Federation Blast INDECOM, Rights Group, Politicians, At Slain Cops Funeral

POLICE Federation Chairman Sergeant Raymond Wilson, yes­ter­day, spared no punch­es as he slammed rights groups and the Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM), the sys­tem of gar­ri­son pol­i­tics, and the financiers of crim­i­nals, whom he said were all respon­si­ble for the death of Woman Constable Crystal Thomas, who was mur­dered in Kingston while head­ing home on a bus, last month.

Wilson appeared to slight min­is­ter with respon­si­bil­i­ty for the pub­lic sec­tor, Horace Dalley, dur­ing his scathing address at the funer­al ser­vice for Thomas, which was held at Ebenezer Fellowship Church of God Seventh-day in Spanish Town, St Catherine.

Bunting — who sat between Commissioner of Police Dr Carl Williams and Opposition spokesman on secu­ri­ty Derrick Smith — appeared uneasy as Wilson deliv­ered the barbs to the encour­age­ment of mourn­ers inside the crammed church.

A hush fell as Wilson recount­ed a con­ver­sa­tion with Dalley pri­or to Thomas’s death about the pro­vi­sion of trans­porta­tion for Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) mem­bers who work late at nights.

Wilson said he asked Dalley, dur­ing a nego­ti­a­tion, if he was wait­ing for a police offi­cer to be mur­dered while using the pub­lic trans­porta­tion sys­tem before a bus is made avail­able to take them home after work.

He said the min­is­ter’s response was that no mon­ey was avail­able to ful­fil that request.

“That is what the val­ue of the life of a police offi­cer is,” Wilson told mourn­ers in his no-holds-barred address.

The out­spo­ken Wilson said that for too long admin­is­tra­tors have been giv­ing police “bas­ket to car­ry water” and it should now stop as he called for the sup­port of the wider society.

Prior to Wilson’s address, Smith called on Bunting to make the pro­vi­sion of trans­porta­tion for police offi­cers who work late — espe­cial­ly female cops — a reality.

However, Bunting, who spoke after Smith, but before Wilson, stayed clear of the trans­porta­tion issue.

To wild cheers, Wilson made a spir­it­ed call for Thomas to be posthu­mous­ly award­ed the medal of gal­lantry, say­ing she died fight­ing for her life and the lives of the pas­sen­gers on the bus she was on.

Thomas was gunned down on Spanish Town Road, in Kingston, on July 14, while mak­ing her way home.

Twenty-nine-year-old Marlon Cherrington, oth­er­wise called Kemar Anderson, of Kidd Lane, Kingston 11, was held a day after the mur­der. He, how­ev­er, died two Fridays ago, days after being assault­ed at the Hunts Bay police lock-up, where he was being held. The police com­mis­sion­er has ordered a probe into Cherrington’s death.

Twenty-four-year-old Thomas had been a mem­ber of the con­stab­u­lary for four years.

Yesterday, the large church could­n’t con­tain the huge crowd that turned out to bid farewell to Thomas. A dry eye was dif­fi­cult to spot among mourn­ers, many of whom had to set­tle for stand­ing on the outside.

As the flag-draped cas­ket was car­ried in, Thomas’s moth­er, Jacqueline Brown, broke out in uncon­trol­lable wail­ing, and repeat­ed­ly called out her deceased daugh­ter’s name. Attempts by a mem­ber of the JCF and rel­a­tives to com­fort her seemed futile.

During a trib­ute by Thomas’s 119 batch­mates, a male mem­ber had to be escort­ed from the podi­um as he buck­led under the weight of his grief and sat heavy on the floor, weeping.

Wilson too appeared to have been cry­ing and had to be com­fort­ed by a mem­ber of the Police Federation fol­low­ing his address.

During his pre­sen­ta­tion, Wilson asked what right does a gun­man have to deter­mine that a police offi­cer or a law-abid­ing civil­ian should die. He asked what gave crim­i­nals “more right to life” than a police offi­cer or “law-abid­ing cit­i­zens of this country”.

Thomas, he said, was killed by gun­men who knew that the laws were in their favour as opposed to police offi­cers con­duct­ing their law­ful duties. He not­ed that the police­woman was killed by crim­i­nals who knew that spe­cial inter­est groups would lob­by on their behalf, while police offi­cers had to finance their legal defence.

Bunting had said ear­li­er the out­pour­ing of grief since the trag­ic killing was an indi­ca­tion that a “true hero had been struck down”.
Story orig­i­nat­ed @ :Federation blast INDECOM, rights group, politi­cians, at slain cops funeral