Even with the benefit of hindsight the JLP Government & Delroy Chuck, in collaboration with the opposition PNP, has made it clear that they are dead set on a path to further place the Jamaican public at further risk.
The Island’s justice minister Delroy Chuck seems hell-bent on protecting criminals to the peril of the wider law-abiding population.
After two smackdowns, one by the Jamaica Court of Appeals and finally by the British Privy Council, INDECOM’s agenda seems to be front and center on Chuck’s to-do list, rather than the protection of the Jamaican public from the marauding killers that continue to terrorize the nation.
The power-hungry commissioner of INDECOM has indicated that he intends to step aside in July of 2020, he is on his second term and has indicated that he does not intend to seek a third.
Terrence Williams did not decide to step aside because he wanted to, his entire tenure at the helm of INDECOM has been dedicated to harvesting more and more power for himself, which he clearly intended to use in a catastrophic way against members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force(JCF).
As a consequence, Terrence Williams will be remembered as a footnote in a dystopian saga of failure. His tenure has been characterized by lawsuits, squabbles, fights, and press briefings, with hardly anything substantive, gained despite the mammoth waste of taxpayers and dark overseas money wasted to stoke Williams’ fragile Napoleonic ego.
Despite two devastating back-to-back losses and his subsequent decision to step aside, Terrence Williams revived the idea that the Parliament intended to bestow upon INDECOM the power to arrest.
For its part, the Police Federation has mounted a spirited pushback to Williams. It argues, Williams, and by extension INDECOM, knew that neither he nor INDECOM had the power to arrest, even before the agency went to the court of appeals with its motion, much less to the Privy Council for a final redress, in a petition to validate a power it already knew neither Terrence Williams nor INDECOM had.
The Federation’s arguments further exposed Terrence Williams to be a sneaky little snake who would rather fight futile battles to give himself more power with taxpayer’s funds, than actually do the job he is being paid to do.
INDECOM has been an abject failure under Terrence Williams. His antagonistic and litigious approach has resulted in fewer real investigations and convictions of errant and criminal cops, than any other body ever assigned that task.
His approach has created a massive increase in criminal activity and disrespect for the rule of law. The criminal underworld sees an ally in INDECOM.
Attacks on police officers have become more commonplace and more aggressive. As a consequence, the police have become more tentative, and many have even given up on enforcing the laws. INDECOM’s misguided investigations have ruined more and more police officers financially and otherwise.
In the meantime, the Andrew Holness led Government has done nothing to rein in the agency and allow the police to do their jobs.
As violent crime continues to increase the police find it harder and harder to deal with lawless and belligerent pockets of people who are determined that the laws do not apply to them.
There are several reasons that the police do not prosecute the people it investigates & arrests. There are equally as many reasons that the Office of Director Of Public Prosecutions does not investigate and arrest the people it prosecutes.
It is vitally important for the administration of justice that criminal conduct is investigated with the greatest of integrity. For that reason alone, it is important also that the powers to investigate and prosecute are left the way they are.
With all of the cases that INDECOM has investigated which it has lost in the courts. And with all of the allegations of impropriety in the investigative processes, a‑la coercions & inducements. Imagine what would have happened to those defendants if INDECOM was allowed to investigate, arrest, and prosecute those cases?
INDECOM has already done tremendous damage, leaving in its wake a litany of cases in which it made arrests, based on powers it [knowingly] did not have. That kind of duplicity should be prosecuted with Williams struck off the roll of lawyers allowed to practice in Jamaica.
Delroy Cuck is about to bring this issue back before the parliament, Chuck has repeatedly stated that he wanted to give INDECOM the power to arrest and prosecute. He later recanted that position stating that his views have changed.
With the benefit of hindsight, there should be zero tolerance for giving INDECOM powers to arrest much less the power to prosecute.
What the Parliament should be focused on his expanding the office of the DDP to handle the greater crush of cases to be prosecuted and building bigger and better courthouses and hiring more staff to handle them.
With the incompetence of the people in the parliament and the attitude of the Government and Opposition, no one should expect that there will be many lessons learned from this débâcle.
Mike Beckles is a former Jamaican police Detective corporal, businessman, researcher, and blogger.
He is a black achiever honoree, and publisher of the blog chatt-a-box.com.
He’s also a contributor to several websites.
You may subscribe to his blogs free of charge, or subscribe to his Youtube channel @chatt-a-box, for the latest podcast all free to you of course.