Revamp,re-do, Re-authorize INDECOM !

I am par­tial and def­er­en­tial to the rule of law, I believe that as peo­ple we should be free to live our lives the way we chose, as long as what we do, does­n’t cause harm to oth­ers. I believe also that soci­eties must have rules com­men­su­rate with the times in which we live, oth­er­wise the result is chaos and anarchy.

Conversely I believe we should be able to find an agree­able mid­dle where the voic­es of those who gen­uine­ly advo­cate for human rights must be heard. The checks and bal­ances which gen­uine human rights agen­cies seek, can­not be over­looked, we owe it to our­selves to ensure that every cit­i­zen’s voice mat­ters, on the occa­sion when they can­not speak for them­selves, inde­pen­dent non-aligned human rights agen­cies should and must advo­cate on their behalf.

Oversight is good for law enforce­ment agen­cies, or at least the image of those who work in law-enforce­ment. I have spo­ken to numer­ous law enforce­ment pro­fes­sion­als, in var­i­ous police agen­cies in the United States as well as my for­mer col­leagues and I hear the same argu­ments over and over.

“We do not mind over­sight, we just do not need biased, zeal­ous over­sight, with peo­ple hav­ing their own agen­das”. My for­mer col­leagues in Jamaica, refers to over­sight agen­cies as “pres­sure groups” . They tell me they want peo­ple who under­stand what cops face, to do over­sight, and not fly by night pow­er-hun­gry-media whores, with nar­cis­sis­tic ambi­tions of grandeur.

INDECOM

The Independent Commission of Investigations was cre­at­ed to inves­ti­gate alle­ga­tions of abuse by agents of the Jamaican state.I will not bore you with the details sur­round­ing the for­mu­la­tion of the Agency. We will pro­vide a link so you may read for your­selves what the agency is sup­posed to be about.http://​www​.inde​com​.gov​.jm/.

The law has come up for review, as it has rea­son­ably been designed to after 3 years. As we com­ment­ed pre­vi­ous­ly, the Police, Military and now the Minister of National Security has come out against the Act. Minister Bunting who has respon­si­bil­i­ty for the nation’s secu­ri­ty did not mince words in rela­tion to this Act, quote: This com­mis­sion is too pow­er­ful. As we argued in a pre­vi­ous post, the Act con­flicts with the role of the com­mis­sion­er of police and the chief of defense staff’s abil­i­ty to oper­ate their agen­cies, notwith­stand­ing that the com­mis­sion­er of INDECOM has no expe­ri­ence in police or mil­i­tary mat­ters or procedures.

The com­mis­sion­er of INDECOM is empow­ered to direct both secu­ri­ty agency heads, to car­ry out and effect change to their respec­tive agen­cies , even though they are ulti­mate­ly respon­si­ble for the effec­tive­ness of their agen­cies. Not enough, the com­mis­sion­er of INDECOM , despite those sweep­ing pow­ers, is des­per­ate­ly demand­ing more and more pow­er, even as he runs around with peo­ple opposed to the rule of law and good order in Jamaica.

Despite all the heat­ed rhetoric com­ing from Terrence Williams about police excess and demands for more pow­er for him­self, in his lat­est sub­mis­sion to Parliament he report­ed that the major­i­ty of cas­es inves­ti­gat­ed by his office, police offi­cers act­ed prop­er­ly in the actions they took. This Act has ele­ments that seem clear­ly uncon­sti­tu­tion­al, even to the untrained. The Police Federation a use­less geld­ing pup­py does noth­ing for its mem­bers and nei­ther does the rum-bel­ly gazetted ranks, many of whom are mere polit­i­cal lap-dogs. These are the issues which should unite them toward a com­mon good. The Officers Association and Federation could be a for­mi­da­ble force on this issue, alas they would rather head for the near­est rum-bar.

This INDECOM Act was not prop­er­ly though out, it was a typ­i­cal knee-jerk act designed to assuage the con­cerns of crim­i­nal rights lob­by in the coun­try, with Carolyn Gomes of the anti-police group JFJ’s fin­ger-prints all over it. Not hav­ing a law is bet­ter than a bad law, this is a bad law which needs to be revamped re-debat­ed and re-authorized.

Sections of the Act lit­er­al­ly forces police offi­cers to self incrim­i­nate, it forces them to give state­ments, when they have to use force with­in a giv­en time, even as they are trau­ma­tized and should have the ben­e­fit of coun­sel. This Act in my esti­ma­tion is inju­ri­ous and harm­ful to law enforce­ment and offi­cers, National Security as artic­u­lat­ed by the Jamaica Defense Force, and huge con­se­quences for nation­al secu­ri­ty and pub­lic inter­est as argued by Minister Bunting.

Police needs over­sight which is con­ver­sant with the chal­lenges law enforce­ment faces. Oversight should be free from inter­fer­ence from the likes of Jamaicans for Justice. Those who inves­ti­gate the inves­ti­ga­tors should not be in a posi­tion to put self and per­son­al inter­est over coun­try as is hap­pen­ing now. When over­sight is car­ried out fair­ly , impar­tial­ly and free from ran­cor every­one ben­e­fits. What Jamaica can ill-afford, is a Jamaican FBI style agency, with a J Edgar Hoover type, ego-mani­a­cal nar­cis­sist, out of con­trol with too much power.

Fix it now or pay dear­ly later.