Kartel Close To Tears/​give Me A Damn Break !

In a plea for his free­dom, Vybz Kartel told the 11-mem­ber jury in the High Court yes­ter­day that his skin bleach­ing and tat­toos were tools of his trade and asked not to be judged by his appear­ance. In one of five unsworn state­ments from the dock by the accused men, Vybz Kartel asked Justice Lennox Campbell and the jurors to sep­a­rate Vybz Kartel from Adidja Palmer.“My Lord, I bleach my skin and I am heav­i­ly tat­tooed also . My Lord, that is mere­ly super­fi­cial, that is the per­sona of Vybz Kartel, not Adidja Palmer. My Lord, I think you will agree…,” he said. “Who me?” asked Justice Campbell. “Yes, My Lord, some­times a per­son can be judged by appear­ance. My Lord, I am not an alien who came from space and land­ed on Earth.

Drum Roll, please .….….…And the Oscar goes to Vybz Kartel. What a load of crock. Many have argued that Adidja Palmer is a smart, tal­ent­ed man. I will with­hold per­son­al judg­ment on either. This is Kartel at his vin­tage best. The lib­er­al Judge Lennox Campbell is being mes­mer­ized by a true Artiste. This Courtroom is Kartel’s stage. The tri­al Judge, Jury, and oth­ers in that room were a mere audi­ence to his mas­tery. He was await­ing this moment. The moment to woo his audi­ence and mes­mer­ize his sub­jects is what Kartel does on stage — the allu­sion to his tat­toos, his skin bleach­ing, and his becom­ing a vic­tim. The whole talk about being placed on the floor by the police is clear­ly a bril­liant attempt to evoke any neg­a­tive emo­tions jury mem­bers may have of the Police. Mentioning the actions of a less-than-pop­u­lar Minister of National Security Minister. All aimed at evok­ing an emo­tion­al response from the Jury.

A bril­liant strat­e­gy, he and his Attorneys may think. Yet, it is a strat­e­gy that shows he has no defense against the charges. This is smoke and mir­rors, the­atrics, innu­en­dos, and unsub­stan­ti­at­ed alle­ga­tions of impro­pri­ety. In a Courtroom where jus­tice is sacro­sanct, this dis­play of the­atrics can be seen for what it is. Yes, Adidja Palmer and Vybz Kartel would be allowed to say his piece, but at the end of his the­atrics, there would be one ver­dict: “Guilty.“Unfortunately, the few Jamaicans who want jus­tice done must still be ner­vous and appre­hen­sive. Despite the over­whelm­ing evi­dence against the accused, the sys­tem is so bro­ken that one should not be sur­prised if they walked. At best, even if con­vict­ed, they will prob­a­bly end up with a slap on the wrist from this par­tic­u­lar Liberal Activist act­ing as pre­sid­ing Judge.
Worse yet, I believe his deci­sion not to throw out the jury once told that there has been tam­per­ing will come back to bite both Lennox Campbell and the Prosecution.