Let me add my voice to that of Police Commissioner Antony Anderson who had an epiphany that the light and sometimes no sentences given to serious offenders is fuelling crime on the Island.
Let me be very clear; I support Anderson’s stance because this has been the stance of pretty much every cop who served in the JCF, including this writer.
My problem with Anderson’s statements is that they are years late, and still, he parses words arguing that he is not pointing fingers at any judges or the justice system; who the hell are you speaking to then?
What a lame-ass thing to say; it just goes to show that these officials value their positions more than they do the survival of our nation.
Seriously, do you care that much that you will not be invited to any more of their little functions were they down cocktails and nibble on delicacies as they converse in fake accents?
Mister Commissioner, as I am sure you know, I have repeatedly called for harsher sentences for violent offenders and people arrested with guns. One of my issues with your appointment is that [you] should have only accepted the job of commissioner of police under the guarantee that the issue of appropriate sentencing would be immediately addressed.
Speaking out, now that almost a thousand (991) have again been murdered this year, smacks of you trying to deflect blame from yourself.
I believe that you are not responsible for the killings, and I also believe that you are doing your best, but that is exactly the problem. Commissioner Antony Anderson was also the nation’s first National Security Adviser. A post created by the Holness Administration seemingly for Anderson should have advised his boss as an adviser that this issue is a national security threat.
But in reality, Commissioner Anderson did not, and could not, because you see,- mister Anderson was never a cop, so even though he was advising the Prime Minister on National Security, one of the burgeoning threats was outside his understanding because as he had no training or experience in law enforcement.
Anderson spoke to specific issues; roughly 1,000 people were released from prison each year, between 430 to 480 of them became re-offenders within two and a half years“In an environment where 92 percent of our people killed last week were killed with a gun, it cannot be adequate. When I reviewed 16 cases from the beginning of the year, none of those cases of illegal possession were the persons required to go to jail. It was either a fine, a suspended sentence, or probation. This is real, and I am not blaming anyone, but it is just how our system works, and the reason it hasn’t been effective in deterring is that it doesn’t deter.”In another case involving three women, two from Westmoreland and the other from St Elizabeth, the commissioner said they were robbed and wounded but still managed to help investigators build a strong case. He said they went to court and testified, only to see the men walking around the following day, even though they were convicted.
“The very next day after these persons were convicted, those perpetrators are walking past the same women in the community. Something is wrong, and I have a problem with that. That is not a nice process. You have to keep reliving and talking about the thing that impacted you. What about that will deter that criminal from offending or give these women confidence that the State is fair and just. These people I am talking about are people who were convicted.”
“What we see as a feature of these conflicts is that gangsters are more willing now; if they can’t get the persons, they are after to go after the family and associates of these gangsters and go after all of them collectively, particularly in the lower part of St Andrew, Kingston, and Clarendon, and more recently Westmoreland and earlier in the year in St James.”The Commissioner lamented.
Here is where the rubber meets the road; Jamaica has a severe crime problem. Even though judges are not wholly to be blamed, their harm to the country as unelected officials is incalculable.
The issue is exacerbated by those who benefit from it and those who would shut down anyone who would do anything about it. Commissioner of Police Antony Anderson does not want to speak out against these robed charlatans because he fears they will gang up on him and do a work stoppage; yes, they did it before.
But I am neither afraid of them, neither do I care what they have to say; no one elected them, yet they are a thorn in the side of the country’s efforts to rid the streets of the most dangerous criminals.
Therefore, the people’s elected officials, the legislators [must] do what the people elected them to do to protect them from the vicious monsters who prey on the innocent.
That means doing what I have called for many times. (a)Passing laws that have teeth. (b) Passing laws with mandatory minimum sentences for violent offenders. © Truth in sentencing, meaning that statutorily ten years in prison means ten years in prison.
There is a crisis of critical thinking. Those who claim to be educated got the education to gain access to power- power they then use for their own nefarious purposes.
The issue of Jamaica’s unelected criminal-loving judges is a sore one that has caused many crime fighters to step aside. Officers walk away because their efforts continue to be thwarted by ignorant opinionated judges who use the system to act out their liberal criminal-loving agendas, agendas they were indoctrinated into from their affiliation with the leftist institutions in which they were brainwashed.
Commissioner Anderson’s statements are a day late and a dollar short. Even though he made factual statements years later than he should, he still refuses to stand up to the morons who sit in judgment of these vicious killers and shooters.
Regardless of the bullshit, they try to feed the people about sentencing guidelines and time spent in jail; these unelected shitheads are carrying out an antithetical ideology to the Jamaican people’s interest.
The people must demand that the Legislature pass laws that protect them from the gun-toting criminals and their associates on the bench.
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Mike Beckles is a former Police Detective, businessman, freelance writer, black achiever honoree, and creator of the blog mikebeckles.com.