, England wants to dump it’s troubled Prisoners on our country. Just this week one member of the British Parliament excoriated Jamaica for refusing to accept People who committed crimes in England back into our country.. So they don’t want any crime in their country but they are quite willing to help fund (indecom) and send personnel al la Hamish Campbell to help. You dumbass shit for brains politicians .…You believe this is good because your asses are where your heads ought to be.
HOWCRIMEENSURESTHATJAMAICAWILLPERPETUALLYBE A BEGGARNATION…
There is no need to rehash the statistics which shows just how significantly crime impoverishes nations. It’s absolutely no wonder that there are no nations which are plagued with unchecked violent crimes that are prosperous nations. Zero !!! So with Jamaica averaging approximately 1600 homicides annually and the chances of getting one’s head blown off simply by being in the country (one in around 30,000 ) is there any wonder that the Mighty British Colonial masters would want the dumb subjects to continue wallowing in poverty?
Bruce Golding
They understand that poverty breeds crime/crime breeds poverty, who would they lend money to if we were finally able to get our act together, huh ..? I cannot hear you, you smart ass politicians and other dumb as fuck trolls who cannot see further than your stupid noses. You see Bruce Golding was happy to get their help and advise with (indecom), sure why not? Tying the hands of the police is good for business!
He just got a little too big for his britches when he said there would be no Gays in his cabinet to a British Reporter. They showed him real quick whose cabinet it really was. Ha ha ha, Poor Portia still believes she won that election after they kicked Golding out. No critical thinking.. And the rest of you thought Golding’s demise was about his refusal to honor the extradition request. Which came first, the hen or the egg..? That anti Gay comment was the end for him only he didn’t know it. The Extradition request was merely the conduit for his departure. Refuse and you go down in the eyes of the world. Acquiesce and you have the West Kingston power base yanked from under you. Check mate ! We all know how that story ended.
Andrew Holness
It’s gonna be all up to the people to throw (indecom) out, but if Transparency International’s assessment of our country is to be believed there is not much chance of that happening. More that 80% corrupt, not much chance that the 20% will be able to prevail. That’s it in a nutshell.
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