The Police high command which includes the Inspectorate Branch seems dedicated to one purpose only, that is to assist the work of the criminal supporting law INDECOM to further create hesitancy within the rank and file of the police department driving crime even higher in the process.
I have written extensively about the lack of clarity coming from the police high command as it relates to citizens responsibility to stay away from interfering in arrests. Despite the many articles I have written bemoaning the of lack leadership on this, the hierarchy of the incompetent politically slavish police force has not lifted a finger to give guidance to young officers left out to dry. It has done nothing to educate the public that they place themselves at risk when they interfere with arrests. Most importantly it has done nothing to lobby for tougher penalties for those who interfere with arrests.
A recent picture of a young woman with a lethal weapon.
For all intents and purposes, the police high command is demonstrably a useless lap dog to the government and special interests to the distinct peril of the young officers who are given baskets to carry water. I am at the point now where I would not be mad to see the entire basket of deplorable incompetents from the gazetted Ranks fired, with the exception of a few.
An officer making an arrest have every right to ensure that his person is secure. There are countless videos which show people actively interfering in arrests, in many cases causing the escape of the primary offender. These videos depicting these events does not begin to scratch the surface of this real and present danger officers face when they make arrests.
The Inspectorate and the others within the high command are generally political hacks, others who couldn’t find employment elsewhere so they park their behinds in the force because they attained a degree. Many never made an arrest, never wrote up a charging document, never presented a sworn affidavit to a prosecutor to remove a single criminal from society. Yet these frauds sit in judgment of the actions real cops take as they deal with the animals who refuse to submit to arrests.
This is what officers face when they go out to make arrests they do need support.
The Inspectorate and the remainder of the high command only claim to fame is to issue press releases about disciplining hard working cops. I call on Commissioner George Quallo to forthwith cause all gazetted officers who sit behind desks to go out on foot patrol in the urban centers. There is no such thing as SSP or ACP, in reality, all are constables. It is unconscionable for these dead weights to continue to sit and pontificate to the press without having to face the vile creatures who break the laws and the illiterate punks who militate on their behalf.
As I have said many times officers have a right to expect a wide arc around them for their safety whenever they are making an arrest, their very lives depend on it. They should never surrender that safety to the throngs of animals who get involved when they make arrests, they should never surrender it for INDECOM, not for the Inspectorate Branch and damn sure not for any politician. Officers should ensure that if they feel threatened that they use appropriate force to secure their safety, that includes lethal force if it is warranted. When I was a serving officer if you interfered with me when I was making an arrest you would certainly regret ever doing so. But then again we had an air of authority which made this kind of nonsense literally impossible. You put your hands on me and shit just got really serious. Our country needs to stop with this colluding with criminal and lawless behavior and throw down the gauntlet. This shit must stop now.
The country is gone to the dogs or more appropriately the dogs are running the streets. The Police force is incredibly inept and corrupt. The young officers are out on the streets on their own. The leadership of the force is incapable of leading the force and are incapable of providing the security the nation needs. It is high time I believe to start over. The force needs an infusion of police officers, not grandstanders, posers and Media whores. Over to you Commissioner Quallo and Andrew Holness.
If a so-called Don gets killed one way or the other, it is probably a safe bet that there are going to be other criminal thugs at his interment. If that is true, depending on the notoriety of the scum which was eradicated, it is reasonable to presume that they will have guns with them.
There is a general unwritten rule which cops across the globe have stuck to as it relates to places of worship and moments in which families are in grief, they are treated with a certain degree of deference. That deference is generally given to some degree, as long as those attending funerals for the deceased criminals do not themselves break the laws.
In a country like Jamaica where criminals are predisposed to doing exactly what they please it ought to be in the interest of law enforcement to be much more proactive in its approach. You know the thugs are going to be at the funerals and you know they are likely going to bring their weapons and in far too many cases are going to use them to offer salutes to the imbecile who met his just due. Why would the police not have resources in place to deal appropriately with this practice?
The police must not only show strength in dealing with the scourge of lawlessness and brazen depravity we see in the killings, it must demonstrate cunning and dexterity in countering those who would unleash their brutish brand of barbarism on the nation. Simply put, the Police must keep criminals off balance in order to have a chance at success. As it stands criminals have the Police off balance and that does not bode well for law-abiding Jamaicans.
Alleged gangster going home in style…
The Police must have undercover cops at funerals. Apart from guns and ammunition which are likely to be at these events they are a potential treasure trove of intelligence for law enforcement. These are the events which bring out criminals aligned to criminals, these are the times the police should bring out the cameras to make the connections.
This intelligence is critical in forging linkages and are invaluable to future investigations. Is it too much to expect the Police to show a little bit of critical thinking[not a great deal which may actually make the force seem like a real police department] sic, just enough to convince the people to keep this department?
I mean come on Commissioner Quallo, you have a large bunch of paper pushers who shouldn’t even be on your staff, why are they not being required to produce results? Policing to a large extent is common sense, it is a chess game which requires officers to preempt the moves of those who would break the laws and be one step ahead of them. Presently the JCF is not playing chess, it is still learning to play checkers.
Having served in the department for a decade I have seen the lethargy and lack of imagination, I have seen the lack of fortitude and the lack of follow up. Despite the much-hyped improvements to the force since I served in the early 90’s, there has not been much evidence to support the hype. The department is working with exponentially more than we ever hoped to have back in my days, and understandably the challenges the force faces today are greater.
With that said, I understood when I served that we could accomplish a great deal more and we could have been far more effective if we had effective leadership in my time. The same is true today, the police department has not demonstrably shown that it can be trusted to produce results over and above that which it already does.
If one can overlook the juvenile nature of the theatrics which passes for a legislative process in the Jamaican Parliament then we may take a moment to celebrate the passage of a National Identification Bill in the Senate. If you are wondering what I’m jabbering about, you decide whether this is dialogue fitting of a deliberative body in this day and age. During deliberations on sections three and four, tempers flared. Opposition senator K.D. Knight referenced the activities as a “kangaroo Senate” after Senator Lambert Brown was denied an opportunity to speak to the motion seeking to allow the sitting to go beyond the 4:20 time.
If you ever wonder why I’m so dismissive and disrespectful of the process and the practitioners, it is because of these old dinosaurs which continue to contaminate the process which irks me. In response Senate President Tom Tavares Finson flew into the usual rage, stating that he took offense to Knight’s calling the sitting a kangaroo Senate. “I know when I leave my yard I don’t come here to preside over any kangaroo Senate,” Tavares-Finson said. Knight would later apologize, saying he was forced to make such a comparison. Finson would also find himself apologizing, as he said it was pointed out to him that he “hissed his teeth or kissed his teeth” during the sitting.
I am not one steeped in the inner workings of the legislative protocols of the Jamaican Parliament but sufficing to say that the language seems more suited to another venue and the processes more appropriate for a 6th-grade civics class we’ll take this victory for the rule of law nontheless.
For years I have personally called for a national identification system as part of the process of law enforcement accountability and better representation of all Jamaicans. Though the process is not fully complete all Jamaicans once educated on the benefits of the law should be encouraged by this law.
There are not many pieces of legislation which has come out of the Parliament which has been good for the Jamaican people. The (INDECOM Act) as well as a Contractor’ Generals Act (without prosecutorial powers) are just a couple which readily comes to mind. I have not read the bill and as such, I am still skeptical about it because of local lawmakers propensity to load up these bills with amendments which generally end up watering down the bill. This bill I understand is no different, and as such there are already much handwringing about it from some quarters.
Nevertheless, it is 2017, there can be no legitime explanation for not having a National Id law in place.
The Government has placed the cart before the horse as was to be expected. It will now bear responsibility for explaining to the people the merits of this new legislation. The People’s National Party now under the leadership of Peter Phillips has once again demonstrated that the party has no concept of Governance.
What I find most juvenile about the way the legislative process is approached are the things which become sticking points which should be easily overcome. One such trivial issue which resulted in a major brouhaha was who should bear the cost of replacing the card if it became damaged by an entity to which it was presented upon request, or if it was not deliberately destroyed by a holder.
You lose the damn card or destroy it you bear the cost of its replacement period, what is so difficult about that? I promised that I would not mention Peter Phillips but it appears the newly minted leader of the opposition have no concept of what Jamaica needs as a nation in the 21st century.
Peter Phillips opposition leader
Phillips as did the hapless Portia Simpson Miller hangs his hat on criticizing whatever the Government does in the hope of gaining traction from any failures. Peter Phillips must know that as a member of the International community Jamaica must be able to identify its citizens failing which they will not be able to leave the country going forward.
The inability to account adequately for citizens lands nations in the failed states category whether we agree or not, just ask Sudan, Somalia, et al. Jamaicans line up to give up everything foreign nations demand just for a chance to enter their countries and on the rare instances, they are allowed to enter they have to give up much more to be identified and accounted for by law enforcement. The Government must go full tilt with this process and ensure that all Jamaicans are identified.
This is a good first step in the right direction despite the critics, naysayers and Monday morning quarterbacks.
Professor of Women, Gender, & Sexuality Studies, Oregon State University
How do people who think of themselves as decent Christians support politicians like Donald Trump and Roy Moore? How do they champion policies that discriminate and disadvantage and sometimes even do violence?
Part of the answer may lie in their decency itself.
Latin American theologian Marcella Althaus-Reid identified decency as a concept utilized within colonialism and patriarchy to ensure maintenance of the social order that benefited wealthy, white, male colonizers.* What was outside the approved behaviors of wealthy white men became “indecent.”
Althaus-Reid notes in Latin American culture referring to a man as decent means he is economically honest and proper in his social exchanges. A decent woman is one who doesn’t engage in sexual behavior outside monogamous heterosexual marriage. She says these decency codes control men and women’s behaviors, politically and personally, and keep dominant social, political, economic, and religious structures intact. Christianity has often participated in and reinforced these norms of decency and the oppressive institutions they sustain.
Decency assumes narrowly circumscribed standards as defined by the dominant social order. People who uphold and abide by these standards are then decent people.
If we follow Althaus-Reid’s logic about the gendering of decency, we also recognize that women and men, LGBQ and straight, cis-gender and trans/gender non-conforming people, whites and people of color are held to different standards of decency. Men are decent when they obey the law and when they conform to the carefully crafted patriarchal scripts of white, heterosexual male gender and sexual behavior. Women are decent when they avoid sexual behavior outside normative heterosexual marriage (although the sexual double bind means they still must present themselves as sexually alluring to men while maintaining their purity).Read more here: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/decent-christians-and-the-politics-of-the-right_us_5a08809de4b0cc46c52e6b74
Within the Serengeti of chaos that the Jamaican culture has devolved, is still the incessant chatter about Police customer service, or to put it more succinctly the lack thereof. Built into that nonsense notion is a belief that despite coming from a corrupt, aggressive and disrespectful population and despite forced to deal with the worse of the worse, officers must be the equivalent of saints while citizens bear no burden to be respectful.
The inference inherent in the constant gnashing of teeth is still a confounding and retarded one-sided expectation that crass disrespectful behavior must be rewarded with courtesy as long as the disrespect and crassness are directed at police officers.
On the one hand, there are those from the self-styled “upper crust” who believe that laws do not apply to them. They have no respect for the laws and by extension, they have no regard for those who enforce the laws.
Then there is the other subsection or the supposed “lower tier” which believes that violence and disrespect should be directed at officers and officers should retreat from their aggressive behavior. Insofar as policing is concerned since it’s inception, to present day and going far into the future that is a dangerous position to take. Officers have every expectation that they should go home after the end of their shift, they have no responsibility to absorb verbal or physical abuse for doing their job.
Having a courteous society is and should be in the interest of all Jamaicans, nevertheless, it is incomprehensible that the entirety of boorish behavior would be laid at the feet of the police when Politicians, judges, lawyers, doctors, nurses, and operatives from every stratum of the society demonstrate the same gutter behavior.
The Police which has earned more than it’s fair share of demerits continue to be the scapegoats of every talking head regardless of the issue under discussion. The real question is how do we extract from a dirty pool, clean water without the process of filtration and constant purification? And if we place the purified water back into the same dirty pool doesn’t that once purified water return to its former state of impurity?
The unmistakable fact is that rude behavior should not be tolerated from any individual which deals with the public. With that said members of the public have a responsibility to conduct themselves with the greatest courtesy and respect when dealing with service providers. It is a two-way street.
Maybe Jamaicans need to understand that no one cares about their conversations when they barge into spaces public and private talking at the top of their voices on cell phones. How about speaking softly while on the phone, how about hanging up the phone when you enter a place of business? How about joining the line at the back? How about waiting to board the bus and if it’s full await the next bus? How about not yelling over those standing in line? How about giving some of that which you crave?
You know you want respect, how about giving respect and acting respectfully? The average Jamaican is overly opinionated and underinformed. Those who consider themselves from the upper-crust complain that offenses are being committed in front of officers and they do nothing about it. Realistically when officers act with courtesy they are ignored and physically assaulted.(social media platforms are filled with instances of such assaults, which only happen to Jamaican cops ).
When they do act with force in order to gain compliance they are castigated as brutish violent, aggressive and abusive. It’s a no-win situation in which the police is damned if they do and damned if they don’t. What the Albert Einsteins in the society fail to understand is that respect is a two-way street in which you get as much as you give.
Unfortunately for Jamaican officers who strive to do the right thing in upholding their oaths even some who served in this cesspool of criminal acquiescence are now skeptics. Well over a quarter century ago being a young beat cop in South parade, West Street, Heywood streets required grit and determination. Every arrest had to be made with force, today the level of hostility and disrespect meted out to officers is vastly and exponentially, multiplied.
There is no shortage of village lawyers who have opinions on what police should have done in the heat of the moment, to those opinionated know-nothings I ask where have you served your country, what would you have done as an officer faced with any of the scenarios in the posted videos?
Jamaicans have a choice to make if they want to return the country to any modicum of civility. Stop looking at the other person to be civil and courteous. You be courteous and civil and maybe, just like a pebble in a brook, there will be a ripple effect. Just maybe the courtesy and civility you give to that officer on the street or on the phone will be reciprocated. You are the change you seek instead of looking to others to give you what you crave.
The change you seek begins with you. Police work is dirty, it’s sometimes ugly and yes sometimes cops step out of line, there should be no tolerance for that but they need all the support they can get to do a thankless shitty job that many who criticize them would not and cannot do. Let’s stop the criticizing and give them the support they need as they place their lives on the line to protect your miserable hide.
Nothing gets my blood boiling like hearing police officers who are empowered to enforce the laws make statements regarding crime which amount to surrender.
The Spanish Town Bus park has long been a source of extortion according to citizens, bus operators, and police. In fact, the Klans-man and One order Gangs have shed much blood for control of the park which has been a source of illicit cashflow for gangsters for many years.
Before we address this issue it is important that there be a recognition of this fact, criminals are always on the prowl for new and innovative ways to exploit weak spots in the apparatus of the nation’s security. Thus far, as is evidenced by the wave of serious crime plaguing the country, gangsters are not having many problems in finding those breaches in the levy.
The Jamaican Police have a propensity for allowing small issues which could easily be stamped out to metastasize into cancerous tumors which eventually require major operations sometimes with disastrous consequences. That is a failure of leadership, period.
The Problem of extortion in bus parks, Lotto-scamming, and truthfully the escalation of some major crimes could have been easily controlled if not eradicated, had the police acted with determination and dispatch in dealing with those problems.
Word on the street is that Police are always involved in crimes like the illicit Lotto-scamming which has mushroomed into an international crisis. In fact, in a recent batch of alleged scammers extradited to the United States, one police officer was among the suspects handed over to the Americans. The problem however in instances as these is a failure on the part of the senior management tier of the force to gather intelligence on these occurrences in a timely manner and move decisively toward eradicating these cancerous crimes from the country.
SSP Powell
Unfortunately for law-abiding Jamaicans, it appears that the last people to know whats really happening with crime are the people tasked with its eradication. Such is the case with the problem of the extortion racket in the Spanish Town bus Park and the response of the Police commander Senior Superintendent Anthony Powell who has responsibility for St Catherine North Police Division.
According to citizens, bus operators are forced to pay a $5,000 to extortionists, in a racket which allows so-called [shotta busses] to jump the line, load and go. It is alleged that the drivers of other buses, don’t escape the extortionists, as they are forced to pay $2,500 to use the park anyway. According to local reporting, It is believed that bus driver Ervin McLeggan, who was murdered in the bus park last Tuesday, was on that “shotta bus” list but was removed after a meeting among the gangsters.
There are reports that bus operators do not report the extortion to the police and that because they do not report these incidents the police cannot act on it. The larger issue it seems to me is that the police are inexcusably inept if they are not aware of the longstanding problem of extortion in the Spanish Town bus park.
The response coming from Senior Superintendent Anthony Powell is that citizens reasonable demand for a police post will not solve the problem. He insists he is unaware of any shotta-bus list, that part is quite understandable as the police are always last to know whats going on.
Powell said a team had looked at the facility and had recommended the installation of closed-circuit television cameras and other measures. He also noted that a police post was in the park before, but it was “burnt down by criminals”. “The police don’t necessarily need a post there because they should be out there in the field,” Powell said, adding that the police were, in fact, in the park when gunmen attacked McLeggan on Tuesday morning. “Police are always present in the park, it is just that they were not situated to engage the triggerman, and he managed to escaped.”
What a bunch of bull-shit? It is really quite simple to suggest (1) that criminals burnt the police post to the ground and as a result, one is not necessarily whats needed in light of a proliferation of crime at the facility is remarkable purely on the face of it. That’s exactly why a police post should be placed there with cops who take no nonsense from anyone who is not supposed to be in the park.
On the other hand, closed circuit cameras are always a welcome addition to law enforcement efforts but they in no way absolve the police of their enforcement obligations. Whats most regrettable about Powell’s statements are that there were officers in the park but they weren’t situated to engage the trigger man and so he escaped.
If killers can summarily take someone’s life in a situation where officers are present (regardless of where they are situated in the general vicinity) and escape, what chance does the nation have in this existential fight in which it is engaged?
SSP Anthony Powell and I entered the police training school together we graduated together, I applaud his service to our nation, however, I part company with his thinking on this issue. Said Powell, “The police don’t necessarily need a post there because they should be out there in the field.”
No SSP Powell, the Police need to be where crimes are being committed in the same way you place firemen to fight a fire where there is a fire, not just out there in the field.
After decades of mismanagement and meddling in law enforcement, there is now an epidemic of crime facing the Island. Both Political parties bear responsibility for politicizing the process of law enforcement, both parties bear responsibility for the lawlessness in the country.
Yet decades after repeated instances of state-sanctioned lawlessness like the 1963 Coral Gardens Rasta uprising which resulted in the deaths of Police Officers, through to the events which necessitated the security forces incursion into Tivoli Gardens not much has been learned.
The undeniable fact is that the Police department is more learned than at any other time in the 185-year history of the Constabulary. At the same time, the department has never been more inept at carrying out the most basic functions which police are required to do daily and as a matter of course.
Truthfully the Police can be let off the hook for some of its inadequacies, as a matter of fact, no police force is required to work with such second-guessing and criticisms from lawyers and experts some trained at the intellectual ghetto and others simply by the ghetto.
The constant criticism and second-guessing coupled with the specter of prison hanging over them has made officers tentative, unsure, and afraid to make even the simplest arrests. The downside to this is that those who would break the laws are exponentially emboldened and are made increasingly aggressive, not just in the level of brutality they unleash on their victims but in their aggressive attitude against those who enforce the laws.
The lax, liberal attitude of the courts in what can only be construed as adversarial posturing against the people’s business in case after case, has only given the forces of lawlessness ammunition in its war against the rule of law.
Most of all, every Tom, Dick, and Harry who has never served in anything much less risked their lives a single day has grandiose opinions and have written theses on what needs to be done to return the country to a state of normalcy.
So now the University of the West Indies (Intellectual ghetto à la the late Wilmott Mutty Perkins) has offered to help train and in the process house police recruits. Other institutions of higher learning have also stepped forward to offer their services to train police officers.
The latest being the Montego Bay Community College in St James. For the record, there is nothing wrong with having educated cops, in fact, the times demand that we have smarter cops.
However, at this present time outsourcing police training to people who are not police officers, people have no experience in law enforcement or law enforcement practices and procedures is stupid, ridiculous and will have disastrous consequences for the nation in the future. Remember that the JCF is more educated now that it has ever been in its history, yet crime is at the highest it has ever been in our history. So clearly having police officers with Assc, Bachelors, Masters and PhD’s is not going to solve the Island’s crime problem.
What the nation needs are police officers who know how to do the job of policing effectively and a political class which recognizes that it must get its grubby little fingers out of law enforcement. The crime problem the nation faces now will be dwarfed going forward if law enforcement cannot get it’s collective act together.
Mass shootings, acts of terrorism and other transnational crimes have already shown their ugly heads on the Island, they will not go away because we wish them away. Jamaica needs a competent police force trained by police officers who know policing. That’s it!
Jamaica’s nonsensical posture which has been promulgated by the nit-wit elites who make policy have always been that simple solutions should be discarded and replaced with hifalutin alien concepts they read about happening in other parts of the world. In many cases, those concepts and practices are as fake and unworkable as their fake upper Saint Andrew Accents.
There is an expansive campus out there in Twickenham Park which is quite enough to train the Island’s police officers efficiently and effectively. What is in shortage is a lack of quality candidates, modern police training techniques and the support necessary for those young recruits to do the job they are asked to do.
More and more cops are announcing they have earned degrees, commendable indeed, yet despite these personal advancements crime continue to increase.
The nation is not being served in this regard, let’s be real if this was ever going to be solved by advanced degrees we would have hit that plateau with the elevation of Dr. Carl Williams to the rank of Commissioner of Police. Those in power continue to apply fixes to problems which do not exist rather than apply the fixes necessary to alleviate those problems which do exist.
A former refugee who came to Montana more than 20 years ago was elected to lead its capital city, Helena, becoming the first black person to become mayor in the state’s history.
Wilmot Collins ousted four-term Jim Smith in Tuesday night’s mayoral race, capping off a night of historic firsts throughout the country.
“After last night’s historic firsts for many leaders across the country, Wilmot is confident that the future of this country favors a union of people from all different walks of life,” a campaign spokesperson told the Daily News in a statement.
“Most importantly, Wilmot is honored to be granted the opportunity to go to work for the hardworking and inspiring citizens of Helena!”
The spokesperson confirmed he’ll be the first black candidate in Montana’s history to win a mayoral election.
Collins came to the U.S. 23 years ago, fleeing civil war in his native Liberia. He went on to become an American citizen and worked in the state’s Department of Health and Human Services, specializing in child protection.
But he wasn’t the lone newly elected official to make history Tuesday night.
Ravinder Bhalla
Voters in Hoboken selected Ravinder Bhalla as the city’s first Sikh mayor, beating out five opponents to lead the New Jersey city.
His victory Tuesday night ended a campaign marred in the last few days by racist flyers that accused the current councilman of being a terrorist.
“We’ve been through a bruising campaign…but now is the time we come together and see who we can work with to bring this city forward,” the Garden State native said Tuesday night.
Danica Roem became the first openly transgender woman to win a seat in Virginia’s legislature.
She faced a tough run as Marshall’s campaign attacked her gender identity along the trail.
Andrea Jenkins is the first transgender black woman to win an election in the U.S.
(CARLOSGONZALEZ/AP)
Andrea Jenkins
Andrea Jenkins also made history, becoming the first black transgender woman elected in the United States.
She won a seat on the Minneapolis City Council, collecting 73% of the Eighth Ward’s votes.
“As an African American trans-identified woman, I know firsthand the feeling of being marginalized, left out, thrown under the bus,” she reportedly said Tuesday night. “Those days are over. We don’t just want a seat at the table, we want to set the table.”
The journalism legend is fed up with Donald Trump and says the office of the presidency has zero nobility left
“We’re better than this,” journalist Dan Rather told Salon’s Andrew O’Hehir on “Salon Talks,” referring to President Donald Trump and the deep divisions in American politics today.
The legendary investigative journalist and anchor has interviewed every president since Eisenhower and covered nearly every major political event in recent U.S. history: Watergate, President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, 9⁄11, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the jailing of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The list goes on.
Rather occupied the anchor chair at “CBS Evening News” for 24 years. Now 86, he is the author of the new book “What Unites Us: Reflections on Patriotism,” which is out this week.
What’s missing from the presidency today is “nobility,” Rather said. “Our great presidents, the best presidents,” he added, “Washington, Lincoln, Teddy Rosevelt, right on through, had a certain noble approach to the office, which we have zero of that now.”
Rather, who calls himself an “optimist by nature,” remains hopeful that America will get through these dark times. “While we’re in an extremely difficult period now, a perilous time for the country,” he said. “We need to remind ourselves, we’ve come through a lot worse before.”
For every claim, there may be a counterclaim, for every glowing tribute one offer about an individual someone may have remained silent with a story which is not so complimentary.
Such is the story regarding Dr. Jephtah Ford a medical doctor who for decades operated a practice on Red Hills Road in Kingston 8. Ford and his twin brother Jeptah are colorful figures who are iconic not just by virtue of their medical practice but by virtue of their involvement in politics.
Jephthah Ford has a long and storied history on Red Hills Road and in the wider Jamaica solely on the basis of his medical practice. Throw in his connections and a life of politics and the guy is freaking rock star. You do not spend years and years in a neighborhood doing business and not build up a well of goodwill., At the same time, Ford has another side unknown to many, known to some who do not care as long as he stretched his hand and gave them a gift or a pat on the back
Many others know the man Jephthah Ford and their view of him is not so favorable. Yet Jamaica is a country in which one can have a Robin Hood persona and no one cares. Jamaica is the country which romanticized ThreeFinger Jack. It is the Country which romanticizes Lester Lloyd Coke, Christopher duddus Coke, Coppa, Rigen, Sandokan, and a long list of another scumbag murderers.
In Jamaica, the nation which has an 84% corruption rating according to Transparency International, those who hand out the goodies are the second coming of Jesus Christ personified.
Ford
That is metaphorically speaking, whether Jephthah Ford is a Robin-hood type personality depends on who you speak to. So it’s not out of the ordinary in a country like Jamaica where politics and the big man persona earns a Doctor Jephthah Ford type plaudits and praise in the community in which he operates and beyond, regardless of his alter ego dual personality.
It’s not extraordinary that politicians and Police, Pastors and Peasants are lining up, calling for a non-custodial sentence for Ford who was recently convicted on two counts of attempting to pervert the course of justice. None of that matters in Jamaica as long as the transgressor is connected and benevolent it does not matter what bad he/she does, it’s all a‑okay. To those who testify on his behalf he is a hero, to the police officers who patrol the streets who are not blinded by party politics Ford represents the worse of his profession. To the silent who have been wronged not just by Ford but by the [shit-stym] which nurtures and cultivate the Jephthah Fords, they don’t think that six months is enough.
Ford has had a tumultuous relationship with many cops, good cops who correctly believe that no Doctor should treat a person who commits crimes and turn up to him with gunshot wounds and not notify police. Many will quickly say he has an obligation to treat everyone, they may also say he treats criminals because his life could potentially be in danger from those criminals. I say speak to the cops involved in those cases past and present and see if Ford was a Robin Hood. Get their opinions on whether he was doing it because of his hippocratic oath?
This is bigger than Ford however, it demonstrates the rotten core of a decadent society which has surrendered all modicum of decency and integrity and gone astray. It does not matter what an individual does in the dark as long as he steps into the light with clean hands it’s all good. This not to suggest that Jephthah Ford is a monster but neither is he Mother Theresa. Jamaicans have a history of coddling the most perverse and despicable human creatures all because they hand out a few trinkets and a few bottles of beers.
If I treat a bunch of people kindly what does any of it have to do with anything if I commit a crime,? Should I simply walk free because of my previous good deeds? Throw in the people I treated shitty and the question is what right do I have to expect deference from the justice system when I commit myself? It makes absolutely no sense, what do Ford’s perceived good deeds have to do with the courts’ decision? The court has a duty to hear them but the court is duty bound to balance whatever character evidence may be proffered on his behalf against the greater good of the community and it’s responsibility to the fidelity of the rule of law.
The court was beyond gracious in tapping Ford on the wrist with two six-month sentences to run concurrently. In my estimation, the court should have sent a strong message with this sentence, which would encourage other police officers to follow suit in avoiding corruption and those who would corrupt public officials. The courts have an obligation to do it’s part in the equitable dispensation of justice regardless of one’s affiliations and connections.
Was there any wonder that Christopher Coke was never convicted of a crime in Jamaica? What happened to the Kern Spencer corruption case? It was the same story when Al Miller was prosecuted for his crimes and found guilty. Prison cannot be only for the poorest class of people while the big man receives a tap on the wrist. What happened to FINSAC? Is there any wonder that ordinary people feel they have the right to ignore the nation’s laws? Unless this country ignores the cries for leniency on the rare occasions when renowned people are caught red-handed there will be hell to pay as the country is engulfed more and more with criminality, because the mentality of the people is becoming increasingly perverse and twisted.
The laws are there for the protection of all Jamaicans, no one is bigger than the laws no one is subservient to the laws. All we have to do is to do our best to avoid breaking them. Good intentions are not a free pass for breaking the laws, at best it may mitigate one’s sentence but no one should expect that regardless of their crimes they will be allowed to go home, that is not justice and it should not happen in this case.
So the court slapped Jephthah Ford with a six-months custodial sentence on each of the two counts of attempting to pervert the course of justice charges he was convicted on. In the greater scheme of things this offender should have been sent a strong message by the court that corrupting public officials is a serious crime. As was to be expected and as I predicted, the courts gave the defendant a tap on the wrist.
Dr. Jephthah Ford
What I found curious is that the defendant’s attorney Bert Samuels all but admitted that his client broke the laws Quote: “He has allowed his good intention to cloud his better judgment.” Samuels said the foregone while [petioning the court for a non-custodial sentence. According to reporting Bert Samuels told the court that he acknowledged his client committed a serious offense but lectured the court that it involved no violence and resulted in no monetary value to Ford as if that negates the seriousness of the offenses. He said Ford’s action was out of a desire to assist, but conceded that this was a wrong intervention.
After Samuels made his submission the court announced the sentence of six months in prison on each of the two counts as charged to run (concurrently) meaning he would only serve six months or less in prison.
Now here’s the kicker, there is much talk of too many cases clogging up the rosters at all levels of the justice system to include the appeals court. Yet immediately Samuels learned that Ford was going to spend time in prison, despite his own admission that his client committed the crimes, and despite admitting to the court that the crimes his client committed were serious crimes, Bert Samuels announced he would be filing an appeal. This was the very same Attorney who asked the court to impose a fine on his client.
Now to the casual observer, this seems ridiculous, generally, an appeal may only be successful if the defendant can show new evidence which was suppressed by prosecutors or wrongdoing on the part of investigators and or prosecutors. Samuels admitted that his client committed the crimes in his summation. On what grounds then will his appeal be entertained except because of who his client is?
The idea in this case as I said in a previous article, is to do whatever it takes to make sure that Ford does not spend a day in jail, that’s okay that’s what defense lawyers are supposed to do. There was no suggestion of police impropriety, there was no suggestion of prosecutorial impropriety. In fact, Bert Samuels conceded his client committed the crimes he was charged with committing. But during the appeals process which will drag on and on, new allegations of impropriety will begin to creep into the narrative until the appeals court make a decision to toss the case.
I will be watching this case as it languishes in the appeals court and Jephthah Ford continues with his life unobstructed. Justice demands that someone keep and an eye open, fairness and our Democracy demand that we keep a candlelight on so that the dark forces of injustice are kept at bay. I will be watching this one.
For as long as INDECOM has existed I have called for the repeal of the law and if necessary a comprehensive review of the principles which necessitated the law in the first place with the view to the passage of a better law.
The supporters of INDECOM are vehemently opposed to anyone touching the law regardless of the harm it is causing. Those supporters range from inside Jamaica House to PNPHQ and places beyond. The question which must be asked then is, why are they opposed to a comprehensive top to bottom review of the law? If the law is righteous it will stand any scrutiny so there is nothing to fear.
The fact of the matter is that supporters of the law know full well that the law is bad. Aspects of the law may even be unconstitutional but they would rather keep a bad law in place which injuries police officers than do the work to change it. One of the talking points used by proponents of the law is that if officers act appropriately they have nothing to fear from having INDECOM there. Many people outside the circle of power of politics and law enforcement who simply want checks and balances in the system fall victim to this lie because they do not understand the minutia of how a bad law like INDECOM may have devastating consequences for officers who do exactly what they are supposed to do and are criminalized by a law which should never have been authorized in its present state.
The instances of the abuse of INDECOM are many the latest being the case of assault INDECOM brought against Corporal Delroy McDuffus and Constable Adrian Beckford, who was attached to the Morant Bay Police Station six years ago. McDuffus and Beckford were arrested and charged by INDECOM for allegedly assaulting a man during a roadblock that was mounted by residents in the Whitehorse community in the parish.The complainant was arrested by the police after he was reportedly seen blocking the roadway and was ordered to move away from the scene but refused and resisted the police’s attempt to remove him.
This case should never have been brought in the first place, there was no evidence outside the complainant’s words to go by. Point number one is that he was arrested for refusing to move away from the scene after he was caught blocking a public thoroughfare. If he refused the police command to do as he was told why would we not believe he had to be forcibly subdued by the police in order to effect the arrest? It is exactly because of abuses of this nature that I am alluding to when I criticize the INDECOM law as a flawed law entrusted to a demagogue to execute. Additionally, the police cannot sue INDECOM for wrongful arrest even when they act with haste, without due-care, a lack of caution and maybe malice as is seemingly the case here. Police officers are sued for doing exactly what they are tasked with doing and are being arrested and treated as criminals for doing so. INDECOM faces no legal jeopardy for abusing it’s powers.
If police officers are unnecessarily rough or abusive to a suspect they are arresting, officers involved in the arrest open themselves up to legal jeopardy. On the other hand, police officers have tremendous leeway as it relates to use of force when they are making arrests. For the record and for the edification of those who opine on this subject without objectivity or the necessary knowledge, that latitude includes the power to take life.
Regardless of the reason for the arrest if an offender fights with an officer that officer has the right under the law to use the force necessary to make the arrest. Without the benefit of video evidence which showed that officers, in this case, acted against their oath in making the arrest the case brought against the officers should never have been brought. Even with video evidence, it is incredibly difficult to argue with the force used by an officer in the heat of arresting a belligerent suspect. After the suspect is cuffed, officers are at much more legal exposure if allegations of unnecessary force are alleged. That was not the case here,
On the basis of cases as these INDECOM is operating without accountability a license to commit more egregious breaches against officers without any accountability or without incurring any penalty. This law needs to go.
If there is a God who created the Universe and all that’s in it, regardless of what we perceive him to be, and if he is omnipotent, then we must conclude he knows our hearts and what we are about to do before we do the things we do.
Daniel 4:35 “All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, But He does according to His will in the host of heaven And among the inhabitants of the earth; And no one can ward off His hand Or say to Him, ‘What have You done?
The Church has a duty and a responsibility to be set apart from the world, in the world but not of the world. What that means is that the body of Christ, all of us who have accepted his yoke should have lives reflective of Jesus Christ. Our lives will never be perfect but as children of the highest God, we must strive to walk as Jesus Christ did.
Galatians 5:16 – 17 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. The urge to have appeal in today’s world has influenced parts of the body of Christ Jesus to make decisions which are antithetical to what Jesus and the scriptures commanded us to do. The need to be hip, not outdated, relevant, has brought things into our places of worship and into our lives which ought not to be there. We have no authority to change the unchanging word of God to please anyone. We were not commanded to change or water down God’s word in order to have more appeal to prospective converts. The written Word of God reveals His will and its eternal truth. Even though written by sin-corrupted man, it was authored by the Holy Spirit (2 Pet. 1:20, 21). Thus attempts to find differences between God’s will and His written Word are foolish.
Not through books which seeks to explain the Bible, not through adopting things and fads, not through the process of sanitizing pagan customs and then pretending they are not the very same customs. God knows our hearts, the Holy Spirit is in our hearts, it is that little voice which nudges us to do the right thing. So there is really no sanitizing things we know are sinful and then pretending that we are doing them or celebrating customs we know we shouldn’t be celebrating.
Halloween’s origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in). The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1. In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. To commemorate the event, Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities. During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other’s fortunes. http://www.history.com/topics/halloween/history-of-halloween
1 John 2:15
Don’t love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. If you know in your heart that something is wrong and not of God no amount of washing it, sanitizing it and repackaging it will make it Godly. We have a duty to eschew pagan customs, not cleanse them then pretend they are harmless, or that we only engage in them because we want to make the children happy. We have a duty to do the exact opposite which is to train up our children in the way they should go so that when they are old they may not depart from it. Proverbs 22: 6Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.
The body of Christ is stronger when we stand out not when we stand down, the light of God shines through and reaches out to the unsaved when we are set apart from the ways of the world even though we are in the world. I urge the Church to get back to teaching the ways of Christ, embracing humility of spirit, less emphasis on money, and a healthy teaching and explaining the Gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Money is important in our daily lives, I know many Christians will have the number of times money is mentioned in the Bible ready at their fingertip as a means to make their point of why so much time is spent asking for money, yet it is important that we do not give the impression that we are selling a pathway to Christ.
Christ paid it all, he died pennilessly, I am not suggesting that we should live impoverished lives. Far from it, nevertheless the church must find ways to speak less about money and more about the Gospel. The Devil is crafty, let us not allow him to use us to bring any more of his practices into our places of worship and assembly.
Let us see the Devil for what he is and stand with the full armor of God against this onslaught. Let us not be unwitting participants toward the enhancement of Satan’s Kingdom. Ephesians 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
The election of Dr. Norman Dunn a son of south-east Saint Mary sends a strong message to those in the leadership of both political parties who would parachute candidates into constituencies and force them onto voter that this practice will not be tolerated. Bringing in candidates and asking people to vote for them is not democracy, allowing citizens to chose their own representatives is the beginning of the democratic process.
Channelling the 1970’s George Nooks song “my father born ya” a pejorative popularized against Edward Seaga by the PNP, it should be standard protocol codified in law, that only Jamaicans who live in Jamaica for a prescribed period of time may be elected to the Parliament.
The JLP though offended by the 1970’s disparagement of Edward Seaga, [a true son of Jamaica in every sense except by birth]by the Manley campaign , made the very same mistake necessitating a by-election in 2009 for candidates Vaz, Mair, Stern and Robinson. It’s time now for the Legislature to act decisively to fix this loop-hole in the laws so that there are no ambiguities as to who qualifies to sit in the nation’s parliament.
Dr. Shane Alexis
Dunn’s roots in the Parish will not make him a good representative of the people, that rests with Dunn and Dunn alone. The mandate given him as a son of the soil is a solid repudiation of Dr. Shane Alexis, a Canadian citizen who has a Grenadian passport but couldn’t bother getting a Jamaican Passport. It should be remembered that this imbroglio may have cost the PNP that seat, as that seat has been a dependable PNP seat for a long time. Moving from a one-seat majority 32 – 31 to 33 – 30 gives the governing JLP the necessary breathing room it needed to push its agenda. That breathing room, however, should be used to immediately put the pedal to the metal in eradicating violent crime. The JLP simply cannot expect to continue to talk about what crime used to be under the PNP, they took over the reins of government in March of 2016.
Issue #2
Mark Golding
The other challenge to our democratic process is the fact that there were elections processes in three constituencies but essentially there was only a single election which had any credibility. By-elections held in the St. Andrew Southwestern seat made vacant by the former party leader Portia Simpson Miller and the Southern St. Andrew seat vacated by Omar Davies due to retirement were the two seats also being competed for as well.
Angela Brown-Burke
The elevation of Mark Golding and Angella Brown Burke to these seats should give neither of these two individuals any sense of accomplishment in these heavily garrisoned constituencies. Regardless of what they have to say they ought to be ever mindful that they are line-benefactors of two constituencies which were stacked with PNP supporters years ago at the expense of other voters. Those who occupy these be they JLP or PNP ought to take no pride in representing those constituencies, the people who live in communities which are zones of political exclusions are worse for where they live. Garrison communities are usually more impoverished and underserved than other constituencies.
It was refreshing to hear Prime Minister Andrew Holness proclaim in 2014,“Zones of political exclusion are incompatible with freedom and aspects of our politics are an affront to liberty.” “It is time to end garrison politics now”. Since then not much has happened toward the process of dismantling the garrisons, the time is now for those communities to be opened up so that the lives of all Jamaicans can be better.
Failing to do so leaves large swaths of the Jamaican people slaves of the political parties. Failing to do so erodes our democracy and make the result of elections an exercise in providing answers we already have. It diminishes our country and our institutions and ultimately renders us all slaves to the very institutions we created and the people we elevate to serve us.
I will be brief as I vent on a few items which made the news recently in my beloved Jamaica. In the meantime, I want decent law-abiding Jamaicans who simply want a good and peaceful life to know just how the people they put in charge of their affairs are deceiving them using the police as scapegoats.
The Police have to simply walk away as they have no means of getting their stories told and the powers that be in conjunction with the complicit deceitful media is all too willing to carry the message for the liars. It shows how some activist judges, criminal lawyers and others come together to defame and dismantle the system because of their disdain for the police.
Item # 1 Murder Case Collapses After Cops Are Caught Lying.
Anthony ‘Bugussu’ Powell, a 56-year-old higgler beats a murder rap. According to the complaint in an affidavit more befitting a dying declaration, on January 26, 2010, 43-year-old Richard Burke was shot in the back of the neck while he was standing at the intersection of East Street and Tower Street in downtown Kingston. The police testified that they visited Burke at the Kingston Public Hospital on the day of the incident and he said it was Bugussu (Powell) who shot him.
According to the police, they returned to the hospital the following day and spent two hours taking a statement from Burke, but he could not sign it because he was paralyzed. A policeman signed as a witness to the statement, which was not completed because they claimed that Burke said he had a headache. The police also claimed that on the third day, they returned to the hospital to complete the statement and Burke asked if they had caught Bugussu yet.
Two of Burke’s relatives also told the court that he had told them that Bugussu had shot him before he died on the evening of the third day that he was in the hospital. During cross-examination, the doctor who treated Burke told the court that she did not see any police visiting at the time they claimed, and from the injury, he had suffered, he could not give a statement for two hours when the police claimed he did. The doctor said that based on the nature of the surgery, Burke was not able to speak and, therefore, could not give a statement lasting two hours the next day, as claimed by the police.
In doing what they do best whether they are paid or otherwise, the trial judge Evan Brown said the case was a “travesty of justice”. There was no evidence that the police officers knew the accused Anthony Bugussu before they got the case, since they did not know the accused there was no way that they could have had malice against him.
Additionally, family members of the deceased told the court that their loved one told them that he was indeed shot by the accused Anthony Bugussu, Dying declarations are sacrosanct by law in most municipalities and it ought to be in Jamaica according to Jamaican law. Yet on the testimony of one Doctor who may have lied or who may have simply gotten the facts wrong the clear-cut murder case was tossed and the defendant was set free.
Worse yet, the Judge, defense, and attorney decided to pile on the police, solely on the evidence of one person who could have been lying or have gotten her facts wrong. What was the motive of the police for charging the accused considering that there is no evidence that they knew the offender and as such could have zero malice toward him? Why was the testimony of the Doctor given more credence over the family members and investigating officers?
Item # 2 Corporal Melvin Smith killed in Mandeville town center trying to stop the robbery of a motor cycle.
Cpl. Melvin Smith
No damn motorcycle is worth an officer’s life, so it wasn’t the motorcycle which caused Corporal Melvin Smith to intervene on seeing a robbery in progress. It was the call of duty and the commitment to serve. Corporal Smith was shot several times as he attempted to apprehend a robber who had just stolen a motorcycle in the Mandeville town center. The owner of the motorcycle was also shot and remains hospitalized in stable condition. This officer gave his life while in the same breath the Minister of Justice Delroy Chuck continues on his mission to defame them using all of the tools at his disposal. I urge the family of this fallen officer to shun and rebuff all attempts at platitude coming from INDECOM in this their hour of grief.
Item# 3 Cpl Marsh of the Trelawny Division goe to New York for treatment.
Corporal Marsh and colleagues on his way out of the Island.
Corporal Marvin Marsh who was shot in his leg at his home on September 18th this year was told that he may lose his leg if he does not get treatment abroad. Corporal Marsh who was injured in his right leg was treated at the Mandeville Hospital, readmitted and is now forced to leave the Island because he cannot receive the treatment or one of the medication he needs on the Island. According to reports, the condition of Corporal Marsh’s leg continues to deteriorate and his family and colleagues were given the grim news that if he did not receive the treatment he would lose his leg. Corporal Marsh is now in the United States through the quick work and dedication of his colleagues at the Federation and his family. We wish him well.
Item#3 Joking With Our Jails — INDECOM Still Concerned About The Treatment Of Persons In Police Lock-Ups
Terrence Williams
Amidst the death of Cpl Smith and the sense of goodwill which has begun to turn toward the Police Chief Media prostitute and anti-police antagonist, Terrence Williams made a grab for some media attention as well. Knowing full well that if the police are able to get their act together no one cares about him he went back to the traditional well.
He argued that this is not the case at many police stations islandwide, and indicated that since 2010, INDECOM has received 131 complaints of unlawful detention and 59 complaints of unduly long detention. The Mandeville Police Station accounted for 16 of the complaints, the most from any individual station over the period, while 12 were from persons held at the Constant Spring Police Station and 11 from detainees at the Half-Way-Tree lock-up. Williams said that persons are often subjected to overcrowding and inhumane conditions in lock-ups as some cops use delay tactics to keep them behind bars. Williams said that since 2010, it has received almost 200 complaints from persons detained by the police.
First of all, I encourage officers who are forced to arrest suspects to take them to Terrence Williams’ home and house them there. If the Police do not do their jobs this scribe chat if they do their job this scribe chat, where are the police supposed to put these suspects? All across the world police are forced to sometimes keep violent suspects in custody for a little over the times prescribed by statute. In many cases, this is done using ingenious ways like charging the suspect for the little weed he had when he was held on suspicion of murder.
Even though detectives would generally not bother with the weed charge under normal circumstances if they had all of the evidence, they are forced to charge the suspect for it in order to buy time. In many cases, this is a valuable tool for the safety and protection of the citizenry, especially in a country like Jamaica which is a criminal revolving door even for the most violent murderers who are summarily given bail regardless of the number of people they kill. Finally on this, in a country like Jamaica with the level of criminality and the anti-police environment which exist there, it is absolutely shocking that in seven years there have only been 200 complaints.
At that rate, there is a grand shocking total of 2.380 reports to INDECOM per month. If the Police can have numbers this good in all of it’s operating categories Jamaica would be in great shape. Nevertheless, the attention-grabbing Terrence Williams is a drowning man who is quite desperate to grab at any straw he can. That makes him dangerous and he must be called out for the lying deceptive demagogue that he is.
Item#4 Mark Rickets Article. Mark Ricketts | It’s A Disgrace How We Treat The Police (Part 2) — Jamaica’s Crime Cop-Out.
Justice Minister Delroy Chuck
Some months ago, the minister of justice, in a rather unfortunate presentation captured on TV, used sleight of hand trickery, depicting movement of an invisible object from the right hand to the left, accompanied by the words, that’s the sort of thing the police will do. In so far as the medium is the message, the imagery being reinforced is that the JCF is institutionally corrupt, is inclined to excessive use of force, and is not entitled to respect. Listen to the ‘curse-out’ the police get if they insist on giving a ticket for an offence. Last Monday, most people saw on TVJ instances of police powerless as they were jostled and arm-wrestled by motorists they had stopped for infractions. It was a disgrace, affirming that lawlessness has no boundaries. http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/commentary/20171029/mark-ricketts-its-disgrace-how-we-treat-police-part-2-jamaicas-crime-cop
This story needs nothing it speaks clearly and unequivocally. I am thrilled to see that there are other people now willing to actually speak out favorably about the police. For years after leaving the Police department I have sought to speak out against the police when they mess up and hold them up when they deserve our praise. The fundamental problem which exists is that there are people in political leadership, (in both political parties) who are actively tearing down the JCF when their jobs are exactly that they should be building up the department. Delroy Chuch is chief among equals in that regard.
On Monday, October 30th voters in the St.Mary South East Constituency will go to the polls to chose a member of Parliament to represent them in the House of Representatives. The seat became vacant after the sitting People’s National Party Member of Parliament Dr. Winston Green passed away. Green had won the seat against the Jamaica Labor Party challenger Dr.Norman Dunn by a mere five(5) votes on the last go around. This election has much significance for both political parties. At issue is a significant fact that the Governing JLP would like a bit of breathing room over and above the one seat it has in the 63 seat Legislature. At present, the JLP has 32 seats to the PNP’s 31, winning the St Mary South East seat would be a tremendous boost to the Andrew Holness led JLP which would be up 33 seats to the PNP’s 30.
Norman Dunn the JLP’s candidate
Conversely, was the PNP to retain that seat the party would retain the status quo and retain a situation which keeps Andrew Holness and the JLP looking over their shoulders. Retaining the seat would mean that voters want the PNP to be strong and vigilant in Opposition. Winning that seat would indicate a willingness on the part of at least the people in that constituency to give Holness some leverage to advance his agenda.
In the 26 years since I left Jamaica not much has changed for the better. Politics is conducted the very same way, parochially, and appealing to the most base instincts of the poorest of our people. Patching roads by the light of trucks at the last moment, handing out box lunches and red stripe beer ‚de-bushing exercises, due to the upcoming elections is an insult to the intelligence of the people, yet those practices form part of the reality of electioneering Jamaica style.
Dr. Shane Alexis of the PNP
Positively, it is worthy of note that political killings are a thing of the past although murder has gone up overall. The traveling motorcades and revelry associated with the campaigns lend a bit of nostalgia, a feeling reminiscent of a simpler space in time. Yet despite the passage of time, it appears that not much has changed since the first national elections were held on the Island.
PM Holness walks bar feet with supporters.
Patronage, Poverty, and Puffery seem to dominate, despite the passage of time. In the end, the Jamaican people are still where Jamaica started in 1962 when the nation was first given its independence. Bad roads, no roads, no lights, no potable water, yet ever the political junkies’ people flock to campaign events hanging from the sides and steps of vehicles, endangering their lives for a few moments of an adrenaline rush.
On Tuesday they go back to their lives as they were before, gone will be the long line of campaign vehicles, bodies hanging off with total oblivion. Gone will be the horns and loud music one man will be the winner, the other the loser, what will be left is the horrid defacing imagery of orange and green paint splashed crudely on buildings and walls and even trees to make their point. Stacks of stickers, flags, and campaign posters will remain, the only reminder of the campaign past.
Phillips a dinosaur of politics must take some of the blame for the state of affairs not just in that constituency but Island-wide.
The images of our nation’s chief executive and the candidate walking bare feet across streams is not an endearing image as I believe they were intended, rather they represent the lack of attention which has been placed on the people’s business since 1962. In fairness to the Prime Minister, this cannot be laid at his or Dunn’s bare feet.[no pun intended] What kind of real protection are those bare feet officers able to give to the Prime Minister considering the weapons in the hands of ordinary criminals and their brazenness today? There need to be change reminiscent of where we are in time, none of this is it and the Jamaican people are worse off for it.
White supremacists, neo-Nazis and fascists descended on a Middle Tennessee town Saturday for a “White Lives Matter” rally, striking fear into communities desperate to avoid the kind of violence that visited Charlottesville, Virginia, nearly three months ago.Jeff Schoep, second from the left, is head of the National Socialist Movement, a neo-Nazi group. He and three other NSM members met HuffPost outside their hotel in the Nashville area.
On Friday evening, a HuffPost reporter met Jeff Schoep, head of the National Socialist Movement, in a hotel parking lot in the Nashville area. Standing with three NSM subordinates, two of them armed, Schoep too seemed fixated on changing the optics of organized white supremacy in America. No more swastikas, he said. No more shouting racial epithets.
But it’s hard to teach an old Nazi new tricks. When a pair of young black men started taking photos of the Nazis hanging out in a hotel parking lot talking to some journalists, a middle-aged NSM member wearing SS lightning bolts on his jacket said, “Get out of here, n****rs.”
The Islamic Center of Murfreesboro, fearing that it could be targeted, prepared to cancel services and religious classes. Earlier this year, two young men were arrested for wrapping bacon around the front door of the mosque (pork, the consumption of which is forbidden in Islam, is a common weapon of Islamophobes) and spray-painting profane anti-Muslim messages on the building’s exterior.
Since it opened in 2012, the mosque has received a bomb threat and been the target of arson. Women in headscarves outside the center have been harassed. In 2010, over 300 anti-Muslim protesters marched on the mayor’s office here, chanting “No Shariah in the USA!” and demanding that the town not allow the Islamic center to be built at all.
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