Cops Should Remember Tivoli Gardens, Not Be Fooled Twice By Platitudes…

There is nev­er any doubt about the val­or, brav­ery, and deter­mi­na­tion of some of the men and women who have served their nation, as mem­bers of the Jamaica Constabulary Force(JCF).
Sure there are some who would read­i­ly run away as soon as they hear a fire­crack­er go off.
God knows, I expe­ri­enced that one night in 88 on Blackwood ter­race. Nevertheless, I was blessed to work with some real war­riors in whose hands I would nev­er hes­i­tate to place my life.
I believe they also knew that come what may, I would nev­er leave them in a fire­fight, it was death before dishonor.

Jamaican Judges A Large Part Of The Murder Problem/​Ask Dexter Pottinger

It is because of that why my heart swelled up in my throat, as my eyes filled with tears when I read the words of Sergeant David Craddock. (The star dishrag)could not both­er nam­ing the two brave offi­cers.
We have!
As the tears welled up in my eyes a sense of duty washed over me. At no time since I depart­ed the Force did I ever feel like I need­ed to have the com­fort­ing feel of my M16 rifle with the retractable stock in my hands. I want­ed to be there, I real­ly want­ed to be there.

Jamaica’s Criminal Loving Judges Shows Disdain For Cops By Overturning Death Penalty Of Cop-killers:

Said Sergeant Craddock:
“I told my col­leagues to gwaan leave me, but they said they not leav­ing.” “Another police offi­cer brave it now, and turn on the M‑16.” “And while the shot a fire, enuh, them (police­men) brave it and hold me and draw me behind a wall.” 
“I nev­er expe­ri­ence any­thing like this in all my years as a police offi­cer. It was very ter­ri­ble. I did not know I would live, to be hon­est. My col­leagues, they nev­er leave me in spite of what hap­pened. They said they would die with me.”
Sergeant Craddock detailed that even though he was struck in the abdomen twice his vital organs were spared. Nevertheless, the bul­let which hit him in leg almost sev­ered his leg.
“The foot was dan­gling, it almost come off,” he said.
No oth­er cat­e­go­ry of work­ers has giv­en even close to the sac­ri­fice of police offi­cers.
No cat­e­go­ry of pub­lic sec­tor work­ers con­tributes more to nation-build­ing and the greater good than police offi­cers.
These men and women deserve love and respect. The nation should hang its col­lec­tive head in shame.

Judges Have A Responsibility As Officers Of The Court To Follow And Apply The Law, Obviously Not In Jamaica..

Despite the egre­gious injuries to the two offi­cers, the pub­li­ca­tion nev­er once named the two offi­cers. It was like they were an abstrac­tion. Though they did a full report­ing on the offi­cer’s words it was not impor­tant enough for them to both­er putting a name to the indi­vid­u­als.
I thought the report­ing encap­su­lat­ed pre­cise­ly how the Jamaican Nation treats it’s police offi­cers.
From Jamaica House through the court and media hous­es all the way to the last house in the ghet­to.
The harsh­est sen­tences are reserved for police offi­cers who err in judg­ment while in the exe­cu­tion of their duties.
Mass mur­der­ers are sum­mar­i­ly let out on bail to kill repeat­ed­ly until there are no wit­ness­es will­ing to step for­ward to tes­ti­fy against them and they walk free.
Police offi­cers who make alleged errors in sit­u­a­tions in which they have to make life and death deci­sions in frac­tions of a sec­ond, [while on duty] get no qual­i­fied immu­ni­ty.
Not just that but they are forced to spend the dura­tion of time in prison some­times more than sev­en years before they are tried with­out bail.
Violent thugs have their cas­es tossed from court dock­ets if their case man­ages to stay on the dock­et in excess of five years.
And nev­er mind if they are con­vict­ed. The Government is active­ly engaged in hav­ing their mur­der con­vic­tion expunged from their record.
http://jamaica-star.com/article/news/20190529/%E2%80%98i-did-not-know-i-would-live%E2%80%99-cop-hurt-may-pen-shooting-tells-horrifying-tale
http://jamaica-star.com/article/news/20190529/%E2%80%98i-did-not-know-i-would-live%E2%80%99-cop-hurt-may-pen-shooting-tells-horrifying-tale

Judge Revokes Bail For White Collar Crimes/​Jamaican Judges Release Murderers On Bail Daily

It is also com­mon knowl­edge that Judges are on the pay­roll of some crim­i­nal enti­ties. This writer has made no bones about expos­ing these pat­terns of sen­tenc­ing dis­par­i­ties which have emerged, not just in the west­ern parts of the coun­try but in oth­er court­rooms across the coun­try.
We are also not shy about expos­ing the veneer of lies which shields the truth of the dan­ger to the Jamaican crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem over­all.
When the Judges are cor­rupt­ed it is check­mate for the sys­tem. Unfortunately, many peo­ple still reside in a bub­ble as it relates to Jamaican judges, and maybe that’s for the good because regard­less of the sever­i­ty of the sit­u­a­tion, faith in the sys­tem can be a net pos­i­tive. It would be an effort in futil­i­ty for me to even begin a process of detail­ing the raw and bla­tant dis­par­i­ty in sen­tenc­ing between Criminals who inten­tion­al­ly set out to kill and police offi­cers, who in the law­ful exe­cu­tion of their duties make errors in judgment.

Example #1

A St Catherine man, who chopped his com­mon-law wife to death two years ago, was sen­tenced to four years in prison when he appeared in the St Catherine Circuit Court last Friday.
Errol Morrison of Pointhill St Catherine, was charged with the mur­der of Hermalin Bell 42-year-old labor­er also of Point hill. The court was told that the two had a dis­agree­ment when Morrison attacked her with a machete and chopped her all over her body. She col­lapsed and died on the spot. Morrison fled the com­mu­ni­ty but lat­er turned him­self over to the police who charged him with mur­der. He plead­ed guilty to the less­er charge of manslaughter.

Example#2

The three cops found guilty of manslaugh­ter in rela­tion to the death of 16-year-old school­girl Vanessa Kirkland in March 2012 have each been sen­tenced to 14 years and six months impris­on­ment. 
Constables Ardewain Smith, 35, Durvin Hayles, 33, and Anna-Kay Bailey, 27, were on February 8 found guilty of manslaugh­ter by a sev­en-mem­ber jury in the Home Circuit Court in down­town Kingston. During the tri­al, the court heard that Constables Bailey, Hayles, and Smith drove on to Norman Lane in Kingston some­time after 9 o’ clock on March 20, 2012, and opened fire on a blue Suzuki Swift motor­car which was parked along the left side of the road. Kirkland and six oth­er occu­pants inside the car were shot. She sub­se­quent­ly died from her injuries.

The killings in Jamaica may be attrib­uted to fail­ures in Government, but we are not fac­ing real­i­ty if we fail to rec­og­nize how the very agen­cies of Government as well as what ought to be an inde­pen­dent media have failed our coun­try.
The cop-hat­ing crim­i­nal ‑cheer-lead­ing which has tak­en over Jamaican pop cul­ture runs the full spec­trum from top to bot­tom side to side.
Every stra­tum of the soci­ety is inher­ent­ly cor­rupt, which by default ren­ders the police pub­lic ene­my num­ber one.
It is with­in this Transparency Internationally rat­ed 84% cor­rup­tion, those police offi­cers are asked to oper­ate with white gloves.
It is impor­tant that when we talk about crime and decide to point fin­gers, we nev­er lose sight of the full facts.
My friend argues suc­cinct­ly that as the raw images of where we are as a nation emerges and begin to be seared into the psy­ches of the power­bro­kers, they will become scared of what we have been warn­ing about.
Their rhetoric will begin to sound like they sup­port the police but offi­cers should nev­er be fooled into think­ing that these wolves in sheep cloth­ing are for real.
They should nev­er for­get how the secu­ri­ty forces were treat­ed after they had annexed Tivoli Gardens to Jamaica.
Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me.

Mike Beckles is a for­mer Jamaican police cor­po­ral, busi­ness own­er, avid researcher, and blog­ger. He is also a black achiev­er hon­oree, and pub­lish­er of the blog chatt​-​a​-box​.com. You may sub­scribe to his blogs free of charge.