KINGSTON, Jamaica — A seven member jury of five men and two women has been empanelled in the trial of businessman Patrick Powell arising from the 2011 shooting death of 17-year-old Kingston College student Khajeel Mais. Mais’ mother, Allana Mais was first to take the witness stand and broke down in tears at the start of her testimony. Powell is being tried on two charges of murder and one count of shooting with intent. He is accused of murdering Mais, who was reportedly travelling in a taxi that collided with a BMWX6 motor vehicle. It is alleged that the driver of the BMW got out and fired at the car, hitting the boy.
Powell is also charged with shooting at taxi driver Wayne Wright with intent to cause harm.
Marriage should be considered not an institution but rather a state of being. Relationships, hopefully intimate, tend to have the most challenges as they are managed from the outcomes and events of the world rather than the collaborated efforts of the pairing. This pairing, by today’s standards, means that there is balanced and open communication to deal with issues from family, economics, and well-being. But what happens when those challenges overwhelm and collaboration and communication becomes static?
General solutions tell us that couples therapy is the start to help to reignite trust in a relationship. Trusting a partner is the work in relationships. The opinions that partners have comes from those experiences that have shaped and mature each individual. As issues arise and a solution must be arrived at; trust in each other’s thoughts and actions have to be respected in order to come to a resolution. Here is where the work comes in. Resolutions need a goal set for it to be completed. Knowing what milestones need to be completed and focusing on them is what most people do not have or lose sight of while in the process of the plan. Recently, a plan which may have been in the works seems to be slowing or is becoming increasingly harder to start. Instead of committing to the plan and working toward that 1st goal, we failed to focus and fell back into a place of panic. Panic leads to fear, then a disconnection, and finally no communication. It is not so much the one that hurts but the many. Does it mean one gives in to the easy and remains separate in thinking and action? Would the right path be that of the fearful just allowing issues to destroy or the tired to give in to separation in growth but what of the hopeful? Hopeful?
Psalm 121, 5 – 6.
The Lord watches over you— the Lord is your shade at your right hand; 6 the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. 7 The Lord will keep you from all harm— he will watch over your life; 8 the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.
There is nothing “complex” about God’s plan for marriage.
Marriage is a bond on the surface by a record, but what of those fundamentals that we hold dear in religion. We look at each other as individuals sorting this perilous adventure of life day by day and then seeing how to navigate to the next. There is the question. Is it to be left to God’s will as to a position or circumstance or is a belief the aid for the day and then the choice is our own? Knowing that we have steps is understood, do we know what those steps are or go with the proverbial flow? The former means we should write down goals, set our milestones and adjust. The latter has goals but God has our steps already defined so allow the instances to lead one. There is a 3rd scenario a combination of the two. The balance and discipline to commit is the challenge and follow thru the process. We woke to face the day, God’s blessing has anointed our steps.
Write it down. What are our goals? When are the milestones? Who are the stakeholders? What are our the contingencies? It is a belief that visualization is the best way to record a plan. Graphically or a wordy plan can help with that focus that is needed to complete tasks. Many businesses, institutions, and plans rely on the written word to implement plans to make the participant reach whatever the goal is. Then partnership in a marriage can do the same, as both partners, need to commit to the focus.
Looking at the science and the religious aspects, it is evident that with every moment, decisions are more complex and need a thoughtfulness to make it worthwhile and sustainable. Simple and quick is based on a feeling and not in rational discovery to a resolve. Openness to change is a culmination of patience and understanding of partners in a relationship. A willingness to try and fail together, rather than fall into one’s fear and close off the connection.
So you are feeling really sick, horrible stomach cramps, you finally decide to take the advice of those who care about you and go see a medical Doctor. After a battery of tests the Doctor and his team explain that you have cancer, at this point it is not terminal but it could be real soon if a treatment regimen is not embarked on immediately. You are in shock , cancer how could you end up with cancer , sure you have been sick but cancer? How could you potentially be terminally ill , this kind of thing only happen to other people. So in a daze you sat there as the Doctor explained the steps which must be taken immediately if you are to have a chance of survival, but you hardly heard a thing he said . Still in a daze you leave the Doctor’s office without agreeing to anything the Doctor said or making appointments to return for professional treatment. Still in terrible pain you go to the neighborhood corner store, you purchase some over the counter pain killers you take a couple with a drink of white-rum, all the time telling the shopkeeper what you were just told and asking her advice as you scoff at your Doctor’s scientific findings.
She tells you to go get some cerasee tea and eventually gets you to purchase some she just conveniently has on hand. Doped up on the contents of the over the counter drugs and the potentially deadly alcohol combination you feel some relief so you leave the corner store and go to your neighbor’s house where you relate what you heard from your Doctor. He laughs and tells you the doctor is an idiot , they don’t know what they are talking about and he proceeded to tell you about something much better than anything the doctor could ever do for you. He brings out a green concoction he has hidden somewhere in his house. He brags that it contains Ganga , White Rum and a whole slew of other weeds and herbs. He pours you a small glass and you drink it down swiftly all the time wincing at the horrific taste. Pretty soon the calming effect of the drug and the additional alcohol tell your brain that it is working on whatever ails you. Unfortunately for you what is happening is that between the alcohol the cannabis and the over the counter drug your brain convinced your body that the pain has subsided. When in fact you are only being lulled into a false sense of relief as the dangerous combination is merely creating a calming effect, but it is actually still there.
You feel so great on the Ganga white Rum and pills that you ask your neighbor for the ingredients which he willingly and proudly gave to you . You went ahead and created your own witch’s brew which you continue to take to calm the stomach cramps. You do this for months and you feel somewhat better but the pain never really goes away. More or less it tends to subside when you take the concoction, however you find that you have to drink more and more each time to achieve the same result.
One morning you are unable to get out of bed the pain has become excruciatingly unbearable, you are unable to stand. Your family rushes you to the hospital where you are admitted in critical condition. Quick tests reveal that you do have cancer. You tell the Medical team you want them to operate , just do anything to rid you of the pain. The team looks at you with a strange look on their faces, you wonder why it is that no one is saying anything . You can almost hear your own heartbeat. After what seemed like an eternity the lead Doctor breaks his silence. There is no point in operating . The cancer has taken over your body. You have only weeks to live. He tells you he will have his team make you as comfortable as possible, they silently streamed out of the room… Unable to put your thoughts into a cohesive pattern you despair as you try to contemplate what you will fell like dead. If only you had acted when your family Doctor told you you had cancer.….….….….….….….….
ASYOUMAYHAVEIMAGINED.….
As you may have imagined ‚none of this happened I conjured it all up . Why? Because this hypothetical exactly describes Jamaica’s crime crisis. Sure Professionals have diagnosed the problem in a timely fashion. Sure Professionals have given their views on what needs to be done in order to save the country. But in typical Jamaican fashion they chose to get Law ‑enforcement advice from, butchers, barbers, farmers, village lawyers and everyone in between , instead of listening to the people who actually know what the hell they are talking about.
Andrew-HolnessJamaica’s Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller
The truth of the matter is that the people never truly respected or cared about law-enforcement or it’s officers. This is true from Jamaica House to grass-yard. The epidemic of crime , criminal tolerance and murder is a cultural one and not one which can be eradicated quickly. It may require generational change to fully remove the crime culture from the Island. They never respected the police so they do not listen to the police on policing they go to every talking head they find and ask how do you fix this crime problem, because God forbid they consult seriously with Police about policing. …
Well the cancer has settled in ‚no amount of bush doctor , jonkanoo, witchdakta or belief that Divine hands placed them in positions to fix crime will change a damn thing. The fact is that if you don’t know what the hell you are doing you simply don’t know. No amount of wannabe police is going to fix our crime situation,. Just days ago Doctors in the United States separated twin boys joined at the head . After over twenty hours of surgery they managed to separate the boys successfully . It wasn’t easy , it wasn’t quick but the parents damn sure did not ask the guys who worked in maintenance, important though they are, to perform the operation on their sons. They chose the real pros. No amount of white rum and ganja, or pontificating jokers with expansive and lengthy arguments is going to fix this problem. They are part of the problem, they have jobs because of crime . They have no interest in seeing the back of crime.
In 2010 heavily armed mercenaries who rule the streets demonstrated in no uncertain terms that they were prepared and capable of defending their turf. The burned Police stations and murdered members of the security forces. In the end the Government held hearings on the advice of the national security sewer workers, butchers, and farmers, higglers, doctors, journalists and all in all bullshitters [sic] on what the actual security experts did wrong as the fought valiantly to annex one community to the rest of the country. In the end they ruled that those who burned police stations , killed members of the security forces should be compensated monetarily and the country should apologize to them as well.
The idea that the political forces on the Island in both political parties want to see the end of crime is the biggest bullshit . Everyone has a stake in crime one way or the other.
In a few days Jamaica will be immersed in celebration of the creation of a new Museum to celebrate the life and work of Peter Tosh , reggae Icon, celebrated founding member of the famed Bob Marley and the Wailers band. There will be days of celebration , in attendance will be the Prime Minister the nation’s highest elected official among others.
Several evenings ago I turned on the radio as I was driving home from work and I was pleasantly impressed with the way Peter Tosh’s daughter acquitted herself as she represented her late father. She articulated her father’s life and work with intellect and conviction.
The entire nation will be enthralled as it engages in the celebration and the festivities which follow these events , . History will be rewritten and those not in the know will create their own narratives as they seek to bolster the already iconic image of these celebrity icons, elevating them to even higher heights of pagan idolatry.
Even as these events are in the works the murders continue unabated , Those who are shielded from the killers bullets continue to use the media to articulate, that their point of view that their way is working , “just trust us they say, we will get it together you will see”.. But things aren’t getting better. single murders doesn’t even raise an eyebrow anymore. This until the next mass execution of another family. As a good friend told me today,” no one bothers to talk about murders of individuals anymore, most of the murders aren’t even reported anyway”.“Yes welcome to Jamaica”, he says with abject resignation and dejection.…
No one denies an artiste the accolade he or she deserves , whether while he or she lives or posthumously. But lets not sanitize their image,lets not rewrite their story to suit some fantasy we created in our heads in order to advance a fairy-tale narrative. Lets tell the whole story. Not wishing for a news cycle to go without grasping for the hot glare of the cameras in an Article written to continue justifying his employment Terrence Williams wrote to the Sheep-le.
“The proponents claim that police are demotivated because of the Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM) and that is why they cannot fight crime effectively. They do not claim that INDECOM has acted illegally or unfairly; but that the robust oversight is deleterious to police morale. The commissioner of police has consistently denied that this is so. Indeed, if it were so, it would not speak well of our constabulary. If you intend to act lawfully and consistent with police regulations, oversight ought not to prevent you from doing your work. The righteous accountant is not hindered by the fear of the auditor”.
Actually that is not true, .…. Jamaicans are really sometimes too preoccupied with their daily lives to see that they are being taken advantage of , being sold a bill of goods . But there are some of us who do see and since Williams likes the limelight we shine our own light on him. So lets speak directly to Williams since he is letting us know he is feeling the heat from our spotlight.
In fact you have acted improperly and outside your remit Terrence Williams . Yes you have your cheering section up in the nose bleed petty section but we have a front row seat to your shenanigans. You see Terrence not all of us police officers who left the force were big foot fools as you and your friends like to channel so I will simply place a single case here to counter your lies. You see you characterize yourself as the auditor , but me I see myself as the actuary .
The criminal charges you filed against Deputy Superintendent of Police Jason Anderson was dropped. In your overzealous exuberance to bloviate you charged the Superintendent with discharging a firearm within 40 yards of a public road and assault at common law. On December 18, 2013, Anderson allegedly discharged his firearm unlawfully and pointed it at a complainant before searching him and another civilian on Caribbean Estates Boulevard. You Terrence Williams conducted an Investigation and fraudulently charged the officer. Thankfully there is a superseding authority over and above your rapacious abuse of power. . In stopping the outrage the DPP said quote :“It is our considered view that the evidentiary material did not satisfy what is required to mount a viable prosecution and as such there was no reasonable prospect of conviction,”
There is much more Terrence, But I lay this one case down so the world can see that you are a liar . When you push-back under the guise that those opposed to your greedy self serving attack on our police cannot say you acted unlawfully . Let me say it here , In this single case I laid out here you acted un-lawfully. When you overstep your bounds and subject someone to the indignity of an arrest without proper evidence you are acting unlawfully. What remedy does Superintendent Anderson have against your overzealous assault on his human rights? How are you different than the police officers you grandstand against daily? Never mind the illegal attempts you and your office made and continue to make to cajole and entreat young constables to lie on their comrades so you can pad your statistics. Yes , we hear about them . Officers call and tell us about these underhanded attempts you use to gain traction in your fight against local law-enforcement.
Of course the police need oversight. Just not you Terrence Williams a bloviating grandstanding self-serving narcissist. Your lengthy article must be seen exactly for what it is, a panicked attempt to deflect attention from the harm you are causing as the bodies pile up . While the Minister of National Security stupidly suggest that he was placed by God in the Security Ministry people in the know knows that crime will only be dealt with with a heavy hand.
The nonsensical lie that tough policing did not seriously impact the paradigm is also laughable . Only in a place like Jamaica would you be able to preach such utter bullshit and not be chased out of Town. Unless one comes to the twisted conclusion that 1200 to 1600 reported homicides annually is no different than 300. The lying distortions you proffer are truly the work of a con artiste, which you truly are.
My dear Terrence when you channel Peter Tosh to justify your professional existence you once again showed your ass. Quote: When Peter Tosh sang: “I don’t want no peace; I want equal rights and justice”, I took him to mean that he did not want the kind of ephemeral “peace” that came from oppressive and arbitrary state agents. Rather than this kind of control, he appealed for the sustained order that comes from the uniform application of the law and the fair determination of disputes. Crime threatens social order; its solution must be justice”.
Minister of national security Robert Montague
I understand your desire to attach yourself to the several days of celebration and idol worship which is coming as obscene idol worshipers gather to worship at the feet of another graven image. Maybe you should acquaint yourself with real Peter Tosh the man who believed that the nations’s laws did not apply to him , simply because he said so. Maybe you should get your ass out of that easy chair and speak to older police officers who are now in retirement about the Peter Tosh who spoke militancy but refused to conform to social order. Yes ask them why he was so violently cut down in the prime of his life. Ask them why was it that he had so many run-ins with agents of the law. In your frenzied attempt to latch onto celebrity you once again demonstrated your lack of knowledge and your blatant attempt at fame.
Terrence Williams
I did not hear about Peter Tosh, we knew him, we knew his modus operandi., Dadrick Henry and I were the first two officers at his house on that fateful night he was gunned down. We don’t make up stories . Even though his home was not in our police area we were in Barbarian when we heard the call , Jacks Hill Road is just a stone’s throw from Barbarian square , we were first on scene. We raced to try to save his life despite his life of disrespect for police officers because that’s what police officers do. Something you would not understand. But you wouldn’t know the difference between a righteous objector, a soldier for social change, over a militant unruly “I’ll do whatever I want, fuck the laws”, oblivious to rules looking for a fight . Because you Terrence Williams are a one-eyed king in a land of the blind.
For anyone who doesn’t get the BLM movement, the critical need for criminal justice reform, or the danger of calls for more ‘law and order’-watch 13th and if you still don’t get it, then I’ll just have to assume that you have no soul.
The Jamaican Bar Association is renewing what it calls longstanding concerns about the deficiencies in the justice system and the responsible exercise of freedom of expression.
The concerns coincide with this week’s ruling by high court judge Lloyd Hibbert for a social media blackout in the so called X6 murder case. The judge made the ruling after Deborah Martin, the lawyer for accused killer Patrick Powell complained that a series of social media comments was making out her client to be guilty.
This afternoon, the bar association would not comment on the development in court, saying it does not have all the facts. However, the association says there is every reason for accused persons, particularly those not on bail, as well as the victims’ families, to be aggrieved by the delays that ravage the delivery of justice.
“The constitutional right to freedom of expression, and the right to criticise our public institutions, belong to us all as citizens in this democratic society,” said association president Sherry Ann McGregor. The association further says the fundamental right to freedom of speech can only be curtailed to the extent that it prejudices the rights and freedoms of others. “Although we believe that the public and victims’ families have the right to speak out about the most unfortunate delays they experience, we also urge them to be respectful in their protests and interviews and to refrain from making accusations of corruption by public officials in the absence of reliable evidence,” McGregor further said. She said the wheels of justice often move slowly for a variety of reasons noting that the slow pace of civil and criminal cases has been discussed at length in all forms of media and by numerous stakeholders, including the Association.
Deborah Martin
“Discussing and finding solutions to these important issues should always be encouraged, not stifled, without playing the blame game,” she insisted. McGregor has again called for the urgent implementation of several recommendations made in 2007 by the Professor Barry Chevannes-chaired Jamaican Justice System Reform Task Force. The Bar says it has also proposed a shortlist of 12 goals to the ministers of justice and finance in December 2014, including increasing the number of judges and support staff and greater reliance and use of available technology.
Last Sunday an entire family of five were slaughtered and their home along March Pen Road in Spanish Town, burned to the ground. According to the Police for the last three consecutive weekends there have been acts of arson along March Pen Road.
According to the US, State Department’s Overseas Security Advisory Council [Crime throughout Jamaica maybe as a result of several factors: poverty, retribution, drugs, gangs and politics. Additionally, Organized crime and other criminal elements are prevalent and extremely active. Most criminal activity is gang-related. The police are only able to resolve (make arrests) in 45 percent of homicides annually, and they only convict perpetrators in seven percent of the homicide cases. This leads both the public and police to doubt the effectiveness of the criminal justice system leading to vigilantism, which only exacerbates the cycle of violence. Based on their past experiences, most civilians fear that at best, theauthorities cannot protect them from organized criminal elements, and at worst, are colluding with criminals, leading citizens to avoid giving evidence or witness testimonies.]
Having seen it first hand and fought it for a decade, I would say to the US State Department , “you hit the nail on the head but there is no maybe about the factors which have created this dangerous Serengeti of violence”. This assessment is a damning indictment, not on our country but on the Administrations which have handled the Island’s affairs since it was let go by Britain. When a team screws up you don’t fire the team. Sure you may make a change here and there ‚but the problem is always within the remit of the coaching staff.
This guy belongs in the hall of shame. Delroy Chuck the Island’s justice Minister wants cases over 5 years old to be tossed from the court dockets.(Including capital murder cases) This is the quality of the leadership which fertilizes crime on the Island.
Jamaica’s political leaders after Independence have been indistinguishable from little banana republic strongmen. The kind everyone points to in Latin America, Africa and parts of Asia. They have pretty much interpreted the power given to them to serve as authority to rule. Both political parties have placed guns into the hands of criminals and insulated themselves from criminal prosecution by effectively dismantling the rule of law.
There are several reasons why cases gets stalled in the system. Incomplete prosecution case files ◊Missing witnesses ◊ Overburdened Infrastructure ◊Defense counsels not being paid◊Accused criminals absconding the jurisdiction, among others. When we conflate the aforementioned and juxtapose them with the limited time that the high court sits in the abbreviated sessions, we have a better idea why there is such a huge backlog. One begins to get a better idea why such small numbers of cases gets heard much less decided. It gives us a better view of why even murder cases do not get heard as they should with the degree of dispatch they deserve. Did I also mention poor prioritization on the part of authorities given the existing challenges? Well that is also a part of the equation.
Nevertheless , none of the reasons which contribute to the backlog singularly or combined is enough to justify tossing a case as serious as murder from the roster. Look, I too believe that clearing the docket of all cases would give all concerned a fresh start . But as tempting as that prospect is , it would only offer the political directorate and those who got the system bogged down in the morass in the first place a second chance at lethargy ‚laziness, and corruption.
No amount of zeal and desire for a fresh start could ever justify tossing a murder case from the court docket simply because we crave a fresh start , or worse that some bureaucrat desires to overstep his bounds . There are several ways that court dockets can be cleared with greater alacrity without denying justice to those whom have had their loved ones taken away from them. First , get rid of the silly Michaelmas , Hillary and Easter sessions and have Judges sit in courts on weekdays in other countries. If necessary appoint more judges and suspend for a time the use of courtrooms used for resident magistrate matters . This can be done by effectively using the plea-bargain tool, giving low level offenders the opportunity to accept a plea , pay a fine and move on without clogging the system. Doing so would effectively free up courtroom space and release the bottleneck chocking off the dispensation of justice.
Andrew Holness
The idea of throwing out cases in order to gain a fresh start is exactly the opposite of what the country should be doing . It will encourage corruption. It will encourage criminal offenders to stall their cases knowing they will eventually be tossed. Shockingly that is what the Island justice Minister is advocating. Which leads me to ask , ?whose interest does Delroy Chuck represent. Delroy Chuck is not ignorant to these facts, therefore it must reasonably be construed that his push is to absolve dangerous murderers using the office of the Minister of Justice to do it will not stand. We cannot allow Delroy Chuck to use the people’s office to help Jamaica’s dangerous murderers to evade justice . Chuck belongs in the hall of shame, in a country of law this guy would be booted from office for daring to suggest what he has., This publication is calling on Prime Minister Andrew Holness to repudiate the position of Delroy Chuck. And replace him with a public servant who has the interest of Jamaica’s law abiding citizens at heart.
The country does not need a justice minister who advocates for criminals over decent law abiding citizens.
No, crime is not going to be corralled overnight ! No one is that naïve‘, but the body count is what we have to go by . If the body count is anything to go by clearly we have a problem.
Part of what Opposition Parties do while in Opposition is formulate and means-test policies. Those policy positions are then transformed into platform positions and placed before electors who vote on them. The old saying “elections have consequences” then comes into play, the consequence being that the party elected now have a mandate to enact those policy positions into law.
There is a kind of common perception that Jamaicans want to live in the crime infested environment in which they are forced to exist. I disagreed when I served as a police officer and I disagree today decades after my brief foray into law-enforcement. I have spoken on previous occasions to the good natured fun loving nature of the Jamaican people. I have also spoken to the many young Jamaican men whom I have met inside and outside the country and the way they generally behave far and away from the brutish monster-like killer mentality which slaughter the innocent.
I continue to believe that crime in Jamaica thrives on the simple fact that no one has decided, “this stops now”! The biggest problem for our country is that those young men and women who engage in criminal conduct do so with the distinct knowledge that they have up to a 93% chance of never ever getting caught. The degenerate brutal nature of the crimes they commit stems from the fact that they know there are numerous agencies wittingly and unwittingly militating on their behalf. The unfortunate thing about this particular group is that some are actually taxpayer funded, wholly or in part.
The justice system which is supposed to stand up for the interest of the aggrieved is exponentially more interested in protecting the interest of criminals. I understand these are broad and general terms,but I say these truths to give a broad view as to why Jamaicans are barricaded in their homes not sure if their doors are going to be kicked in resulting in them going out in a hail of bullets.
The Jamaican crime situation has been on an upward trajectory since Hugh Lawson Shearer stepped aside as Prime Minister. Since then there has been a step by step climb up the ladder, each rung representing a greater degree of acquiescence not necessarily by the Jamaican people but by a plethora of a special Interest groups. These groups occupy spaces in the hallowed halls of academia through the Pulpits of the many Churches , through some board rooms of the business sector all the way to the street corners of the ardent garrisons in Arnett Gardens, Tivoli Gardens and others.
Delroy Chuck
Regular Jamaicans have simply come to this place of acceptance because they feel they have no choice. When a high court judge tells a grieving family unable to get justice for their murdered loved one ‚that they cannot speak out because it will endanger the rights of the very killer who took the life of their loved one there is a problem. When a Minister of justice advocates for discarding cases stuck in the system for over five years (including murder cases) without first fixing the root cause of what’s causing the bottleneck the people are forced to resign themselves to the notion that they cannot do better,.
There is a reason that murder is against common law and not a statute. Murder is not a crime which needs litigating, from the beginning of human existence everyone knew that the unlawful taking of another human life was unacceptable , it was wrong. There is a reason there is no statute of limitations involved with this crime. This means that there is no cut off date for someone to be prosecuted for the unlawful killing of another. It is because of the profound and far reaching nature of the seriousness of murder why societies place no limits on how long it will take how far they will go to prosecute murderers. That is of course with the exception of Jamaica, if Delroy Chuck gets his way.
This makes it impossible to reconcile that internationally recognized eternal protocol , with the views of Delroy Chuck. Shockingly Delroy Church the Island’s Justice Minister is the person advocating for the dismissal of cases, including murder cases which have been stuck in the system for over five years.
How does a public servant, who is supposed to represent the good guys adopt policy positions which are antithetical to the very people whose interest he claim to represent? The simple answer is that he can’t . The greatest impediment to the nation’s progress is the ignorance of the people.That ignorance has allowed a totally incompetent and morally bankrupt political party to literally run the Island into the ground, leaving it teetering on the brink of collapse. If the present Administration is serious about crime it will hire more judges who are not criminal defense lawyers. Hire more prosecutors. Improve the investigative capabilities of the Police department. Seek help beefing up the investigative capabilities from overseas. Repeal the INDECOM Act , and replace it with a fairer more rational law. Unshackle the Police and allow them to go after the killers. Make it know that there is a zero tolerance policy toward crime. Make it known that criminals will find no refuge anywhere in the country. Provide the security forces the resources they need to get the job done. https://mikebeckles.com/tesha-miller-returns-amidst-warning-feckless-police/
On the release of Klansman Don Tesha Miller from an American prison I asked what steps were the security forces taking to ensure that his return will not be a return to the days when he ruled the Klansman Gang? Needless to say Tesha Miller is allegedly once again a major contributor to the murder statistics. Like Donovan Bulbie Miller and others before and after were allowed to commit crimes and pay no price ‚Tesha Miller has returned to the criminal paradise that Jamaica has become, and is now reportedly back at murder and mayhem. The highly placed who call for throwing out murder cases should be made patently aware that these kinds of policies will not be tolerated. Doing the same thing and expecting a different result may be the personification of insanity . Simply put it means you are stupid. There comes a time when the Prime Minister must come to the realization that his primary duty is to secure the nation. That time is now.….
When Tulsa, Okla. Police Officer Betty Shelby shot and killed Terence Crutcher, an unarmed black man who had his hands in the air, the local district attorney wasted little time in filing charges. The entire ordeal was filmed from a nearby dash cam and from high above the scene in a helicopter.
Crutcher’s family was devastated, citizens of Tulsa were outraged, and people all over the world were calling for justice. Within days, charges were filed, Shelby was placed under arrest, and the case against her is proceeding.
The process has not been entirely flawless — some thought Shelby was undercharged — but the case, from all appearances, has been treated with the obvious urgency it deserves. While what comes next remains to be seen, how Tulsa has handled this case thus far is a textbook example of how police violence, particularly the shootings of unarmed black men, women and children, should go.
The same cannot be said for virtually every other major case of police brutality.
Alton Sterling was killed by police on July 5 in Baton Rouge, La.
We see it happening right now in the July shooting deaths of Alton Sterling in Louisiana and Philando Castile in Minnesota. Both men were shot and killed by police more than 90 days ago. Both cases had eyewitnesses in the immediate vicinity. The entire shooting and aftermath of the shooting of Alton Sterling was filmed. The aftermath of the shooting of Philando Castile was filmed, but it all unfolded with his fiancée and her daughter right there in the car with him.
In 2011 I began on a journey it was the creation of my Blogs chatt-a-box.com that journey began because a young man 17-year-old Kingston College student Khajeel Mais was brutally murdered and Authorities in Jamaica took no action. I decided to speak up even though I had never met young mister Mais nor his family and still haven’t. The circumstances of his death however and the way the case was being handled or better yet not handled revealed a gaping chasm in the way justice is handled on the Island. As a former Police Officer I have spoken out since then , consistently broadening my arguments about the shortcomings and unjust practices within the system.
Khajeel Mais
Young Khajeel Mais was travelling in a taxi-cab which hit another vehicle , the driver of the vehicle opened fire on the Taxi-cab killing Khajeel Mais . The driver of the cab was able to escape and alert authorities. It wasn’t just the killing which inflamed passions and angered decent well thinking people , it was the way the Jamaican police steadfastly refused to reveal the name of the shooter who was days later revealed to be Patrick Powell a well connected upper Saint Andrew man in his early fifties. Only after much outcry was he arrested. One of the charges which was eventually laid against Powell was his refusal to turn over the murder weapon to the Police. It was alleged that Powell was a registered firearm holder, I am assuming that his refusal to turn over the kill-weapon made it illegal as far as the filing charges were concerned. Despite this repugnant death, the Jamaican Criminal Courts system has still not managed to bring this case to a conclusion.
Since the family of Khajeel Mais lost their son, I too have lost my own son albeit under dis-similar circumstances,(RIPKKB). The pain I feel cannot be put into words . At the time of the untimely death of Khajeel Mais I was pained to the point it spurred me into action . The action I took was to use my experience as a police officer and turn it into social activism. In the years which ensued I spoke out against police corruption, the lack of support for modern sophisticated policing and the subsequent yet predictable criminality which emanated as a result. In the expose I have sought to do over the years I have spoken out in no certain terms against the court system,which has existed in a bubble free from appropriate scrutiny which ought to accompany government agencies particularly in a place like Jamaica.
Patrick Powell
The criminal courts has undeservedly managed to stay above the fray while other arms of Government has been held up to ridicule for their lack of professionalism and competence. The Jamaican people have always had a sense of deference toward the bench . Whether it is deserved is for each and every Jamaican to decide. One of the things I have spoken out against has been that deference . Not because I believe we should not be deferential to our courts and it’s noble mandate to be reasonable and just arbiter of facts, but because I fundamentally believe the Jamaican courts have been anything but that.
Despite the passage of almost five years ‚the Mais Family has still not been able to receive justice from the Jamaican courts. As a result of the tardiness, inaction, and lack of justice the family has been forced to turn to Social Media to air their concern at the lack of justice. Shockingly defense lawyers are now complaining to the trial judge that their client mister Powell will not be able to get a fair trial in the courts because of the outrage on social media.
AIN’T THAT A BITCH…
The Judge hearing the case Lloyd Hibbert has since ordered the family to desist from posting material on social media pertaining to the trial. Ain’t that a BITCH. If the court had done it’s job in the first place instead of setting the case back several times arguing it didn’t have courtroom space this would not have happened. A clear cut murder case still unresolved after five years is the fault of the court and not the family’s. What gall and temerity ? This Judge has some nerve , there is not a single person on the Island of Jamaica who has not heard about this case. If they have they have an opinion one way or the other. The idea that this judge would acquiesce to the arguments of Defense counsel on the flimsy grounds that their client cannot receive a fair trial is stunning.
What authority does Lloyd Hibbert have to make an order preventing the family of Khajeel Mais from posting on social media about their pain and anger at this lack of justice , unless of course they are material witnesses in the case? Does he have constitutional authority to control free speech ? That is the issue. I vigorously encourage the family to resist this attempt to take away their God given right to speak out about the rampant injustice against their family under the flimsy guise being used by this judge.
Supreme Court building , King street Kingston
ANUNEQUIVOCALASSAULTONFREESPEECHUNDERTHEGUISEOFPROTECTING A POTENTIALJURYPOOL
Deborah Martin said that the defence was alarmed at the family’s behaviour and complained that the family’s “extensive tirade that is going on in social media suggests that Powell is guilty”. Hibbert instructed that no further materials be posted on social media about the case while warning that anything done to unfairly influence a tribunal is tantamount to contempt of court.Hibbert said he was disturbed by some of the comments which were highly critical of the justice system. This shocking load of bile is what I have been speaking out about for years since I left law-enforcement. It is a poorly disguised attempt to get the family to shut up in light of the family’s outrage at the inaction of the courts to do it’s job. This order by this judge is a shocking display of illegal and immoral alliance between bench and bar in an unrighteous alliance against justice .
Every Jamaican not tainted by corruption and crime must condemn this for what it is. A clear and unequivocal attempt to use the courts to bully victims of crime while colluding to free alleged murderers. This family should not be cowed by Lloyd Hibbert or Patrick Powell’s defense team. Every person charged with a crime is entitled to a fair and just trial. Nowhere are those rights more realized than Jamaica. Prosecutors have to present airtight cases to get a conviction in even the most clear cut cases. This is not because of vigilance on the part of the judiciary , far from it. It is exactly because of the liberalism and close relationships between Bench and the Defense bar.
Every case prosecuted in the courts has to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. In Jamaica it has to be proven beyond that. Patrick Powell will get a fair trial, his right to a fair trial cannot be guaranteed at the expense of the aggrieved family’s right to free speech in their pursuit of justice. This judge is way out of line. This is an illegal order which cannot stand a constitutional smell test. The court cannot be allowed to continue running pass-protection for criminals without consequence.
It was one of Donald Trump’s first powerful endorsements: Jerry Falwell Jr., who testified for many evangelical Christians that despite leading a life of excess, the thrice-married, trash-talking mogul was indeed a God-fearing president-in-waiting.
But Falwell’s plunge into presidential politics did not sit so well with intimates of his late father, Jerry Falwell Sr., nor with some at Liberty University, the Christian college in Virginia founded by the elder Falwell and now led by his son.
Mark DeMoss, who for many years served as chief of staff to Falwell Sr. and considered the televangelist a second father, said in an interview that it was a mistake for Falwell Jr. to endorse Trump. He said the Republican front-runner’s insult-laden campaign has been a flagrant rejection of the values Falwell Sr. espoused and Liberty promotes on its campus.
“Donald Trump is the only candidate who has dealt almost exclusively in the politics of personal insult,” DeMoss said. “The bullying tactics of personal insult have no defense — and certainly not for anyone who claims to be a follower of Christ. That’s what’s disturbing to so many people. It’s not Christ-like behavior that Liberty has spent 40 years promoting with its students.”
DeMoss, a public affairs executive with deep ties throughout the national evangelical community, sits on the board of Liberty University and chairs its executive committee. He said he has discussed his views about Trump personally with Falwell Jr. — “This appears to be something we’re just going to disagree on,” DeMoss said — but otherwise has kept his opinions private.
On Monday, however, with Trump poised for sweeping Super Tuesday victories, including in Virginia and in DeMoss’s home state of Georgia, DeMoss decided to break his silence in an interview with The Washington Post.
As this election cycle intensifies and draws to a close one thing is certain, is that left in it’s wake will be a wasteland of casualties. Like a flatland after a Tornado, or a caribbean Island after a category four hurricane there will be hell to pay regardless of who wins or who loses come November 8th.
Hillary Clinton
Chief among the list of victims will be the American Electoral process . This process flawed though it was, had not seen a candidate of the coarseness and crassness of Republican candidate Donald J Trump, certainly not in our lifetime. Certainly some would argue also that neither have the process seen a flawed and controversial candidate as Hillary Clinton ‚the Nation’s first female candidate ever to be nominated as the standard bearer for a major political party. Also among the casualties will be the Evangelical movement. This movement has traditionally rallied around the Republican Party which they argue is more in line with their values. There has always been much to debate on that presumption , of course the issue of Abortion has been front and center in the Evangelical movement’s aversion to the Democratic Party.
Donald J Trump
That is understandable but the movement never quite got around to the bread and butter issues of feeding the poor , sheltering the poor, speaking to the killing of defenseless minorities which the Democratic Party speaks to somewhat . On those issues the Evangelical movement has been silent. On the occasion Barack Obama announced his candidacy for the Presidency many in the Evangelical movement began a scorched earth campaign against Obama, they labeled him a Muslim , some said he was a Manchurian candidate here to destroy the United States. He was called a Kenyan interloper who wasn’t born in the country.
Today less than a month until election day Evangelical leaders and supporters have a decision to make and many of them are making it . Will they support Donald Trump a man who has openly derided literally every group to whom he is opposed . Will the Christian Right throw it’s support behind a candidate for President who openly talks about grabbing women’s pussy because he is a star? Will the Evangelical movement stand with a man whom even secular members of his own party are falling over themselves to get away from? The Republican nominee bragged that he could grab women “by the pussy” without their permission because he is a star. If the 700 Club’s Pat Robertson is anything to go by, there is no problem with anything Trump said.
Pat Robertson
“A guy does something 11 years ago, it was a conversation in Hollywood where he’s trying to look like he’s macho,” Robertson said. “And 11 years after that they surface it from The Washington Post or whatever, bring it out within 30 days or so of the election and this is supposed to be the death blow and everybody writes him off, ‘Okay, he’s dead, now you’ve got to get out of the way and let Mike Pence run the campaign.’”
Lets imagine Barack Obama being found out having said those things. But before we get to that , as a person who played several sports I have never heard anyone talking about grabbing woman’s genitalia, not even close. Sure guys talk about having scored with women , mostly the women they talked about were mainly nameless, faceless ‚figments of their imagination. And yes, that is usually geared at appearing manly, to belong. Never in my life however, have I heard any guy bragging about grabbing a woman’s most intimate parts as part of any group , locker room or otherwise.
President Barack Obama
Now imagine the terms which these very same people would be using to describe Obama were these same comments attributed to him. Thug. Criminal. Animal. Predator. Are just a few of the choice words which would have been thrown around. His candidacy would have been a joke, it would have ended the moment those tapes surfaced. Barack Obama was excoriated for having attended a Church where the Reverend Jeremiah Wright spoke out against what he saw as America’s sins against Black Americans. Obama was forced to deliver a historic speech on race to get his budding campaign back on track as a result. So Obama was held accountable for being a member of a church where the preacher spoke eloquently against the inequities being visited on people whom America and the Republican Right never cared about to begin with, but Trump has no responsibility for talking about committing crimes against women.
Is there any wonder that young people are walking away from the church? Should anyone be surprised that college educated people are looking at the hypocrisy of those who purport to speak on God’s behalf with incredulous disdain? 2 Thessalonians 2:1 – 3New King James Version (NKJV) The Great Apostasy
2 Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, 2 not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ[a] had come. 3 Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin[b] is revealed, the son of perdition.
In the end voters will chose whom they want . Like it or not, either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump will be elected the 45th President of the United States . That choice will have defining consequences for the Nation for decades to come.
President Obama hit Republicans right between the eyes by explaining how birtherism and the GOP’s politics of hate created Donald Trump.
I’ve actually heard this argument a number of times. I have been blamed by Republicans for a lot of things, but being blamed for their primaries and who they’re selecting for their party is novel.
Look, I’ve said — I said it at the State of the Union that one of my regrets is the degree to which polarization and the nasty tone of our politics has accelerated rather than waned over the course of the last seven and a half years. And I do all kinds of soul-searching in terms of are there things I can do better to make sure that we’re unifying the country. But I also have to say, Margaret, that, objectively, it’s fair to say that the Republican political elites and many of the information outlets — social media, news outlets, talk radio, television stations — have been feeding the Republican base for the last seven years a notion that everything I do is to be opposed; that coöperation or compromise somehow is a betrayal; that maximalist, absolutist positions on issues are politically advantageous; that there is a “them” out there and an “us,” and “them” are the folks who are causing whatever problems you’re experiencing.
And the tone of that politics — which I certainly have not contributed to — I don’t think that I was the one to prompt questions about my birth certificate, for example. I don’t remember saying, hey, why don’t you ask me about that. Or why don’t you question whether I’m American, or whether I’m loyal, or whether I have America’s best interests at heart — those aren’t things that were prompted by any actions of mine.
And so what you’re seeing within the Republican Party is, to some degree, all those efforts over a course of time creating an environment where somebody like a Donald Trump can thrive. He’s just doing more of what has been done for the last seven and a half years.
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So I am more than happy to own the responsibility as President, as the only office holder who was elected by all the American people, to continue to make efforts to bridge divides and help us find common ground. As I’ve said before, I think that common ground exists all across the country. You see it every day in how people work together and live together and play together and raise their kids together. But what I’m not going to do is to validate some notion that the Republican crack-up that’s been taking place is a consequence of actions that I’ve taken.
President Obama pinned the rise of Donald Trump squarely on the Republican Party. Republicans decided that they were going to embrace birtherism, obstruction and hate as a political strategy. The soil that grew Donald Trump was fertilized by Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and every single elected Republican who followed the lead of conservative media by embracing Obama hate.
The bill has come due for seven years of Republican racially divisive politics. Donald Trump is doing nothing more than running on all of the same positions that Republican politicians used to win House and Senate elections in 2010 and 2014. Donald Trump isn’t hijacking the Republican Party. He is a byproduct of the Republican Party.
Obama didn’t create Trump. The Republican reaction to the success of Obama’s presidency created Trump. Republicans blame Obama for everything, but they only have themselves to blame for the rise of Donald Trump.
For me it’s sad, I have no choice but to sit and watch like other shocked observers at the spectacle which is the wanton loss of life in Jamaica. Young children slaughtered along with their parents yet it does not evoke any anger or outrage. It has become par for the course, another day of life or more like another day of living at death’s door in Jamaica.
I have consistently said I do not speak to the killers nor their supporters who tell us people are dying everywhere. I have said before that by your statements we know who you are . So feel free to ignore what I have to say. To the filthy dirty criminals who have also infiltrated the Police department , I say to you as well you are a disgrace. You are an affront to dignity . You are a liar and a deceiver to the oath you took to defend the constitution and uphold the laws of our country. To you dirty cops I say your day is coming.…
NOW…,
As the Government looks on seemingly helpless and the Opposition party leader pay lip service to the pandemic of ruthless murders , we are shocked at what seem to be a never ending litany of killings and with no one held accountable. Just yesterday two police officers were shot and injured as they fell victim to criminals who tried to rob a passenger bus in Kingston. Hell no, it’s not the first time cops are getting shot , Jamaican police have been getting shot for years . I should know, more than twenty five years ago I found that out first hand. It was bad when we were fighting crime naked with one hand tied behind our backs, it’s worse now that police are naked with both hands tied behind their backs, and added weight dragging them down. No they are not guiltless, they must take some of the blame for that.
According to Jamaicagleaner.com.... Details have emerged about the shooting of two policemen along Spanish Town Road in St Andrew last night.Communication Officer with the Jamaica Constabulary Force, Superintendent Stephanie Lindsay, says one of the cops was shot during a robbery of a public passenger bus. Superintendent Lindsay says the policeman and other passengers were held up and robbed by men armed with guns. According to her, the policeman, who was robbed, challenged the robbers and he was shot. She says a police team that was nearby rushed to the scene to help and they were fired on by the armed robbers. Superintendent Lindsay says one of the cops in the team was shot and injured. She says two of the robbers are in police custody and the injured policemen are still being treated.
Now the people who follow what I have to say on the subject of crime knows quite well that I have consistently and unabashedly advocated that members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force shoulder their arms in this fight against the Island’s murderers. What I did not say was that they shoulder arms when they are attacked. Every good police officer must ensure that they protect their families and themselves. Either this insane fever of criminal support breaks or the country slide further into insanity. There is time,all officers have to do is sit tight. I do not encourage this action because I am opposed to exterminating vicious murderers from among us. I say this because the laws criminalizes cops for doing their job on one hand and empowers criminals on the other.
Police remove high powered weapons from the streets , but are largely unbacked in the task at hand which is how to remove the killers from the streets.
The power that be, knows what to do to end this pandemic of murder. How do I know this ? Because they created the conditions which made it possible ! It was no accident that they removed the idea of super cops who knew where the criminals ate, slept and copulated. It was no accident that they created another police agency (INDECOM) to cripple and corral law enforcement , (which by the way has no power to investigate them). It was no accident that both political parties balkanized the Island into garrisons from which their Dons wield power and control outside the power and scope of the nation’s law enforcement agency’s control. It’s was no accident that the Administration in Kingston, past and present, has cozied up with and colluded with Jamaicans For Justice, Families Against State Terrorism , among others, while police officers who face the mindless killers are left on their own, exposed to criminal indictment even when the do everything by the book.
I have repeatedly said that the fact that police killing of criminals have gone down has nothing to do with INDECOM’ s vigilance. It has everything to do with the fact that cops are not willing to be criminalized for engaging criminals. Why should they? When cops do not engage with criminals they do not shoot criminals. When Cops are mindful of financial ruin and criminal prosecution they are hesitant and they get shot by criminals. When cops do not engage everyone gets killed including babies. It follows simply that when police officers engage mindless killers who are heavily armed they have to use commensurate force. I have been saying this for years criminals get shot when police engage them and they resist. These asswipes do not care about life, not yours not mine, as such, those who empower them , those who support them, those who militate on their behalf should be treated with the same degree of contempt that they are treated.
There will be much more bloodshed because the murderers are emboldened . They openly post caches of weapons on social media with their entire profile and nothing is done about it. Jamaica is a fucking small Island, lets cut to the chase. It does not require a bunch of fancy experts to fix this shit. I am terribly tired of hearing all of the convoluted mumbo jumbo shit coming out of the mouths of the shit-heads who talk about crime from behind computer keyboards as if they are writing a term paper of a doctoral thesis.. This is a fucking war which requires warriors who are unafraid to go where these fucking criminals are and apprehend them . If they resist then fucking kill them. Period !!!! There is no pretty way to put that. Killers who kill innocent children in blood-lust deranged assaults are incapable of understanding anything but bullets.
The Prime Minister knows this Portia knows this and Terrence Williams knows it. But Terrence Williams does not give a shit about the loss of life as long as he makes a name for himself on the pile of dead babies. Andrew Holness can in no way claim that he couldn’t do anything about it, he is now the Prime Minister and the Minister of Defence . The first order of business is to protect the lives of innocent people . None so more than the very old, the very young, and those incapable of defending themselves. Enough with the talking, there comes a time when someone has to get blood on their hands in order to stop the bleeding.
That this man has been allowed to be a representative of a major political party for the Presidency of the United States is beyond shocking , not just to many Americans but to people across the Globe who look on in utter horror. That such a hateful narcissist, misogynistic, Racist could emerge as the standard bearer of the Republican Party should however come as no surprise to anyone who has been paying attention.
When the totality of Donald Trump’s character is summed up, by his own words and actions, it becomes clearer each day that Hillary Clinton’s deplorable characterization describes Trump quite appropriately,. Who would argue that bigoted Racists , and Misogynists are deplorable?
Who would argue against the fact that Donald Trump for President has been and always was a huge laughing matter for people all across the world. Elements within the British Parliament wants Trump banned from entering their country. Imagine that within the context that England is America’s closest ally.
Benjamin Netanyahu Israel’s Prime Minister asked Trump not to visit that Country, albeit it was at a critical time, when his presence may have inflamed passions and created violence. Consider however that a potential American president’s presence could been seen to be that potentially combustible has to account for something. Israel may very well be America’s second closest ally.
Consider that the people of America’s closest neighbor on it’s southern border totally hates Donald Trump . Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto invited Trump to his country and was immediately shocked by the visceral and angry response he received from the Mexican people. Enrique Peña Nieto did not have the character to resign,. Nevertheless finance Minister Luis Videgaray, who allegedly arranged the visit stepped down as a result of the uproar Trump’s visit elicited.
let’s look at Donald Trump’s racist 1989 campaign against the so-called Central Park five . Trump spent over a hundred thousand dollars on full page Ads in the city’s newspapers calling for the death penalty of the little boys who were wrongly arrested, and coerced into an unlawful and illegal confession without the benefit of lawyers or their parents present. The oldest boy at the time was a developmentally challenged 16 year old. The other four were 15 and 14 years respectively. Even after the boys had been convicted and served out their full sentences and were found to have been wrongly convicted he showed absolutely no compassion for his racist campaign against them . It should also be noted that Trump called for the death penalty/lynching of the boys even though the central Park victim had not died . To this day Donald Trump refuses to admit he was wrong.
With respect to continued police killings of unarmed Black men across America, Donald Trump called for tougher policing tactics, including the use of the unconstitutional stop and frisk policy. He labels Black People hopeless. Labels Mexicans Rapists and murderers. He wants to ban all Muslims from entering America, solely on the basis of their Muslim faith. He berates and ridicules a gold-star family who sacrificed their only son who lost his life serving in the nation’s armed forces./ He surrounds himself with people like Rudolph Giuliani, and Newt Gingrich., Between himself Giuliani and Gingrich they have nine marriages. That says something about their so-called Christian values or more appropriately their lack thereof.
Other major supporters of Trump includes New Jersey’s Governor Chris Christie a major bully who is alleged to have know and maybe conspired to punish a Fort Lee New Jersey Democratic Mayor who did not endorse him for re-election, by closing lanes leading into the George Washington Bridge. The lane closures created major congestion at the bridge and resulted in much traffic problems for Fort Lee. One former Christie loyalist currently under indictment has testified that Christie absolutely knew about the lane closures . Steve Bannon Alt Right functionary and formerly of the far right website Breitbart now co-control Trump’s campaign. Former FOX head honcho Roger Ailes who allegedly sexually harassed multiple female employees of the misinformation network , costing the company tens of millions, now also reportedly advises Trump. At what point does voters start asking themselves whether this is the president they want.
Trump knows he has a solid block of core supporters who do not care about anything he ever says or does. He alluded to that saying “I could shoot someone in the middle of 5th avenue and I wouldn’t lose a single supporter” . These are the deplorables who absolutely hates everyone who does not look like them or believe what they believe. These are they who blame everyone but themselves for their lack of upward mobility. Ultimately every rational voter has to determine whether this vile creature is a potential America President.
There are a million ways one can be complimentary of something without saying outlandish things which may be construed as controversial. I have always believed that the best way to find out what people really think is to let them speak without interrupting them , by and large they will tell you who they are and what they really believe.
Former President Bill Clinton was once characterized as the Explainer in chief by no other than current President Barack Obama. Coming from President Barack Obama that is a glowing endorsement that Bill Clinton is incredibly capable of articulating a point , probably more so than many. Nobody believe Bill Clinton has a problem saying exactly what he wants to convey,hence that is the reason his comments regarding the Affordable Care Act legitimately raises eyebrows.
Here’s the Clinton Flint, Michigan, speech last Monday.
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Obama
[The current system works fine if you’re eligible for Medicaid, if you’re a lower-income working person, if you’re already on Medicare, or if you get enough subsidies on a modest income that you can afford your health care. But the people that are getting killed in this deal are small businesspeople and individuals who make just a little too much to get any of these subsidies. So you’ve got this crazy system where all of a sudden, 25 million more people have health care and then the people that are out there busting it ― sometimes 60 hours a week ― wind up with their premiums doubled and their coverage cut in half. It’s the craziest thing in the world.
Now the next thing is, we got to figure out now what to do on health care. Her opponent said, ‘Oh, just repeal it all. The market will take care of it.’ That didn’t work out very well for us, did it? We wound up with the most expensive system in the world and we insured the smallest percentage of people. On the other hand, the current system works fine if you’re eligible for Medicaid, if you’re a lower income working person, if you’re already on Medicare, or if you get enough subsidies on a modest income that you can afford your health care.
But the people that are getting killed in this deal are small businesspeople and individuals who make just a little too much to get any of these subsidies. Why? Because they’re not organized, they don’t have any bargaining power with insurance companies, and they’re getting whacked. So you’ve got this crazy system where all of a sudden, 25 million more people have health care and then the people that are out there busting it ― sometimes 60 hours a week ― wind up with their premiums doubled and their coverage cut in half. It’s the craziest thing in the world so here’s the simplest thing ― you raise your hands, you think about it ― here’s the simplest thing: figure out an affordable rate and let people use that ― something that won’t undermine your quality of life, won’t interfere with your ability to make expenses, won’t interfere with your ability to save money for your kid’s college education. And let people buy in to Medicare or Medicaid.
Here’s why: you can let people buy in for just a little bit because unlike where you are now, if you were on the other side of this, if you were an insurer, you’d say, ‘Gosh, I only got 2,000 people in this little pool. Eighty percent of insurance costs every year come from 20 percent of the people. If I get unlucky in the pool, I’ll lose money.’ So they overcharge you just to make sure, and on good years, they just make a whopping profit from the people who are least able to pay it.
It doesn’t make any sense. The insurance model doesn’t work here; it’s not like life insurance, it’s not like casualties, it’s not like predicting flooding. It doesn’t work. So Hillary believes we should simply let people who are above the line for getting these subsidies have access to affordable entry into the Medicare and Medicaid programs. They’ll all be covered, it will not hurt the program, we will not lose a lot of money. And we ought to do it.
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I think his health care bill has been a remarkable success for 25 million people, and for getting rid of pre-existing conditions, and the problems with it show why the president was right to recommend a public option in the first place because the only real problems I can see with it are small businesspeople and individual working people just above the subsidy line are having. Why is that? Because they’re small, they’re independent, they do have any market power vis a vis the insurance companies, and that’s why Hillary said, “The change we need is not to wreck this thing and repeal it. It’s done too much good. The change we need is to create an affordable option for the small business people and the working people who are not covered ― that’s what the public opinion is about.
Keep in mind, when the other side complains about that, if they just pay these people something they can afford, it will cover well over 90 percent of the costs of the expansion of Medicare or Medicaid or both. Why? Because there’s a huge pool. This is one place where his adjective works. This is really important ― there’s a ‘huge’ pool, and the economics of health care are as follows: in any given year, more than 80 percent of the costs are claimed by 20 percent of the people. It’s just a shifting 20 percent. That means if you have a small pool, it’s impossible to price right. It doesn’t work, it’s not like life or casualty or property or other insurance, which is why there should be a public opinion, and it will either be available to people, or the private insurance companies will figure out how to reorganize themselves and put people into huge pools to compete.]
Look Bill Clinton is nobody’s fool he badly wants his wife to be President . Bill Clinton will do anything including running as a blocker for his wife’s campaign . Fans of the Netflix series house of cards may find some similarities between the Clinton’s Political life and that of the fictional couple the Underwoods played by Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright.
Bill Clinton understands that the Affordable Care Act is less than perfect. Now this is partly because of the Intransigence of some Republican Governors. Bill Clinton I believe understands his wife owns this law as much as President Obama, she also struggles mightily with white male voters , who better to speak to those white men than Bill Clinton? I estimate that Bill Clinton wants to insulate his wife from whatever negatives that are out there against the ACA. There was absolutely no reason for him to say So you’ve got this crazy system where all of a sudden, 25 million more people have health care and then the people that are out there busting it ― sometimes 60 hours a week ― wind up with their premiums doubled and their coverage cut in half. It’s the craziest thing in the world so here’s the simplest thing ―
His speech was fine without it and he knows it, it was totally unnecessary and most people understands that. Bill Clinton’s legacy is sometimes lost in the shuffle, Clinton see himself as a great President, yet the conversations on Presidents are generally centered between Ronald Reagan , George W Bush and Barack Obama. Somewhere in that shuffle Bill’s presidency gets lost.
It’s not the only time that Bill Clinton had to do clean up after delivering a speech . Speaking in Spokane Washington last March clinton said the following . [“Now, if you don’t believe we can all grow together again, if you don’t believe we’re ever going to grow again, if you believe it’s more important to re-litigate the past, there may be many reasons that you don’t want to support her. But if you believe we can all rise together, if you believe we’ve finally come to the point where we can put the awful legacy of the last eight years behind us and the seven years before that— when we were practicing trickle-down economics and no regulation in Washington which is what caused the crash — then you should vote for her because she’s the only person who basically has good ideas, will tell you how she’s going to pay for them, can be commander-in-chief and is a proven change-maker with Republicans and Democrats and independents alike.”]
File photo at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2009. (AP Photo/Jeff Christensen)
Many saw those comments as an attack on the stewardship of President Barack Obama. Clinton and his people were forced to clarify that he was speaking to Republicans unprecedented obstruction these last eight years is their legacy, and the American people should reject it by electing Hillary Clinton to build on President Obama’s success so we can all grow and succeed together.” The fact of the matter is Clinton did not say anything about Republican Obstruction but in fact said the awful legacy of the past eight years and the previous seven years. Even if by some stretch of logic one is able to accept that the last eight years comment could be assigned to Republican obstructionism, what do you do with the seven years before that . One would have to accept that Bill Clinton was saying that the Republican Congress was obstructing the Bush Presidency , which is not supported by neither fact nor logic. Like I said let people speak and they will tell you how they really feel.
My distrust of Bill Clinton may not square with many Democrats, truthfully many people see Bill as the first Black President or a sort of honorary black of sorts. I don’t. Bill and Hillary Clinton are two incredibly ambitious people who wants to win at all cost. I believe neither of them are necessarily bad people, they are just two people who will do what they must to win. If that include dissing the affordable care act, dissing Obama’s presidency, or ditching the TPP as Hillary now does then so be it. Bill Clinton, the first Black President[sic] had no problem dissing sister soulja in 92. He had no problem telling Senator Ted Kennedy in 2008 that the only reason he was supporting Barack Obama for President was because he was black. He had no problem telling Senator Kennedy that “A few years ago, this guy would have been getting us coffee,” the former president told the liberal lion from Massachusetts, according to the campaign book, “Game Change.”
Yeah , I’m sorry but I view Bill Clinton’s comments with far more cynicism and skepticism than the average center left person does and I believe with proper justification. But then again I may be wrong.
Renowned for his decades-long quest for peace in the Middle East, Shimon Peres’s greatest triumph was his cunning and successful plan to bring nuclear weapons to Israel.
CHRISTOPHERDICKEY
09.28.16 4:12 AMET
PARIS —Shimon Peres is recognized as a great statesman and will be remembered after his death early Wednesday morning at age 93 as a passionate advocate of peace between Israel’s Jews and the Arabs of the Middle East.
With a longer view, historians will note that he managed to become prime minister twice and president of the State of Israel, but he never clearly won the powerful premiership in popular or parliamentary votes. He was always admirable, but in the end, proved almost unelectable, a brilliant rhetorician, but not nearly as successful a politician as, say, long-serving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Even as a peacemaker, or perhaps especially as a peacemaker, Peres could articulate brilliantly and beautifully the desires for peace, the reasons for peace, the benefits of peace, and indeed he shared the Nobel Peace Prize with then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and the PLO’s Yassir Arafat. But Peres could not bring home the goods, and the relative calm that exists in Israel and the occupied territories for the moment is far from the peace that Peres so often and so eloquently described.
So it is ironic that his greatest single accomplishment — the one that has protected his nation decade after decade in the savage landscape of the Middle East, is one the Israeli government still, as a matter of form, will not acknowledge. Because it was Peres who brought home to Israel the nuclear weapons and the ballistic missiles that were and, for better or worse, still are the ultimate guarantor of its survival.
One key to the Israeli nuclear-weapons program launched in the mid-1950s was France, where the young Peres — still in his thirties and serving as the director general of Israel’s defense ministry — cultivated a vast array of important political and scientific contacts.
The other key was the systematic deception of the United States, which at first opposed Israel’s development of a nuclear-weapons capability, then failed to connect the dots that showed that’s what it was doing, then tried to buy it off with a huge increase in conventional weapons shipments, and finally, in 1969 accepted tacitly what it had failed to prevent explicitly.
Avner Cohen’s book Israel and the Bomb, published in 1998,still offers some of the most detailed and thoughtful information about what he calls Israel’s “nuclear opacity,” the refusal to admit what the world knows and what is, in fact, a vital source of deterrence. To study that history of 60 years ago is also to understand why Israel is so suspicious of Iran’s nuclear deceptions. It’s been there, done that, and Peres led the way.
When Criminals break the law they ought to know they will be punished . They ought to know they will be caught, not may be caught . They ought to know it’s not a matter of if , but a matter of when.
That was the attitude I brought to law-enforcement back in my day , it ought to be the attitude of police today and going forward. When the Commissioner of Police said that no stones will be left unturned until Duppy Film is brought to justice for killing two police officers he ought to have meant it. He ought not only mean it but he should only say it if he has the means to deliver on his promise. Almost a year later the name Duppy Film is a distant memory . Neither the Commissioner of Police nor his band of overweight khaki wearing paper tigers bother to talk about this assassin who summarily executed two law-enforcement officers without consequence.
As for me I would not have promised what the Commissioner of Police promised. Not only because I understood from the get go that the Commissioner was speaking from the side of his mouth to appease the officer’s families . I would most certainly have prefered bringing justice to him period. Those who like to pontificate and pretend that Jamaica is a place in which Policing can be done as it is in Scandinavia are free to exist in that utopian bubble, I share no such belief.
I am going to hazard a guess that cop killers would certainly not be on the loose during the days of Anthony Hewitt , Isiah Laing , Cornwall (bigga) Ford, OC Hare, Altamoth (parra )Campbell and the long list of valiant crime fighters who kept the streets safe and criminals in their place. The self appointed moralists can argue all they want. It does not change the fact that crime was kept to a minimum and they benefitted from the lower murder numbers.
Jamaica has got to be the only place on Earth which looks for policing solutions and strategies from talking heads rather than those who are actually trained in the discipline and have lived the experience. It’s little wonder that they passed a law supposedly to catch criminal cops , throwing out concerns from good cops and having the law increase crime exponentially as a result.. If the political class wanted a lid on crime as they contemplated a second policing agency, they would certainly have empowered that agency to go after all criminals , like the FBI is empowered.
As many average Jamaicans have alluded, the laws are designed to oppress the poorer class while rendering the upper class untouchable. Today that upper class characterization has been reduced to any two-bit lawyer or political thug. If you know someone who know someone who know someone in power you are untouchable. Our country is no different than a sub-Saharan tin-pan dictatorship.
Horace Levy
Murder is the topic of discussion once again as was in 2010 when it reached a crescendo leading up to the Tivoli Gardens annexation to Jamaica . Front and center in the conversation are the same cheap hustlers who play both sides of the conversation.\ Hustlers like Horace Levy has long been seen as a relevant voice in the discussion as it relates to the Island’s impoverished neighborhoods , crime and gangs. Levy once headed a NGO called the Peace Management Initiative.
https://mikebeckles.com/jamaica-human-rights-gravy-train/ As head of that NGO Levy found a seat at the table on the national discourse on crime, it also gave him a powerful megaphone much like JFJ and other hustlers have been allowed to dominate the conversation to the detriment of the Island. As a consequence of having that megaphone Horace Levy joined the long line of anti-police antagonists who use their perch to demonize the police and elevate criminals. Levy has led a visceral campaign against the Jamaica Constabulary Force, burnishing his image as a savior of sorts for the downtrodden while simultaneously ensuring his relevance within the context of what exist on the Island. https://mikebeckles.com/looking-to-continue-eating-a-food‑2/
Horace Levy viscerally excoriated the Police’ assessment of what constituted Gangs in many of the Island’s depressed communities back in 2013. In a deliberative pushback Levy said much of what the police counted as active gangs were what he characterized as Corner Crews. In a letter to then Commissioner of Police Owen Ellington,Levy said the following.
Some questions for the police, the commissioner of police, the minister of national security, and the people of Jamaica: Does every police encounter with criminals have to involve a shoot-out? Must every police encounter with criminals require the use of lethal force? Are our criminals really so more vicious than criminals in other countries that they can only be dealt with by lethal force? How come our more vicious criminals manage to shoot so few police? How much longer will Commissioner of Police Owen Ellington go on supporting, even encouraging, the killings carried out by his men? How much longer will Minister of National Security Peter Bunting go on endorsing the behavior of Commissioner of Police Ellington? How much longer will our citizens go on tolerating this kind of wanton killing of fellow citizens? Is the blood of only a few of us boiling? If this can happen in the first two weeks of the year, what will the other 50 be like?
At the time Horace Levy berated the Jamaican Police for battling the Island’s urban killers in which he outright said not enough cops are being killed in their encounters with criminals. These were some of the crime numbers which existed between the years 2001 to 2008, 2001 – 2008. Reported Cases of Murder : 10, 836 Shootings : 11,229 Rape and Carnal Abuse: 9119
At the time Levy wrote that letter no one challenged Levy on the insanity that more police officers should be getting shot if the number of armed men they were eliminating were actually truly engaging them in shoot-outs. Without one scintilla of evidence this line of ghastly reasoning was allowed to prevail without the proper level of outrage which should have been attached to it. I cannot think of any other country in which this line of argument would have been allowed to continue , much less coming from agencies of Government which are taxpayer supported as the Public defender’s office is. No one except this humble writer bothered to challenge that notion because it was the prevailing belief of literally all who hated police, including the head of the taxpayer funded office of public defender at the time Earl Witter and the long list of people who gained relevance by saying they were for human rights.
Today crime is out of control, the Island is awash in guns, the Police is effectively hollowed out to a shell of its former effectiveness , and lord knows it was far from perfect. The Island’s killers don’t bother to hide their faces when they parade their weapons, or when they kill .Why should they ‚who is going to go get them? There are effective taxpayer funded safeguards against them being pursued , prosecuted much less taken out. The American Federal Bureau Of Investigations(FBI) and the Drug Enforcement Agency(DEA) will now be operating supposedly out of the American Embassy in Kingston. There has been next to no discussion on the Sovereignty issue inherent in this revelation . The muted whimpers I have heard all seem to suggest well we’ll take any help we can get.
In Tuesday’s Edition of the Jamaica Gleaner Horace Levy’s narrative has seemingly come full circle . In a rambling diatribe titled: Containment Not Good Enough. Levy said quote:
Minister Bobby Montague’s presentation in Parliament last week on the measures taken to stem the violence in western Jamaica was detailed and comprehensive. It seems to have satisfied most people that the minister, the police, the Government are on top of the problem. The really sad thing is that satisfaction. It is because the violence, grim as it is, 100 murders a month and climbing is treated as intractable. It has been with us for so long that it has become a fixture in our environment, a grin-and-bear-it unease. So the counter-violence prescriptions, which focus solely on repression and containment, are taken as sufficient. It is not even noticed that containing for a time is all they are doing. http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/commentary/20161004/horace-levy-containment-not-good-enough
In brief ‚Horace Levy demanded to know why wasn’t the slippery slide into anarchy prevented. Ha for the freedom to chat shit and not be held accountable .… Horace Levy simply believe that as always no one notices that he is playing both sides for his personal benefit. In the end Horace Levy’s comments not only showed his political stripes it reveals for the country the hypocrisy of these leeches who play the system for all it’s worth for their own use and benefit . Sorry Horace Levy not every Jamaican is ignorant or blind to what you are doing. You cannot have it both ways. I see you.….….….….…..
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