The man accused of attacking DaShawn Horne with a baseball bat became enraged when he learned his sister had spent the night with the young African-American man, Auburn police said. He has been charged with malicious harassment, the state’s hate-crime statute.
LaDonna Horne still can’t quite believe an alleged hate crime landed her 26-year-old son in the intensive-care unit at Harborview Medical Center with a traumatic brain injury.
“You just never think it’s going to happen to you or so close to home. I was just telling someone, ‘It’s different out here. Everybody gets along. It’s so diverse,’ ” Horne, who is African American, said Tuesday.
It was the 11th day Horne, other family members and her son’s large circle of friends have kept vigil at the hospital while they wait for DaShawn Horne to wake up from injuries sustained in what police are calling an unprovoked attack with a baseball bat.
“As his uncles, we taught him to protect himself,” said Ray Jenkins, who is considered family even though he isn’t related to Horne. “But to be attacked from behind because of the color of his skin …”
“Who can be prepared for that?” said LaDonna Horne’s brother, Rodney King, finishing his best friend’s sentence.
Auburn police and King County prosecutors say Horne is the victim of a brutal assault and hate crime, perpetrated by the 18-year-old brother of a young woman with whom Horne spent a night.
Julian Tuimauga, of Auburn, was charged last week with first-degree assault and malicious harassment — the state’s hate-crime statute — and remains in the King County Jail in lieu of $500,000 bail, jail and court records show.
From what his family has been able to piece together, Horne, a mail handler for the U.S. Postal Service who lives in Kent, had a rare Friday night off Jan. 19. He wanted to go to a particular nightclub in Seattle’s Pioneer Square but couldn’t get in, so he went to another nearby club instead. There, he met a woman in her 20s and the two “hit it off,” LaDonna Horne said.
At the end of the night, she invited him back to her place in Auburn.
The next morning, the woman called a Lyft car to drive Horne home, according to his relatives and charging papers.
It was the Lyft driver — who had backed into the driveway of a home in the 600 block of 27th Street Southeast — who witnessed the assault and called 911 just before 10:30 a.m. on Jan. 20, the charges say.
According to charging papers:
Tuimauga was carrying an aluminum baseball bat when he approached the Lyft driver and asked who the driver was there to pick up. The driver gave Tuimauga’s sister’s name as the person who had requested the ride, then watched as Tuimauga walked to a corner of the fenced yard.
A short time later, the driver saw Horne walk along the side of the house toward the driveway and heard him argue with Tuimauga, the charges say. He “then heard a thump sound like a bat had struck something,” according to charging papers.
The driver looked back and saw Tuimauga strike Horne in the head twice with the bat and watched him fall to the ground, the charges say.
At that point, the driver heard Tuimauga say, “This is what happens when you bring black people around here,” the charges say.
The Lyft driver drove away and parked two houses down, where he saw Tuimauga hit Horne three more times with the bat while he was lying unconscious on the ground, the charges say.
Part of the attack was captured by a neighbor’s video-surveillance camera, and the footage shows Tuimauga armed with the bat and Horne “falling into the frame” already unconscious, charging papers say.
While Horne was lying bloody in the front yard, Tuimauga used his cellphone to video-record the injured man while yelling racial slurs at him, the charges say.
According to the charges, Tuimauga repeatedly used the N‑word.
State law defines malicious harassment — a felony commonly referred to as a hate crime — as intentionally injuring, damaging property or threatening someone because of his or her perception of the victim’s race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, or mental, physical or sensory handicap.
Tuimauga’s father and sister were inside the home and did not witness the attack, the charges say. But the sister told police her brother later broke down her bedroom door and called her a “whore,” charging papers say.
Police say Tuimauga later told detectives he was “in a rage” because he believed his sister and Horne had sex, the charges say.
At Harborview, doctors removed parts of Horne’s skull to relieve swelling in his brain, the charges say.
His brother, Obediyah Israel, set up a GoFundMe page on Friday to help cover his brother’s medical bills, lost wages and child support for his 16-month-old son, Deion. So far, the campaign has raised more than $3,800 of a $25,000 goal.
Horne was a star football player at Federal Way High School and studied criminal justice at Eastern Washington University for three years before dropping out when his former girlfriend got pregnant.
His family remains hopeful he will recover but know he’s got a long road ahead. Horne — who underwent surgery on his trachea Monday — will remain in the hospital for at least the next six months, and his prognosis is unknown, King said. The family consented to Horne’s being photographed in his hospital bed because they wanted people to see what a hate crime looks like.
According to police statistics, 14’868 Jamaicans have been murdered between the decade which spawned the year 2007 and 2017. Those numbers do not include missing persons who have not been heard from again or those killed who haven’t been reported to authorities. Missing from the equation also, are those who have been shot or otherwise injured who did not die immediately.
Those numbers reflect law enforcement officers and ordinary Jamaicans, not the type of Jamaicans which would really jog the consciences of those in power. No Member of Parliament, no University Professors, no Minister of Government. In other words hardly anyone from the gilded elites but for an outlier or two.
2007
1574
2008
1601
2009
1680
2010
1428
2011
1125
2012
1097
2013
1200
2014
1005
2015
1192
2016
1350
2017.….….….….….….….….….….….1616.….….
Police on Parade..
So the 14’868 Jamaicans who lost their lives in the undeclared decades-long civil war have become mere statistics, throw-aways, collateral damage and life continue as if nothing happens. How have our leaders dealt with the issue? A quick look at the numbers year over year, gives a pretty good indication that whatever has been tried clearly has not been working.
SOWHATEXACTLYHASTHEGOVERNMENTBEENDOING
From my vantage point both the previous PNP Administration and the Governing JLP Administration, either misunderstand the importance of the rule of law to a democratic society or they have collaboratively made the decision that politics and the trappings of power are more important than country.
Additionally, the onerous over-reach of foreign-funded, locally based criminal rights lobby groups, have virtually tied the hands and sealed the lips of politicians on both sides of the political divide with the exception of a few. Groups like Jamaicans For Justice has compiled Police fatal shooting data and have presented those data to their handlers in Washington DC in contexts which have been disfavorable to both the Government and the Jamaica Constabulary Force.
The shocking truth is that agencies may not technically be in breach of Human rights protocols to be penalized and for assistance to be cut off. “Credible Information”:Although meeting the threshold of credibility is less for “information” than it is for “evidence,” the bar is still surprisingly hard to meet, contrary to common perception. The State Department’s Office of the Legal Advisor, appropriately in my view, counseled that information need only be credible to a “reasonable” person in order to compel a restriction of assistance. And in theory, according to State Department Guidance, “the standard should generally be regarded as low.”
No one except the elites is immune…
It is this law which has been used to penalize members of the JCF and the institution itself on the flimsiest of evidence submitted to the Inter American Commission on human rights by JFJ under the leadership of pediatric doctor and then head of JFJ Carolyn Gomes. It is that misuse and duplicitous manipulation of data which has changed the paradigm in how the JCF addresses crime, a small detail which has eluded the ordinary Jamaican.
We can no longer hide the images and jump on an airplane to give speeches. This is real.
It is that law which is behind the expansion, growth, and power of the lobby which has hovered over law enforcement, influenced legislation and has terrified the Island’s leaders into submission. The prospect of not receiving grants, being cut off from loans, is terrifying just on the face of it. Losing visas and not being allowed into the United States as some members of the JCF has been subjected has been more than enough to get the police to back off from aggressively enforcing our laws.
The borrower is a slave to the lender according to the Bible, (according to common sense).Simply put it’s economic. When Law enforcement is afraid to engage because of the consequences of that engagement criminals are emboldened. When murderers are emboldened people die, people are raped, children are abused. The level of lawlessness in the country has gone up dramatically over the years, so it’s not just homicides, there is a general sense that the rule of law does not exist anymore.
Illegal guns flooding into Jamaica reportedly being paid for with lotto scamming money.
Are there some corrupt cops you bet, so too are there corrupt judges, politicians, lawyers, doctors, businessmen, Pastors and in every single discipline. The hem and haw about police corruption is merely an attempt to distract from the real reasons crime has been going up and up each year. The challenge for the leaders now is how do they get some semblance of control without upsetting the people in Washington DC? Remember their Rottweilers, Pugs, and Mongrels are there watching and waiting to file their fraudulent reports.
My greatest wish is that I could hire the entire police department, [save for some of course] and give them jobs they love and pay them what they are worth. I would hire them so that Jamaicans may have their wish to have the criminal paradise they want without anyone or anything standing in the way. I was raised believing familiarity breeds contempt, at least that’s one of the things my elders taught me. The police department is experiencing this familiarity first hand.
Adapted..
I would hire them away so these foolish Israelites could have their king Saul. And for the record, I would move them and their families out of the country. Sure I know this is a pipe dream, a silly unattainable dream, but I am entitled to have my own utopian escape. A moment of bliss at the prospect of such a possibility, and it’s real time consequences on these foolish deceitful people called Jamaicans.
Illegal guns flooding into Jamaica reportedly being paid for with lotto scamming mone
On a battlefield, if you are sustaining heavy losses the thing to do is to change strategy. Throwing large amounts of manpower at the enemy does not compensate for poor strategizing. Jamaica is at war with the heavily armed gangs which have been empowered since the police have been prevented from going after them. The Islands borders have become gaping gateways for the pouring in of weaponry and ammunition of all kinds.
Police in the Parish of Saint Ann had grenades lobbed at them last year, fortunately for those officers only one member of the party sustained minor injuries. On a daily basis, the police all across the Island remove weapons and ammunition of all kinds from the streets. Yet the number of illegal weapons in the hands of gangsters seem numberless. I cannot recall a circumstance in which grenades have been used against law-enforcement in any western country so I stand to be corrected on that. The point of the matter however, is that the country is engaged in a war that the Government is unwilling to acknowledge and the Opposition party is all too willing to see continue.
How can the leaders fix a problem they are wont to admit exist. Does anyone believe 10 people murdered over a 12 hour period is just crime? In what normal society of 2.8 million would 1616 murdered people over the course of a single year be acceptable? The very people who are responsible for the predicament in which the nation finds itself are the very people pointing fingers at the people with the least to do with those problems.
Guns seem to come into the country without much effort.
Police officers do not make policy. In some developed countries which respect their law enforcement officials their laws are drafted with detailed input from their law enforcement officers. The crime situation in a country[any country] is hardly ever wholly the fault of the police. Whether or not some members of the police department[any department are corrupt] is neither here nor there.
If there is corruption in the[a] police department it is up to the political leadership to fix it. The concept of firing the team is only a thing in a country like Jamaica. In other countries political leadership iron out problems in Government agencies police departments being no exception. When the rubber meets the road I don’t see any [hifalutin bullshit-talking, non-facts-getting, elitist] chasing down a single little boy with a sling-shot, much less removing one gun from the streets.
Two AK 47 rifles, 15 other guns, ammo found in cargo .
At the end of the day, none of the gobblygook written on paper purporting to know how to deal with Jamaican criminals from the relative safety of ivory towers can compensate for good intelligence-based policing. Let me go a little further by saying we need analysts for analyzing scientific samples, we need profilers, we need people who are super educated to formulate forward-leaning policies, we even need psychologists to help us to understand why people sometimes do the things they do. But all of that must be done as part of a comprehensive strategy geared toward effectively dealing with crime which is an ever-changing phenomenon.
Just some of the weaponry which have flooded the Island and are in the hands of gangsters.
None of those other disciplines compensate or replaces policing.[Do you hear me, Professor Harriot and the braindead PSOJ]. The sad conclusion is that the Jamaican public rich and poor and in between does not understand the value of policing to their lives. Not kid gloves, not begging criminals to behave, not worried about how many of them end up dead if they refuse to hand over the guns, or worse yet, shoot at our police officers.
Brazen images many Jamaicans do not see.
It will be accomplished by the same old strategies being employed in every other country in which some quarters decide that they are above the laws. You go after them with overwhelming force and squish them like bugs. A people too stupid, too criminally complicit or too damn pretentious to understand that concept deserves what it getting.
An unidentified male was shot and killed by members of the security forces during a confrontation with members of a joint police /military team on patrol in New Market St Elizabeth yesterday at around 3.30pm.
The security team was fired on by a group of men who then ran, the fire was returned and one man was shot and killed. An Uzi sub-machine gun and two magazines and a Browning pistol with one 9 mm round was also discovered in close proximity to the body
Criminology is an area of Sociology that focuses on the study of crimes and their causes, effects, and social impact. A criminologist’s job responsibilities involve analyzing data to determine why the crime was committed and to find ways to predict, deter, and prevent further criminal behavior.
With regards to Professor Anthony Harriott’s comments about the Jamaica Constabulary Force being toxic, my views are as follows.
If the Professor is what the paper says he is and I have stated clearly & concisely what he does then he being head of the Police Civilian Oversight Authority then it is fair to say then that hasn’t done his civic duty.
The so-called “Toxic culture” doesn’t exist only in the Jamaica Constabulary Force but much of our citizenry as well.The society at large has been the bedrock, pillars, and cornerstone of corruption. I would never argue that there aren’t corrupt police officers. They do exist and they must be identified, allegations against them proven upon which they are either sent to prison or dismissed.
A society can never be seen as taking crime and corruption seriously when people point fingers at one organization and turn a blind eye to the corruption in other segments of the society.…corruption comes in many forms but the Professor either refused to accept that fact. or is simply disingenuous
The people of this country should also demand that the Minister of National Security also be sent packing. We won’t hold our breaths though because cronyism and nepotism are the order of the day.
This Professor won’t talk about that because it is easier for him to blame others and not his friends. Sir there are nearly (3) million people living on this rock [and give or take a few ]about twelve thousand 12,000 police officers. Do you really believe that they can be every where at the same time!
So even if one idler decides to go against force policy and stop for a drink how is he to blame for a murder committed 80 miles away? It seems to me that your anti police stance /rhetoric is seeping through your pores and your think it is civility.
It is your failure to realize that you are also a part of the problem conveniently forgetting facts. I hate criminals, I hate corrupt politicians, I hate corrupt cops. I also hate those that posses the know how to help to make this better but choose to find a media house to highlight the fault in others.
Pointing fingers, solves nothing, We have a problem sir and we need to rid the country of this scourge, the police aren’t the ones killing people.
Encourage your family and friends to tell what they know. Encourage your friends to speak with their constituents to give information on who the criminals are. The police need the resources to fight this monster.
Police officers fight each day to uphold the image and policies of the JCF. Most are honest people who sacrifice their time, family and themselves to fight crime and to prevent it…they need all the help they can get. Richard Porter
Like a snowball cascading down a mountainside, increasing in mass with each revolution it tumbles on until it triggers a humongous avalanche devastating and consuming everything in its wake. So has the assault on the JCF continued over several decades until it is now on life support. But that’s what the political class wanted all along.The tragic irony now, however, is that they are shitting themselves because they are coming to the realization that the shit is about to hit their doorsteps and they are panicking, so naturally, they berate the police some more.
Anthony Harriot
How ironic that the ruling class most of whom have passed through the leftist University of the West Indies (UWI), or more appropriately, the intellectual ghetto, according to the late Wilmott Perkins, have destroyed the Police force only to have one of their own head of the Police Civilian Oversight Authority, some Professor Anthony Harriot describe the Department as “Toxic”. I’ll tell you what’s toxic. It is that shithole of a leftist University which indoctrinates idiots like this into thinking they are [the] authority on National Security and crime.
The Police department certainly could have done a better job of comporting itself over the decades, there is no doubt about that. We all know that the salary is no good the management is shitty and the lack of real and realistic goal setting and attainment in its operational procedures have been woefully lacking. As such despite the tireless work of most of the young men and women who selflessly join the department, the police department has been unable to seriously impact crime in a meaningful way as a company would be able to show a profit as a result of a targeted growth agenda.
This is a result of the failed leadership of the department by those who have been elevated for the wrong reasons forcing out others more motivated and better suited to serve. This is certainly not unique to the JCF it cuts across all strata of the public sector. The Jamaican public sector is inherently corrupt and flawed. The almost 600 members who leave the department each year, not through retirement is testament to the fact that they are unhappy with their leadership.
Notwithstanding the foregone, the two political parties which have ruined (ruled)the Island since it’s so-called independence from Britain have done a brilliant job of dividing the country into two warring factions. Additionally, they have set up the Police to stand between both factions in an unenviable and unwinnable task of refereeing which could only end in disaster on the field of play. For anyone to talk about Toxicity within the JCF without first detailing who did the poisoning or to lie about how the poison was ingested is vastly dishonest, and at the very minimum is intellectual dishonesty.
To hear that kind of language from someone who heads a body which has Police Civilian Oversight responsibility is shockingly illuminating at the level of unmitigated bias the police face form these Machiavellian frauds. In making the arguments that the Major Organised Crime and Anti-Corruption Agency (MOCA) should be separated from the JCF Harriot said quote:
(“The occupational culture of the JCF is one where you take the car and you go off and drink rum and do no investigation. You are not called to account, and when the murder rate goes through the roof, you squeal that you don’t have enough of this or that.” “It is critical that it is removed. The JCF is toxic. And there is no point in spending a lot of money, giving people high-level training for them to become part of the JCF’s occupational culture.”)
A shocking and ignorant broad-brush stroke of tarring which makes no distinction for any of the challenges the department faces logistically, operationally. technically, monetarily, politically, legislatively, or otherwise. Yet he went on to say the following.
(“That is the root of the problem, and that is why this investigative police (unit), the core of which is in MOCA, must be taken off the JCF — split from the JCF immediately. There has really been an effort to have MOCA operate separately, and it must be encouraged.” “With 1,616 persons killed across the island last year and more than 100 already killed in 2018, the Government must move quickly.”)
Well, there you have it. Despite the failings of the two political parties, the problems facing the country according to someone who occupies a position which is supposed to be patently objective and fair the problems are all rooted in the police.
This is the most ignorant, deceitful, piece of garbage I have ever read. Imagine though that this moron heads the Police Civilian Oversight. What chance does the Island’s police officers have when these are the insects which have a say over them? Is there any wonder that many of our police officers have simply dropped their hands?
With Transparency International assessing that the Government structure is 84 % corrupt the immoral, elitists have decided to lay it all at the feet of the Constabulary. So I will simply ask this of you, Professor. What have you done for Jamaica comparable to the sacrifices of the last joined constable who risk life and limb every day, so that imbeciles like you can spout off at the mouth the garbage and bile you spew?
The fact that Harriot would carry out a hatchet job on the over ten thousand men and women of the JCF without first at least acknowledge the failings of the political systems or the Judicial system demonstrates that he is a cheap hack carrying out the bidding of the political class to further blame the police for the dangerous murder statistics. The comments in and of themselves are designed to further erode whatever goodwill the citizenry may have toward the police making the police further irrelevant and endangers the lives of officers in the process. Citizens who see the police as lacking in authority, credibility, support are inclined to resist and attack those officers. No wonder attacks on our police officers have gone up as the Andrew Holness Government and their cohorts step up their attack on our police in an effort to deliver a coup de grâce to it as an agency.. A disgusting, classless, cowardly yet transparent act?
Like and share if you support the good hardworking men and women of the JCF
As we credibly reported two weeks ago, Commissioner of Police George Quallo will, in fact, be stepping aside in a matter of days. At the time of our reporting that was indeed what we reported, that he would not be cleaning out his desk the very day he met with National Security Minister Robert Montague, but his future was already decided for him.
Commissioner Quallo could have added some degree of credibility to his name and show just a wee bit of balls as he was heading out the door by telling the nation that he was indeed asked to look at his options, which really meant you are fired. Of course, the Minister does not have the Constitutional authority to fire the Police Commissioner but he certainly has the power to convey to the Police Services Commission that the Government has lost confidence in Mister Quallo’s leadership. So there’s that.
The nation’s murder rate is galloping away and the Administration is panicking. I say that with a heavy heart because I was really banking on the longshot possibility that Andrew Holness would be a transformational Prime Minister who understood what is needed to set our country on the right path.
Commissioner George Quallo
Yet I heard the Prime Minister tell citizens in Montego Bay during the flood of police officers and Soldiers into their communities that he had promised them that they would sleep with their windows and doors open and now they can. Of course, it was only so because the entire community was flooded with members of the security forces. The fact that the Prime Minister would be so transparently cynical on such a serious issue disqualifies him substantively as part of the solution. It makes a mockery of his Administration’s assertions that it fully understands what needs to be done about crime in our country.
What is obvious is that the Administration has made the decision to make the police force the scapegoat as others had done before him. I don’t think there are many people who harbor any preconceived notions that Holness has any love for, or loyalty to, the Police officers who risk their lives to secure the nation as well as to protect him and his family.
So it’s really not outside the realm of anyone’s imagination that he would throw Commissioner Quallo to the Wolves and have a lackey like Clifford Blake or any other lap dog which will give the Administration cover on crime. The fact of the matter is that the Administration talks a good game about crime but its policies are antithetical to solving the nations serious and deteriorating murder situation.
The exit of Commissioner Quallo is a distraction designed to focus the nation on the police and whoever emerges next. Naturally, the next person to take the job will require a bit of time to demonstrate what he/she can do, that’s time for the Administration. I want to make it clear that my criticism of the Administration should never be construed to be support for the Opposition party, which I believe should be banned from representational politics on the Island. I hope that — that clarifies my disdain for that political party as a legitimate entity in this debate in which we are engaged.
The problem affecting our country as it relates to crime is not a Police Problem, it is a policy problem. The Government and the Despicable criminal supporting Political Opposition have essentially prostituted themselves to outside Criminal Rights lobby so much so that before they address the massive bloodshed in the country they have to pay homage and recite their deference to human rights. I challenge the Administration to buck the puppeteers abroad and submit the name of former Assistant Commissioner of Police Keith Trinity Gardiner to the PSC to be the next Commissioner of police. I fully understand that his appointment will not stop the bloodshed but it will at least guarantee that at the very least there is an actual crime fighter at the helm who understands what to do.
Former Assistant Commissioner of Police Keith Trinity Gardner
Developed Nations do not cater to, neither do the allow human rights lobby to influence, much less dictate crime-fighting strategies. Developing Nations wishing to extricate themselves from the crippling tentacles of crime and terrorism do not allow human rights lobby to dictate to them on the ways to deal with their terrorists, a‑la Colombia, Mexico, The Philippines, Cuba, et al.
Pretentious countries like Jamaica will always be mired in the quicksand of failed state status, while it convinces itself it is emerging toward first world status. The best and the brightest, are running away. Those who lack the means to do so along with the most enterprising and innovative are being killed in alarming numbers. In the meantime, the Administration continues to arrange the deck chairs on the sinking Titanic. While the despicable political Opposition sits there salivating, awaiting the total submergence of the government so it can present its own leaky old bucket as a solution. And on and on we go like a dog chasing its tail.
On the occasion that Commissioner of Police George Quallo was summoned to(MNS) Robert Montague’s his offices to explain the truncated report he had submitted to the minister regarding the traffic snarl on the Palisadoes road, we reported he was going to be fired.
Credible sources informed this writer that it was only a matter of weeks before Commissioner George Quallo would make his exit. Friday’s (JamaicaObserver) is reporting that Commissioner Quallo has been in consultation with the Police services Commission and that he will be gone in a matter of weeks.
According to the Observer at that meeting, Commissioner Quallo was accompanied by some members of the executive of the Police Officers’ Association (POA) who came out as a show of support for the commissioner. The POA members did not actually participate in the meeting. Sources in the National Security Ministry had told the OBSERVERONLINE that the commissioner was told that it was time to examine his options during the meeting, which lasted for approximately 10 minutes.
Quallo and Holness
When summoned to the bosses office in a meeting which lasts only 10 minutes in that context, I believe we know that was not a good meeting for Commissioner Quallo. It seemed he was fired before he attended the meeting with Montague and the meeting with the services Commission was a sham designed to save face for the Commissioner of Police.
This publication wishes Commissioner Quallo well, you have nothing to be ashamed about. You were given straws to spin into Gold. It difficult to convince the Emperor that he is naked while he is strutting around wearing no clothes.
Crime is only a problem if it is affecting rich people.…. Before you think I have gone completely berserk it was a tongue in cheek comment designed to get you to pay attention.
With the number of murders and a general rise in serious felonies, I wanted to bring a few facts to the attention of our people. Recently a woman who happened to be a lawyer and a supposed criminal rights advocate was reportedly killed by a criminal she allegedly took into her home. No tears here, there are hundreds of thousands of Jamaicans who have been victimized by crime, if any person wants to be of help, those persons could use some support, not know and convicted criminals. That is the reason I will not recognize them as human rights activists, they are criminal rights activists.
I learned also that the father of former PNP Politician Kern Spencer was shot and injured. I am relieved that the elder Spencer survived the ordeal and was able to get off a few shots at his assailants, sorry he was unable to lay them out. His son took to social media to berate the police for not answering the phone at the Balaclava Police station. [Under what scenario would the police not answer the damn phone], that is indefensible?
Kern Spencer alleged that the 911 oh sorry 119 operator took too much time collecting the information after they called to report that his father was shot. Sorry to break it to the [entitled] younger mister Spencer but that is what emergency operators do they try to get all of the salient information possible. What is told them is relayed to responding officers enabling them to make good decisions on their arrival at the incident scene.
Information given to emergency operators also sometimes becomes critical evidence for court proceedings later. So unless Kern expected that the operator should have changed the rules at the mere mention of his family name his criticism of the police is.… oh well. Here’s the thing Kern issued an impassioned plea about the gun crime in our country and how it needs to end. Commendable but crime is crime Kern, white collar, blue collar, it’s all crime you know what I mean right?
As a state Minister in the former PNP Administration, you could have kept your nose clean but you didn’t. No crime is good, the criminally complicit court threw out the case but that does not mean you were innocent. When we get on our high horse about crime we better make sure that we don’t have skeletons in our own closets. Criminals are no respecter of persons, it may seem like they are for a minute but sooner or later there will be a clear recognition that these hoodlums do not respect life, they do not care who they kill.
CRIMINALRIGHTSSILENCE
Young unemployed youths who never got their voices heard, never had power, are never going to give back the power the gun gives them. They commandeer women to have sex with them. They take the property of others whenever they chose to, they are feared, revered, they become infamous, and they have the power of life and death. That’s power they will not give back only to return to the shadows of inconsequential and unknown. Those weapons will have to be plucked from their cold lifeless fingers.
We are a country at war but there is a tragic irony which needs reporting on so we will attempt to bring it to the attention of you my readers once again today. Have you noticed the blanket yet palpable silence of the many criminal rights lobby operating in Jamaica despite the horrendous nature and volume of murders occurring daily? The silence is deafening.
We just thought it would be interesting to point out to the Jamaican people the inconsistency of these groups who complain about so-called abuses by the security forces. Yet they are deathly silent when innocent Jamaicans are slaughtered by thugs. So we will name but a few of the groups we have labeled .…. [ENEMIESOFTHESTATE]
Independent Jamaica Council For Human Rights. Jamaicans For Justice. Amnesty International. Jamaica Forum for Lesbians All-sexuals and gays. INDECOM. Families Against State Terrorism(FAST). Citizens Advocacy Group International (CAGI).
These are but a few of the groups supposedly advocating for rights on the Island, criminal rights that is. These groups operate independently of each other but declare that they Constantly campaign against any denial of Human Rights and civil liberties in Jamaica and to undertake or sponsor all actions necessary and possible to secure redress and public disapproval for all infringements of these rights. To coöperate and associate with other groups and organizations which have similar aims.
In 2014, (CAGI) blasted the Jamaica Observer in a scathing letter under the signature of Jeremy Soutar, who is the administrator of Citizens Advocacy Group International. CAGI’s attack on the publication was for daring to praise the then Administration for acting proactively in the handling of the Mario Deane case. Even though the Government acted expeditiously to deal with the allegations in the case as they were presented to it (CAGI) wanted the Government to jump higher and was angered that anyone would dare side with the Government instead of piling onto the entire police force.
Being proactive is also demonstrated in the following circumstances: (CAGI) claimed.
- When a government impresses upon its security forces that the constitutional rights of citizens are unconditionally guaranteed and that any act or omission which infringes upon those rights could land offending officers in prison and/or defending civil suits for constitutional contraventions.
- When a government aggressively monitors the conduct of its servants to ensure adherence to policy guidelines and force orders.
- When a government puts measures in place to ensure those police officers pay all or part of the money damages awarded by the Supreme Court to victims when they abuse the rights of citizens.
It was CAGI that was first to take action on August 7, 2014, by demanding the Government of Jamaica act, forthwith, to remove all the on-duty police officers from the Barnett Street Police Station who breached the duty of care owed to the civilian victim, Mario Deane.
Other actions of the group against the Government in relation to the unfortunate and untimely demise of Mario Deane were:
1) recommendations to the directors of the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labour in the US State Department to cut aid in the area of national security because we felt that “such aid is only fuelling abuse by the high-handed, reckless, malicious and unprofessional members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force”.
2) urged INDECOM to conduct a speedy and thorough investigation into the matter
3) called for intervention from the International Society for Human Rights (ISHR), Human Rights Watch (HRW), Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and Amnesty International
The first response and/or intervention by Citizens Action for Principle and Integrity (CAPI), the Government, and other local human rights interests were made subsequent to the actions taken by CAGI which we, nonetheless, fully support.
CAGI is committed to promoting universal respect for human rights for all citizens of Jamaica and, by extension, the world, and will endeavor to demand that the Government of Jamaica respect the international treaties to which it is bound.
We will also endeavor to utilize the power of our international partners and affiliates to enforce our demands.
Human rights organizations like CAGl can never be “put out of business”. We are as relevant today as we will be tomorrow, so long as there are rights to protect and promote.
Unless the Government of Jamaica acts decisively and proactively in respecting the rights of citizens in preventing abuse and loss of life by the actions and omissions of its servants, then the Mario Deane tragedy of 2014 will become the Mario Deane tragedy of the future.
These are the groups which are holding our country hostage. These are the foreign-funded groups which I have written about year after year with their Jamaican counterparts[house slaves] which have driven fear in Portia and her band of thieves and has Andrew Holness shitting his pants. So it is clear that in order to fix the crime situation in our country we have to acknowledge that these groups are an impediment to any solution.
Every year thousands of Americans are killed by police all across the country under dubious and oftentimes blatantly criminal ways. In addition to that, the wide disparity in the dispensation of justice between blacks and whites is well documented and vastly worthy of human rights vigilance. Immigrants are rounded up and herded into concentration camps and moved around the country so that they may not have contact with attorneys who wish to litigate on their behalf. Yet these groups are silent… There is never a whimper from either of these groups in any way that would be consequential to these blatant and obvious violations of human rights and human dignity by the most powerful country on the planet with the resources to do the right thing.
Why then are they all in Jamaica and other poor nations which are struggling with crime and violence, making demands they know the Governments cannot honor and which will lead to even greater destabilization of their societies?
There is no doubt that these groups have small impoverished nations by the balls, I fundamentally understand that the Prime Minister has to consider the real and present threats expressed by Jeremy Soutar, in 2014. The Government changed hands but the threat against the nation’s sovereignty remains. In fairness to Prime Minister Holness who campaigned on a platform of “Prosperity,” he is dealt a bad hand. I don’t know whether Holness would have had the balls to tackle crime head-on were he not constrained by the specter of the economic guillotine and sabotage hanging over our country. But I do understand his pandering even though I give him no respect for not standing up against them.
I will attempt to explain what is at play here. Poor countries which are unable to deal decisively with crime are unable to attract or keep investment opportunities. Governments with the best intentions are still unable to hire more than just so many workers because they depend on taxation and levies to pay their operational expenses. So the true drivers of economic activity cannot be Government [as is believed in Jamaica] it is the private sector which is the true creator of economic growth, not Government.
Since WW11 the world’s population has more than doubled, Jamaica’s population is not exempt from those growth trends. Governments have to find new ways to attract employment opportunities for their populations. If they are unable to because of crime the problem tends to self-multiply as we have seen in Jamaica’s case. And so it continues when crime is in the news no one wants to invest and fewer people want to visit.
If there are no new economic activity countries become slaves to lending Institutions a- la the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Paris Club et al. These mega monetary institutions are all headquartered in powerful Industrialized countries. Rich nations do not borrow money from these institutions, poor nations do. Why would these institutions and their shareholders want the nations which are slaves to them to find their way out of poverty and dependency? Who would they lend to if poor African, Asian, Latin and South American and Caribbean nations were to suddenly become rich?
The world bank
If you are unable to see why the connections between the groups operating in our country and crime are so intricately linked then I cannot help you understand it. Michael Manley’s philosophy [not his actions] was ahead of his time and so he had to go .…… They were not going to have it. They are not going to have it today. It’s just slavery of a different kind and we are way too blind to see it. Nations which benefit from the fleecing of poorer nations literally worship their security forces[not suggesting we do]. They understand that they must keep crime and terrorism at bay, they also know how to do it and they do.
A mortally wounded Devon Paltie. After the attack.
The shooting sent workers and patrons alike scampering for cover. Since the start of the year, over 130 Jamaicans have reportedly been murdered by the nations hoodlums. The Prime Minister obviously in a state of panic has declared a limited state of emergency in St James Parish which recorded well over 330 homicides last year alone.
Despite the state of emergency the Country’s Prime Minister seems to care more about the powerful lobby which supports the rights of criminals on the Island than to deal decisively with the nation’s runaway murder rate which stood at a reported 1616 last year alone.
Prime Minister Andrew Holness told members of the security forces that there are elements in the country working to drive a wedge between the Police and Military. I laugh at this because if what he says is true, that information would most likely have come from .….….… well the members of the security forces themselves. If the Prime Minister has credible information as he asserts, he should make that information public as soon as possible.
Holness maintained that there was a conspiracy involving both members of the security forces and criminals, who are threatened by the operations and who fear the level of coöperation between both arms of the security forces — the Jamaica Constabulary Force and the Jamaica Defence Force.
What nonsense, the police, and military have been working together from as far back as I can remember and beyond. There is nothing new about this so I would guess that if there are any plans to create disruption between the forces it is not because they are collaborating. The Prime Minister would be better served by looking at his friends in the Media and over at INDECOM there he will see the vile demoguges who are fighting valiantly to drive a wedge between the two forces. It is the vile divisive entity which passes for Media which is and has been doing the damage cutting the police out of pictures and sowing discord, no one else.
Commissioner of Police George Quallo was in this frame but deliberately cut out. Look no further than the media who have no love for the police…
A friend asked me recently why I thought people hated the police? First of all Soldiers are not on the streets daily locking up people for the crimes they commit, so naturally when a joint force party of police and soldiers attempt to arrest an offender, of course, that offender will appeal to the soldier whom they see as the last line of help before they are carted off to jail. But I also thought the question required a deeper look and a more comprehensive response.
My response to him. Police officers are the people authorized to take people’s freedom away. Even when those actions are carried out by the military as in some totalitarian states, those actions are generally characterized as secret police actions.
For the most part in the context of Jamaica over the decades since independence, we have had an interesting paradox. After governance of the country was handed over to the natives, both political parties saw an opportunity to enrich themselves at the expense of the poor. This was not confined to Jamaica or the wider Caribbean region alone.
Oh well
It was also the norm in post-Colonial Africa, Latin and South America where corruption after colonization became a serious problem. In Jamaica, the strategy was to keep the people ignorant and inexorably loyal to the two political parties with the police as the scapegoat in the middle. They had to have the police, but their support was with their bases of operations, the areas we call constituencies. O/C [GARRISONS] That is the reason politicians always show up to their bases of operations whenever the police take action against criminals in those areas. As such the police are seen as villains and the politicians are seen as saviors.
Welcome to the lawless Serengeti knows as Jamaica where lawlessness rule as the police are forced by politicians to stand and watch.
My friend disagrees, he argues that the fact that the JCF was formed as a response to the Morant Bay Rebellion and was seen inevitably as a force in support of the Powerful monied elites against the peasantry are the reasons behind the hatred. I don’t deny him the history of the formation of the JCF but the 11th of October 1865 and the Morant Bay rebellion is a long way away.
There is a nonsensical narrative prevalent in Jamaica that if somehow you were to place soldiers to patrol the streets there would be fewer shootings and more coöperation between the people and members of the military. I would laugh if that assertion wasn’t so incredibly sophomoric. First of all, tell that to the family of Mister Keith Clarke who was gunned down in his home by members of the JDF.
My statements are not designed to impugn the integrity or the efforts of members of the military.They are the comments of someone conversant with the differences between the roles the two agencies serve. It is incredibly difficult to convince Jamaicans that people are people and not police officers or soldiers. Police officers are not from Mars and soldiers from Pluto. Most, if not all of the young people who step forward to serve, do so out of love for their agency of choice and a sense of how they want to be seen when they volunteer for either force. What differentiates them is their discipline of choice.
The Prime Minister and his Minister of National Security would be better served by using their airtime to educate the people on their responsibilities as citizens. The Prime Minister speaks with forked tongue about citizens rights while he ignorantly and duplicitously ignores their responsibility to obey the laws and respect of our law enforcement officers.
He should be ashamed to keep talking about monitoring reports for allegations of abuse while he has already convened a panel [as I warned he would do] of his elitist friends, to sit in judgment of the security forces.[remember Tivoli Gardens]. He should be ashamed to keep talking about rights without a single word of charge to the viragos and hoodlums who tear off their clothing, revealing their most private parts when the forces attempt to do their jobs.
This is the embarrassment and disgusting affront to their dignity that Andrew Holness wants members of the security forces to endure while carrying out their duties without upsetting the sensibilities of these hoodlums. In other words, he wants them to place their lives on the line to save his political backside without creating a stir, without making waves, and that should include stopping the highly doped-up and hallucinated killers and bring them in with their weaponry without firing a shot.
What Andrew needs to do is to ask the Rights lobby he so obediently follows and Terrence Willams and tell them to go do that job. Jamaica will indeed owe them a great debt of gratitude if they can pull that off. Failing which Andrew Holness should take several seats and shut up. Clearly, he has no idea what it takes to stop these gruesome killings and his lack of support for the security forces is causing more harm than good.
Jamaica needs a state of emergency not a partial state of emergency or a limited state of emergency. There needs to be a sense of awakening. An awakening which recognizes that the country is rapidly sliding into anarchy. Talk and platitudes will not stop the slide. Most importantly keeping up appearances instead of doing the dirty work is applying paint to a broken down and dilapidated structure which inevitably will collapse.
THEGOVERNMENTISFLAILINGAWAYATCRIME, DEMONSTRATINGTHATITHASNOBALLSTOSERIOUSLYTACKLECRIME, SO IT’SSTRATEGYISTODESTROY&DISCREDITTHEPOLICEFORCE.
Jamaican Politicians are largely pig-headed fools, we all know that. Well, Member of Parliament Horace Dalley from Clarendon confirmed it recently in a submission to the parliament. Expressing himself in the house Dalley demanded that the Government create a special squad to investigate what he said was approximately six beheadings in the parish over the course of about a year.
Seemingly angry the member of parliament berated the administration for not being [“jerked”] into recognition that something is wrong. He demanded over and over that a special squad be formed to investigate beheadings, a clear reminder that people with no idea what they are talking about should leave security matters alone, even though I understand what appears to be genuine concerns on Dalley’s part.
Then he said it, “call in the FBI “the member demanded! Whoa, there mister member, when did Jamaica become a state of the United States? I mean,I totally get that because of you guys the JCF has become a totally ineffective and almost useless agency. I also understand why you guys did it, why would you all want an effective police force that can actually investigate and lock up politicians? That would be people like you member Dalley , but what authority does the FBI have to investigate crimes in Jamaica?
What mister Dalley’s statement revealed was another truth which I have spoken to repeatedly, whether PNP or JLP neither party understands the complexity of the problem and neither party has the answers. Ain’t this a bitch though, that Jamaicans love to talk about sovereignty and human rights but as soon as shit begins to hit the fan they want others to clean up their filth?
I mean the only time Jamaican criminals really face justice is when they are carted off to America. Sorry, mister Dalley you are one of the members of Parliament who represent the parish, don’t tell me you don’t have actionable intelligence which may help the police? I do know that the police leaves a lot to be desired but come on/.
.….….….….….….….….….….….….….…..
Montague
So Minister of National Security Robert Montague is kind of at it again, revealing that the Administration has revamped the early retirement policy that was once in effect. Montague indicated that bad cops had to go[wonder when all the bad politicians are going to leave[? Anyway, The Minister insisted that “ a minority” of JCF members has remained a significant challenge in an atmosphere in which “there is an inherent desire from citizens of the country to support the police in their efforts”.
“That same citizenry, in addition to various civil society groups, have been very vocal in their call for the force to be rid of corrupt elements. As a Government, we have been responsive to the demands made by the public and other groups. As such, last year we provided a mechanism, in the form of a revamped Early Retirement Scheme for police officers, that would help achieve this objective”.
So let me get this straight, older members are by virtue of their age corrupt? Maybe I’m missing something here but if the intent of the policy is to send home members who are corrupt, why have these so-called corrupt members not being prosecuted, using the very same information that the Government intends to use to send them home? So now every member who takes the early retirement option will leave the force with a cloud over their heads” see he was one of the crooked ones”. Not cool…
Someone needs to remind this troll about the Patterson slander…
These announcements and the ensuing on air chatting from the likes of Cliff Hughes of Nationwide Radio the propaganda arm of the government demonstrates when dish towel tun tablecloth. This is a clear demonstration of what happens when little boys are given grown men’s jobs and they cannot cope. Separate and apart from Montague’s inartful and misleading statements on the Government’s new policy, why couldn’t this be handled in-house? I don’t think this is good policy, at best I know it’s bad politics to suggest that members who take advantage of the option to leave early are by virtue of their decisions, corrupt.
What will the narrative be when these people leave and there is more [not less] corruption in the force, what then? Why would the Administration sully the character of members even as it codified into law making it a criminal offense for officers to leave the force without giving a prior six months notice to the Commissioner? It’s hard to imagine how the Government is making it difficult for officers to leave freely, going to the extent of codifying imprisonment into the law while purporting to be planning to cut some loose?
Is this real policy or just fodder for Cliff Hughes to chat about?
How can we solve problems when there is no longer the decency character and honesty to concede truth?
The idea that going aggressively after criminals is equal to abusing citizens rights is a red herring fed the Jamaican people by those who want the status quo. Crime in Jamaica is highly beneficial to a small group of people. Less or no crime benefits all people and enriches the lives of everyone. Unfortunately, most people do not understand this and so they are forced deeper and deeper into an unholy alliance with criminals against their own self-interest, which serves the interest of the minority just fine.
Does it mean then that because we cannot agree even on indisputable fact that those who speak truth should simply throw up their hands and give way to fake news? If we do that where do we go from here, what kind of world are we leaving our children, as President Barack Obama says “we cannot even establish a common baseline of facts”?
Two events have occurred in Jamaica over the last several decades as a matter of fact (a) The disintegration of the rule of law and (b) The resultant impoverishment of the people, largely as a consequence of (a).
FACT Crime and murders have steadily climbed since the earl 70’s with a couple of instances in which concrete actions have stunted its growth. Nevertheless, despite this clear and unequivocal evidence Jamaica’s political leaders of both political parties have systematically ignored the data and have responded to the nation’s escalating murder statistics by focusing on foreign treaties rather than on their sworn constitutional responsibility to secure the nation.
FACT As a consequence of the escalating murders, the longstanding stream of returning residents who worked and saved to return to the land of their birth has literally dried up. In some cases some have actually returned to their adopted homes abroad, having decided that the Island is no longer a safe place to live. Those, of course, are the ones who haven’t fallen victim to crime and are counted among the statistics.
Additionally, investors are certainly not investing in Jamaica as they normally would despite the hyperbole and hype which tend to dominate the local publications.
Using the figures above, between the period 1970 to the year 2000, homicides was a serious issue. Yet homicides never officially topped 1000. During the same period the year, 1980 was an anomaly as it related to homicides, 1980 was the critical mass for political killings on the Island 899 Jamaicans were murdered. The number was out of character with previous years and for several succeeding years as well.
In the year 1982 when I joined the Constabulary Force, there were 405 homicides by the end of 1991 when I exited the Constabulary there were a recorded 561 recorded homicides. What that means is that in the period between 1982 and 1991 a 9 year period murders had only increased by 156. Now one murder is one too many but you get the picture.
The period below is representative of the Michael Manley years, though the murder numbers were high, those homicides were largely concentrated in the most depressed communities and away from the rest of the society.
Michael Manley
Year
# of Murders
1970
152
1971
145
1972
170
1973
227
1974
195
1975
266
1976
367
1977
409
1978
381
1979
351
1980
899
The common denominator which informed the homicide statistics in the period 1981 to 1988 [1985 missing] is the leadership of Edward Seaga.
Edward Seaga
1981
490
1982
405
1983
424
1984
484
1986
449
1987
442
1988
414
The period after Seaga was the period of Manley again.
Michael Manley introduced Democratic Socialism to Jamaica, social engineering which ruined the once thriving Island. Today Manley’s followers trumpet his achievements which are largely feel-good platitudes. To his detractors, he ruined a beautiful country.
1989
439
1990
543
1991
561
1992
629
Then came the stewardship of Percival James Patterson, a period of anything goes, no support for the rule of law and a total denigration of our culture and country.Here are the numbers under Patterson. Patterson ruled for an unprecedented 14 years.The period in which we lost the soul of our country and he did not lift a finger to stop it. In fact, Patterson’s tenure may be better seen as the period in which Government abdicated it’s responsibilities and ceded the streets to common thugs. For almost ten (10) years not a single dollar was provided to train a single police detective. Patterson’s tenure was marred by graft corruption and the most blatant abuse of taxpayers funds in our nation’s history.
Percival James Patterson former PM presided over years of corruption and failed leadership
1992
629
1994
690
1995
780
1998
953
1999
849
2000
887
2002
1045
2003
975
2004
1471
2005
1674
[ 1993 ‚1996,1997,2001] missing.
Then there was Portia Simpson Miller.…
Portia Simpson Miller.
2006
1340
2007
1574
Bruce Golding’s tenure.
Bruce Golding gave the nation INDECOM and all its side effects, as well as the Tivoli affair and God knows what else?
2007
1574
2008
1601
2009
1680
2010
1428
2011
1125
Andrew Holness Prime Minister from October 2011 to January 5, 2012
PM Andrew Holness
2011
1125
Miller again, January 5th, 2012 to 3 March 2016.
Portia Simpson Miller
2012
1097
2013
1200
2014
1005
2015
1192
2016
1350
Under Percival Patterson the country lost its way, I have stated my opinions as to what I believed occurred and why. It is up to others to make up their minds as to when and what accelerated the murder rate in our country. To my mind, there is no question as to the when and why.
Hugh ShearerEdward Seaga
What the country is struggling with is the “what” which is the formula for fixing what ails the country crime wise. Since Hugh Lawson Shearer is no longer around to offer the solution Andrew Holness would be well advised to tap the shoulder of Edward Seaga and ask for advice before we reach the point of no return/ Edward Seaga is good for more than just being paraded around when they need to win by-elections at all cost.
The Definition of Government is characterized in several different ways but is generally understood to be the political direction and control exercised over the actions of the members, citizens, or inhabitants of communities, societies, and states; the direction of the affairs of a state, community, etc. Government is made up of various branches geared at dealing with different interests areas of a society, much the same way there are can be many different roads and avenues leading to the same place, or the many branches on the same tree.
With that in mind, I find it curious that the Commissioner of INDECOM found it necessary to issue a release surrounding the recently declared limited state of emergency in St James Parish. In the release, Terrence Williams the commissioner said INDECOM fully supports the recent decision by the Government of Jamaica to declare a state of emergency in the parish of St James. We are confident that the security forces will perform their duties within their own use of force policies. “We are particularly pleased that as a part of the strategic approach to the state of emergency, members of the security forces have received refresher training in human rights and public engagement.” The commission added that dedicated staff members of the Western Regional Office, located in Montego Bay, will continue to serve the region and mutual coöperation with the members of the security forces is anticipated as they work to restore order and public safety in St James.
It is understandable that self-serving narcissism is a thing in today’s world, not just in Jamaica but in other countries as it is in America at the highest perches of government. Yet it is grossly unattractive to others who are exposed to it. Sometimes just staying in the shadows sends a far more important message that jumping in front of a bunch of cameras.
Whether Terrence Williams believes it or not INDECOM is a part of the Government. Issuing a statement declaring his support for a legitimate act by the government is outside the scope of what is required by Williams and indeed INDECOM. Simply put, as an arm of the government INDECOM need not issue a declarative statement of support for the legitimate actions of the said Government, unless the commissioner believes his role is to supervise the Government. Which would fit into what we have been saying all along, that the [Frankenstein] agency created by the JLP with the blessings of the PNP, is actually the tail wagging the Dog and as a consequence is one of the reasons the law should be repealed?
I will await declarative statements from the commissioner of Taxes, Customs, and other Commissioners of the Government. It is extremely important that as a country[all of Government ]is behind the actions of the[said Government].[sic] Terrence Williams has stepped forward to validate the Government’s actions by issuing a thinly veiled warning to the members of the security forces who are actively exposed in what is essentially a war zone. The country now owes a debt of gratitude to Terrence Williams for giving his seal of approval failing which none of this would have had legitimacy[sic]
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said Monday he regretted stopping executions in his “pre-industrial” country, just days after his vow to resume death sentences alarmed rights groups. Museveni last signed a death warrant in 1999 to execute 28 convicts, while execution under military law was last carried out in 2002. “I saw some NGOs opposing the death sentence. In a pre-industrial society like ours removing death sentence is a recipe for chaos. We believe in the law of Moses; an eye for an eye”, Museveni told the annual judges conference in Kampala according to his senior press secretary, Don Wanyama.
“I have been making the mistake of not sanctioning these death sentences, I am repenting,” said Museveni. “As you are aspiring for best international practices, you must be aware that societies like the United Kingdom went through the industrial revolution 200 years ago. Here in Uganda and Africa, we are dealing with pre-industrial societies,” Museveni told the judges.
On Friday, during the passing out of prison wardens in Kampala, Museveni said: “Criminals think they have a right to kill people and keep their heads … I am going to revise a bit and hang a few.”
According to prisons service spokesman, Frank Mbaine, over 250 convicts are on death row in Uganda. Amnesty International said Museveni’s threat to resume executions was “misguided since there is no credible evidence that the death penalty is a deterrent to crime”. The rights watchdog said that Museveni should instead lead Uganda to fully abolish the death penalty like 19 other African countries have done.
“Uganda’s refusal to carry out executions in recent years has been a credit to president Museveni, but resuming them now would destroy more than a decade of progress, not to mention buck the global trend towards abolition”.
Good move mister President. Your first job is to protect your people from killers. The idea that capital punishment is not a deterrent is stupid and deceptive.
No one who has ever been given the death penalty has ever returned to kill. Those opposed to the death penalty have no data to support the negative. They cannot show how many people who normally would have killed, did not because they knew they will be killed in turn.
What we do know is that we see the upward trend of violent crimes in countries where there is no death penalty. It’s time for that lie to be shredded and exposed.
This writer has long argued that the nations who have reached Industrialized status did not do so by ignoring the criminals in their midst. In fact Canada Britain, most of western Europe and the United States have had very strict laws and policies in place which got them to where they are today.
Now that they have fixed their societies they are able to finesse the broader issues of rights because they have established their justice systems, established effective law enforcement structures and established appropriate legislative frameworks which interdict, indicts and incarcerate felons and keep them in jail where they belong.
All of these infrastructural frameworks did not occur overnight they happened after decisive actions have been taken by their security services to clear out those who would destroy life and property. It is instructive to recognize that in none of these countries does Amnesty International or any other so-called rights lobby get to tell western democracies how to run their countries.
Neither have they bothered with the incidents of human rights abuses in powerful western nations. So we are left to contend with the glaring facts, poor countries with people of color are best kept in the status quo of crime and poverty which results in more crime and poverty so that they may continue being slaves to the rich lenders in the powerful industrial nations which just happen to be largely white-dominated nations.
Small nations leaders like those in Jamaica can continue on their path to failed state status by pretending Jamaica has arrived while hiding behind grill fortifications. We will see how long those grill fortifications will hold.
I have read widely on countries across the globe in which terrorism and violent crime have been an issue. Mexico. Guatemala. Honduras. South Africa. The Dominican Republic. Colombia. You name it even in countries in which the political directorate are less than righteous they give full autonomy and support to their security forces.
I have not seen a single country in which governing authorities spend their time chastising their brave security forces who risk their lives, about observing human rights.As for the successful Industrialized nations in which violent crimes are rare, members of their security forces, police officers and members of their military, are given the honor and respect they deserve. Not so in Jamaica!
The political opposition in Jamaica is a rapacious vulture waiting to pick at the carcass of what is left of Jamaica when crime topples the present administration as surely it will. For its part, the Administration of Andrew Holness is something of an Elitist Cosmopolitan party which caters to the desires of the powerful criminal rights lobby, as well as the trial lawyers who by the way are quite happy with the status quo.
And so every time the Prime Minister steps in front of a bank of microphones to speak on measures his administration is undertaking to stem the bloodshed, he leads by talking about human rights.
When the Prime Minister leads a news conference on critical crime levels by talking about human rights[though there are built-in safeguards] it sends a message to the armed gangsters that he is there supporting them not the members of the security forces.
And so he ends up with a scenario which is tantamount to finding oneself in quicksand. The more you struggle the deeper and quicker you sink.
The more Holness delivers a mealy-mouthed address the more empowered the thugs are. The incident of the shooting up of a funeral procession in St James over the weekend, while there were security forces members all around, is a testament to that fact.
Unfortunately when you do that you unwittingly send the message to criminals that the security forces are going to be tentative.
You tacitly encourage aggression and a lack of coöperation towards the security forces.
You create a pause in the security forces, they become afraid to act, risking their freedoms as they risk their lives, a ‑la Tivoli Gardens.
It is going to get much worse, a lot worse.
Why?
It’s not that the security forces are incapable of handling these scumbags who are killing people indiscriminately. They absolutely can. The issue is that both political parties have connections to the Gangs, both political parties have ganged up against the security forces and as such the security forces have stood down.
The solutions are in the hand of both political parties, it is not the remit of anyone else. They get to decide when they will put politics aside and stand up for Jamaica. At this juncture, neither political party has indicated it is willing to place country over politics and so in the meantime, the bloodshed will continue and more and more nations will issue travel advisories until tourists stop coming.
After which the whole shit will come tumbling down. It bears remembering that these killers have no compunction about killing even those who feed and shelter them. So to you criminal rights functionaries if you believe you are sanitized or immune from death guess again.
You have seen me criticize Jamaican politicians PNP and JLP alike where warranted and to be frank, it’s generally always warranted. Some of the Island’s Politicians do mean well [ a small and shrinking minority if you will]. It’s difficult to imagine that Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett does not mean well for Tourism even though he is a longtime politician who has to bear some responsibility for the condition of the country to some minute degree. The same may be said of Christopher Tufton the Health Minister who has not been dirtied by the stains of Garrison Politics.
On both sides of the political divide, there may only be a few good men and women who are not sullied, one way or the other by graft, corruption, and deceit of some kind. Even those who may not have committed criminal acts [or rather have not been held accountable], deceit and complicity even by their very silence are omnipresent. This, when they should have spoken up and out against the wrongdoings of their colleagues in a non-political way. Deceit and complicity endure in others when they do speak up and out when they should have remained silent.‘
Chuck
In no other Politician practicing today have I seen more deceit and complicity than in the Minister of Justice Delroy Chuck. In him I see a hypocrite extraordinaire who speaks with forked tongue, as native Americans once characterized the white men who never signed a treaty they did not break.
Chuck’s disdain for officers of the law and his proclivity to appease the local aristocratic rabble which dwells in the enclaves of upper Saint Andrew rivals only his forked tongue on issues of relevance. I have written expansively on Delroy Chucks harmful imprint on the rule of law in our country but by and large in the Orwellian universe in which our country operates Chuck will inevitably go down as a hero who has advanced Jamaica’s justice system.
Just days ago police released a report they compiled in which they outlined extraordinarily light sentences being meted out by the courts in the westerly parts of the country. The law-enforcement report detailed a comprehensive case by case analysis of individual cases in which Judges in the same circuit have inexplicably given felons what could only be characterized as tiny slaps on the wrist.
Delroy Chuck, experiencing what could easily pass for a pang of decency and dare I say reality and duty to country, if not honesty, declared that he has concerns about the disparity in the sentences being imposed by judges. “There needs to be greater consistency by judges,” he said, adding that sentences should send a strong signal to society about the repugnance of criminal activities.
I was stunned at that statement from Chuck so much so that I wrote the above article on the CVM’s response but did not mention Chuck’s response. I thought his statement was self-serving, and could only have been given because he thought there was leverage there for himself. It did not take long for my suspicions to be confirmed Sunday Gleaner of January 21st. Justice Minister Delroy Chuck has hit back at the police and other critics who have taken issue with perceived light sentences being imposed by judges for illegal possession of firearm and ammunition.
It was not just this writer who found Chuck’s about-face duplicitous and self-serving, the gleaner admitted as much stating. Days after publicly admitting that he also has concerns about the disparity between some of the sentences being imposed, Mr. Chuck says critics should understand that sentencing is not a science and that every case can be explained.
But this is vintage Delroy Chuck, the very man who paid homage to a deceased criminal area” don” on the occasion of his demise but has nothing positive to say about valiant police officers who give their lives for their country. Chuck stupidly criticised the police, for what he characterizes as a singling out of cases with light sentences, to make the argument that the justice system should be blamed for the escalation in crime. When factually what passes as a justice system in the country is objectively and demonstrably partly to be blamed for the escalation in serious crimes. The catch and release of murderers back onto the streets on a daily basis only so that they may kill again is a good place to start if Chuck in an education on basic indisputable facts.
The very same Delroy Chuck who just last week agreed with the sober assessment of the police documentary reporting flips and makes the scurrilous claim that empirical data should not be used to form objective conclusions. The shocking travesty in Delroy Chuck’s shameless about-face may only be attributed to a weak yet transparent attempt to curry favor and run defensive coverage for his criminal loving cohorts on the bench who are subverting the rule of law.
A shameless display of collusion by the ruling class as it closes ranks even as the peasantry eats itself alive and the streets run red with the blood shed by the very demons they release back onto them.
Asked by MSNBC’s Alex Witt, about Donald Trump’s alleged infidelities and dalliances, the head of Samaritan’s Purse and son of renowned televangelist Billy Graham, Franklyn Graham said the following.
“He said he didn’t say it,” Graham said. “I don’t think any of those senators if he did use that language, have heard that word for the first time. I’m sure that’s a word they’ve used before, I think there’s a little hypocrisy here.” “We have a businessman who is a president, not a politician, but a businessman,” Graham said. “We should all be grateful that he’s brought his knowledge to Washington and he’s helping to turn this economy around.”
For the record Donald Trump the supposed businessman filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy a staggering six (6) times and backed up by PolitiFact.May estimates have circulated which stated that Trump had filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection a total of four (4) times which conflicts with Politifact’s finding of six. Questioned, Trump told Washington Post reporters that he counted the first three bankruptcies as just one.
“Reverend, you just told me that this country has a sin problem and I know you’ve no doubt heard that the president is accused of having his lawyer pay $130,000 to a former porn star allegedly for her silence about his sexual encounter while he’s married,” Witt said. “The previous allegations as well, that access “Access Hollywood” tape, does that challenge your faith in the president?”
“Does the president have a sin problem?” Witt asked. “I can promise you he is not President Perfect,” Graham shot back. “But, sir, can you understand how there are those that are crying hypocrisy? When for example, the New York Daily Newseditorial on Thursday accuses some Christian leaders, like Gary Bauer who supports the president for being hypocrites, for saying absolutely nothing about the Stormy Daniels matter,” Witt said. “When people cry there are hypocrites there within the evangelical community, can you understand that criticism?”
“Well, first of all, President Trump I don’t think has admitted to having an affair with this person and so, this is just a news story, I don’t know if it’s accurate.” “Now did he have an affair with this woman? I have no clue, but I believe that 70 years of age, the president is a much different person today than he was four years ago, five years ago, ten years ago or whatever and we just have to give the man the benefit of the doubt,” Graham continued. “He said he didn’t do it, so okay, let’s say he didn’t do it.” “I don’t think it’s hypocritical because he’s a flawed man, for me to try to support him and help him and pray for him,” Graham said. “I’m a flawed person. and I would hate for people to see all the baggage I have in my life, but the fact is that God has forgiven me and I’ve asked for his forgiveness, and I think the president has, too.”
Well, there you have it no matter what the charge is against you if you deny it you are absolved from culpability and responsibility according to the Gospel of Franklyn Graham. About then President Barack Obama in 2012 Franklyn Graham said he believes President Barack Obama may or may not be Christian while expressing his belief that GOP presidential hopeful Rick Santorum’s moral stances show him to be a “man of faith.”
Many people have been aghast at the blatant hypocrisy of not just Republican Politicians but at the Evangelical movement which has ignored the divorces, accusations of infidelity and sexual abuse charges leveled against him and the confirmation of those abuse from his own mouth, on that Hollywood extra bus. Many juxtapose his behavior and the multiplicity of horrible things which comes out of his mouth daily against the allegations of infidelity leveled against President Bill Clinton in the 90’s and they come away convinced that the white Evangelical movement is at best filled with hypocrites.
Their treatment of President Barack Obama and his family, despite the graciousness and class with which the Obama’s conducted themselves, could only be characterized as blatantly and disgustingly ignorant and racist.
However not every white Evangelical feels that Trump should be given a free pass. Andy Crouch, executive editor of Christianity Today, an evangelical magazine founded by Billy Graham, wrote “Enthusiasm for a candidate like Trump gives our neighbors ample reason to doubt that we believe Jesus is Lord.”” “They see that some of us are so self-interested and so self-protective, that we will ally ourselves with someone who violates all that is sacred to us — in hope, almost certainly a vain hope given his mendacity and record of betrayal, that his rule will save us.”
Don’t wonder about the fact that young college educated people are not following in the footsteps of their parents in adhering to Religious teachings. When the words of those who set themselves up as anointed voices for the word of God, yet what drips from their lips are lies, racist and hypocritical dogma the educated and discerning can see straight through them.
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