It’s Time To Send A Clear Message To The Bleached-out Faced Killers That We Will Not Play By Their Rules…

The most sig­nif­i­cant con­trib­u­tor to the law­less­ness in our coun­try is an obstruc­tion­ist judi­cia­ry that har­bors the belief that it should be left to oper­ate out­side of the con­trol of the peo­ple’s elect­ed representatives.
The Judges of the Supreme Court are appoint­ed by the President under clause (2) of Article 124 of the Constitution. The President con­sults with Supreme Court and High Court judges to make informed appointments.
The judi­cia­ry of Jamaica is based on the judi­cia­ry of the United Kingdom.
The courts are orga­nized at four lev­els, with addi­tion­al pro­vi­sions for appeals to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London. The Court of Appeal is the high­est appel­late court.
It is impor­tant to cast aside the shack­les of British Colonial attach­ments. We must draft, dis­cuss, and rat­i­fy a new Constitution with Jamaicans hav­ing the final say in our sys­tem of Justice.
Having said that, I am ful­ly con­ver­sant with the propen­si­ty of Jamaican author­i­ties to default to cor­rup­tion. Therefore, the new Constitution must have guardrails and safe­guards to ensure that no one picks up the phone to call a col­league to influ­ence the out­come of a mat­ter before the courts. Guardrails must ensure that the chat­ter at their lit­tle coun­try clubs does not influ­ence jus­tice in our coun­try as much as possible.

It is past time that Jamaica shed this yoke of Colonial resid­u­al­ism and forge ahead on the strength of our own ener­gies and intel­lect. Allowing a bunch of unelect­ed bureau­crats to deter­mine how jus­tice is admin­is­tered is tan­ta­mount to liv­ing under a king and his decrees.
We must strong­ly tell Charles we no longer want to buy what he sells. It is quite okay for the British to cast aside cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment; their cit­i­zens do not have access to guns. Consequently, some of their cops can opt not to car­ry guns. Jamaica has no such lux­u­ry. Our small nation is flood­ed with ille­gal firearms, and there is no short­age of mind­less poten­tial mur­der­ers who are will­ing to use them to show pow­er. The state can­not con­tin­ue to be def­er­en­tial and sub­mis­sive to the crim­i­nals oper­at­ing in our country.
There is no short­age of poten­tial to get this run-away crime and law­less­ness under con­trol. There was no short­age of poten­tial dur­ing the 1980s when we made them flee to oth­er countries.
The prob­lem lies in a cor­rupt leg­isla­tive body that lacks the intesti­nal for­ti­tude to pass appro­pri­ate leg­is­la­tion that puts crim­i­nals in prison and keeps them there.
The judges argue that they grant bail to mur­der­ers because it is uncon­sti­tu­tion­al not to. Let us then change the con­sti­tu­tion and remove that excuse from them.
Let us ensure that the peo­ple who will­ful­ly mur­der oth­ers are put away for life. Let us stop fos­ter­ing the non­sense that they deserve short sen­tences, as some on the judi­cia­ry believe, so they should be let off lightly.
Finally, let us ensure that judges get no say in sen­tenc­ing dan­ger­ous killers; let us enshrine it in law that mur­der­ers are put away with no pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole.
Hardly any­one forces any­one to com­mit mur­der, but if it hap­pens, there are mit­i­gat­ing built-ins in the laws to pro­tect those offenders.
It is time to stop the cha­rade and seri­ous­ly send a mes­sage to these bleached-out face killers that they will play by our rules, not the oth­er way around. We owe it to our chil­dren and grand­chil­dren. We owe it to the sur­vival of our nation…

.

.

.

Mike Beckles is a for­mer Police Detective, busi­ness­man, free­lance writer, black achiev­er hon­oree, and cre­ator of the blog mike​beck​les​.com.