How Corruption, Greed, And Dishonesty Is Destroying Jamaica.….

It’s not always easy to change one’s mind about some­thing you have always believed.
As human beings, we are very prone to com­part­men­tal­iz­ing things and tuck­ing them away in the quite recess­es of our con­scious­ness where they make us comfortable.

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

We demon­strate a low tol­er­ance to any­one or any­thing which would chal­lenge our con­ven­tion­al wis­dom, even though the chal­lenge may be backed up with com­pelling doc­u­men­tary evidence.
When igno­rance and a basic lack of abil­i­ty to think crit­i­cal­ly and out­side the box is added, con­vinc­ing us that what we thought we knew was wrong, becomes an exer­cise in futility.

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

Such is the case with cer­tain dri­ver com­po­nents of crime in Jamaica.
To a large extent, many peo­ple are quick to blame the tra­di­tion­al whip­ping boys (the police), it makes them feel good because they nev­er liked nor respect­ed the police in the first place. Understandably so, the police can take their free­dom away and stop their illic­it activities.

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

For oth­ers, the ani­mus is a bit dif­fer­ent, the police force came out of the Moarnat Bay Rebellion and as such [per­cep­tive­ly] is still to this day an ene­my of the aver­age poor man. None of this makes sense 153 years after that Rebellion and a dra­mat­ic shift in who gov­erns the Island.
Others blame the politi­cians [cor­rect­ly so]. Poverty and oth­er issues have also been iden­ti­fied as dri­vers of crime in the once peace­ful and beau­ti­ful Island so many of us call home.

Jamaican Lax Justice System Massive Driver Of Crime…

None of the enti­ties named above can be held total­ly respon­si­ble but nei­ther can they be total­ly exonerated.
Nevertheless, shock­ing­ly, one of the great­est threat to the nation’s secu­ri­ty lies with the nation’s courts!
As I said pre­vi­ous­ly, peo­ple are gen­er­al­ly very unhap­py when you chal­lenge what they under­stand to be con­ven­tion­al wis­dom so I will keep my head down as some of the mis­siles fly over my head from those so predisposed.

Jamaican Judge Releases Cop Killers, Without Explanation.

The courts have been a seri­ous imped­i­ment to crime fight­ing for decades, so much so that many who work in the jus­tice deliv­ery cir­cle have been long con­vinced that many of the Island’s judges are not as clean as many Jamaicans would like to believe.
I will not talk about the need for the judi­cia­ry to be inde­pen­dent. I will not talk about the fact that judges have a right to use their dis­cre­tion as it relates to the issue of bail and sentencing.
I will not speak to any of the dis­claimers which get us bogged down in the morass of who is enti­tled to do what.

Those have been baked into the cake con­sti­tu­tion­al­ly, I will not flog those dead horses.
The fact of the mat­ter is that the courts have been feed­ing the crime cul­ture for years, erod­ing the rule of law, demor­al­iz­ing our police, enhanc­ing street jus­tice in our com­mu­ni­ties and assist­ing in the rise of the Don cul­ture.

Jamaica’s Criminal Loving Judges:

The dis­par­i­ties in the sen­tences passed down in the courts [if at all] have long passed the stage where we roll our eyes. Judges have tak­en it upon them­selves to brazen­ly grant bail to mass killers over and over and over regard­less of the num­ber of peo­ple they kill.
They con­tin­ue to hide behind the idea that the accused are enti­tled to bail and that bail should not be used as punishment.

The fact of the mat­ter is that they are absolute­ly wrong on the idea that accused are Entitled to bail.…
There is no enti­tle­ment to bail if an accused offend­er is a flight risk.
Ther is no enti­tle­ment to bail if an accused offend­er is like­ly to [kill] or oth­er­wise inter­fere with witnesses.
There is no enti­tle­ment to bail depend­ing on the seri­ous­ness of the charge against the accused.

Jamaica’s Mad Liberal Judges:

Jamaica’s judges have con­sis­tent­ly abused their author­i­ty by admon­ish­ing and dis­charg­ing offend­ers who phys­i­cal­ly assault police offi­cers embold­en­ing and encour­ag­ing those attacks as a consequence.
They are now engaged in the process of admon­ish­ing and dis­charg­ing felony cas­es. Jamaican Judges can no longer pre­tend that their abuse of pow­er gives them the author­i­ty to decide to total­ly allow felons to walk free with­out any con­se­quences for their actions.

Many Jamaican Lawyers Are Not Above Board, They Should Not Expect To Get Special Treatment When They Break The Laws…

The out­ra­geous instances of judi­cial malfea­sance and mis­con­duct are well doc­u­ment­ed in this medi­um and by this lone voice shout­ing in the wilderness.
What has tak­en Jamaicans so long to rec­og­nize that there is a seri­ous prob­lem in the court’s sys­tem may be a func­tion of a desire to have some­thing in which they can believe and trust.
An unwill­ing­ness [at least in this one case] to believe that there is not a sin­gle pub­lic enti­ty that has not be tar­nished by corruption.
Alas, in real terms that ship has long sailed. As it relates to the Jamaican court’s sys­tem a hard and fast belief in its fideli­ty and lack of cor­rup­tion is tan­ta­mount to reor­ga­niz­ing the deck chairs on a sink­ing Titanic.

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

At some point, there has to be an under­stand­ing that the courts like oth­er pub­lic bod­ies have been taint­ed by the cor­rupt­ing and cor­ro­sive influ­ence of dirty mon­ey.

FROM THE JAMAICA DAILY GLEANER.

Dozens of per­sons who were con­vict­ed for ille­gal pos­ses­sion of guns and ammu­ni­tion in St James and three oth­er west­ern parish­es last year got off easy, as High Court judges opt­ed for sus­pend­ed sen­tences and fines as low as $70,000, an explo­sive doc­u­ment com­piled by the police has revealed.

In one case, a St James man, con­vict­ed for ille­gal pos­ses­sion of firearm and ammu­ni­tion, was admon­ished and dis­charged. In sev­er­al oth­er cas­es, judges opt­ed for pro­ba­tion orders. The doc­u­ment cit­ed 35 cas­es that were dis­posed of in the cir­cuit courts in Trelawny, St James, Hanover, and Westmoreland. The most severe pun­ish­ment, it showed, was a five-year sen­tence hand­ed down in the Western Regional Gun Court.

According to police sta­tis­tics, more than 570 per­sons were killed across the four parish­es last year, includ­ing a record 335 in St James. The police say approx­i­mate­ly 80 per­cent of those killings involved the use of a firearm. Furious inves­ti­ga­tors blast­ed the actions of the judges cit­ed in the doc­u­ment and demand­ed that it be brought to the atten­tion of the Andrew Holness admin­is­tra­tion. “Based on our inves­ti­ga­tions, it is very clear that there is a direct link with most of these firearms [in the cas­es cit­ed] and most of our crime scenes with­in the Area [Four Police Division],” one top inves­ti­ga­tor com­plained. “Even though we ful­ly rec­og­nize the inde­pen­dence of our judi­cia­ry, we are very con­cerned about the effec­tive­ness of these sen­tences being hand­ed down by the respec­tive judges. In light of this, I am request­ing that our con­cerns be raised with the appro­pri­ate min­istry.”

DAMPENING MORALE

The six-page doc­u­ment indi­cat­ed that at the high­er end of the scale, four per­sons were sen­tenced to four years at hard labor, three to three years, while three oth­ers got two years. “St James is the most mur­der­ous [police] divi­sion in the coun­try, and five years is the high­est sen­tence hand­ed down,” declared one senior inves­ti­ga­tor, who warned that the pun­ish­ments being imposed by judges are damp­en­ing morale. At the low­er end, the doc­u­ment revealed that in June last year, Justice Bertram Morrison imposed a total fine of $170,000 on a man found guilty of ille­gal pos­ses­sion of firearm and ammu­ni­tion and a $70,000 fine for anoth­er man con­vict­ed of ille­gal pos­ses­sion of ammunition.

Morrison ignit­ed a firestorm of crit­i­cisms on Monday after he sen­tenced three men held with 18 guns and near­ly 1,400 assort­ed rounds of ammu­ni­tion in Portland near­ly five years ago to five years in prison for each firearm, and four years for ille­gal pos­ses­sion of ammu­ni­tion, all to be served simul­ta­ne­ous­ly. Not to be out­done, the doc­u­ment revealed that in July last year, Justice Vivienne Harris opt­ed to impose pro­ba­tion orders or super­vised release for two and three years, respec­tive­ly, as pun­ish­ment for two men found guilty of ille­gal pos­ses­sion of firearm and ammunition.

Eight days lat­er, accord­ing to the report, Harris hand­ed out sen­tences of two years in prison, sus­pend­ed for two years; 12 months in prison, sus­pend­ed for two years; two years pro­ba­tion; and 18 months in prison, to four men con­vict­ed for the offens­es of ille­gal pos­ses­sion of firearm and ammu­ni­tion. Last January, a St James man was admon­ished and dis­charged by Justice David Fraser, who, days lat­er, imposed a sen­tence of four years at hard labor, all for the same offense of ille­gal pos­ses­sion of firearm and ammu­ni­tion, the doc­u­ment revealed. http://​jamaica​-glean​er​.com/​a​r​t​i​c​l​e​/​l​e​a​d​-​s​t​o​r​i​e​s​/​2​0​1​8​0​1​1​7​/​g​u​n​s​-​n​o​-​p​r​o​b​l​e​m​-​j​u​d​g​e​s​-​w​e​s​t​e​r​n​-​j​a​-​b​l​a​s​t​e​d​-​l​i​g​h​t​-​s​e​n​t​e​n​c​e​s​-​i​l​l​e​gal

The tragedy in all of this is that 1616 peo­ple were report­ed mur­dered last year. This year so far the coun­try is on track to see an even high­er num­ber of over 1800 Jamaicans murdered.
At the same time, the Government con­tin­ues to pull judges from the dirty pool of tri­al lawyers, mak­ing them judges while sev­er­al are struck from the list of those allowed to prac­tice law annually.

Politicians and police are involved in the mas­sive growth of secu­ri­ty com­pa­nies and funer­al par­lors and oth­er spin-off oper­a­tions which have devel­oped from the kill-cul­ture.
It is a shock­ing unspo­ken col­lu­sion of cor­rup­tion which has engulfed the tiny Island of 2.8 mil­lion. It is cor­rup­tion at all lev­els in a shock­ing con­flu­ence of dis­hon­esty and immorality.
When the final chap­ter is writ­ten, col­lege cours­es will be taught on this, a tem­plate on how cor­rup­tion, greed, and dis­hon­esty was allowed to destroy a beau­ti­ful nation.