The story of Cult-leader Kevin Smith reads like a complicated sequel that keeps changing with each season of production. On Monday morning, the curtain came down in the final scene when Smith and a police officer were killed in a motor vehicle accident reportedly close to the Linstead Bypass in Saint Catherine. Two other officers are reportedly in serious condition from the same accident.
Smith, the leader of Saint James-based Pathways International Kingdom Restoration Ministries, was arrested several days ago after two people were killed in what the church characterized as a Roman Catholic-style sacrifice.
Arrested with Smith were 41 other people associated with the Pathway ministries.
The police went to the premises to investigate allegations of abuse of a female parishioner; before they could gain entry to the building, one man and one woman had their throats slashed by the pastor as another church member assisted him believed to be a police officer. (We have been unable to confirm if, in fact, a member of the JCF was involved in that ritual).
Smith’s story reads like the Bedward stories we grew up hearing about in Jamaican. It reeks of the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas, in the early ’90s. Others have likened it to the Jim Jones Saga in Guyana, culminating in the November 1978 mass murder/suicide of members of Jones’s Peoples Temple in Jonestown, Guyana.
The police confirmed Kevin Smith’s death on Monday, but his death leaves tongues wagging and a mountain of conspiracy theories churning on social media about whether foul play was involved in Smith’s death.
For one, not a fan of conspiracy theories, I am still a little befuddled at the coincidence and timing of his death, just when he was being transported to (MOCA), Major Organised Crime & Anti-Corruption Agency to be formally charged according to the police.
Speculations are rife that he was about to name names, so he may have been killed, but by whom, I have no idea? How could a motor vehicle accident be orchestrated to ensure his death is beyond me.
That said, Jim Brown was allegedly burned to a crisp in a Kingston jail just before he was scheduled to be extradited to the United States to face serious criminal charges. To date, there has been no accounting of how a man could be set ablaze in a jail cell without anyone being held accountable.
Before the Church killing, I had never heard of Kevin Smith, neither had I heard of Pathways International Kingdom Restoration Ministries. So this article has very little to do with the now-infamous cult leader who just happened to die just before he was to face the music. It smells fishy; it smells Jeffery Epstein-[ish]. These coincidences make it difficult not to think that there is more to this than meets the eye.….…..or not.
I feel a single emotion from the whole affair; it is disgust at the Jamaican police. People are free to be sheep if they so choose. God gave all of us the ability to think for ourselves. Those who choose to allow others to manipulate them mentally probably deserve whatever outcome they are exposed to.
I believe human life is close to what we see on the Serengeti; the weak and careless get eaten by the strong and calculative.
It is simply the way life works; some are simply food for others.
Having said that, the police department continues to put forward a face that gives the impression that because Antony Anderson can speak English better than.…..say Joe Williams did; or because Stephanie Lindsay’s more eloquent presentations are more acceptable to the fakes-and frauds in the gated communities uptown, the force has been transformed.
To that, I cry bullshit. Scratch the surface, and the same old Barney Fyffe practices are right there; the police force continues to be a laughing stock.
This kind of unprofessionalism is possible because there is a laxity at the top. There is no leadership nor accountability, the Commissioner of police should resign immediately. They continue to shame those of us who served with pride and distinction in this proud agency.
A video of Kevin Smith sitting at the police station with no handcuffs, chatting it up and laughing with police officers is a despicable and shameful disregard for protocol. ‑Protocols that I daresay once existed.
All of the foregone would have militated against a Kevin Smith conviction had he lived. How can police officers have a murder accused outside a cell without handcuffs on, chatting with him as if there is no care in the world, and allow that he be videotaped and placed on social media?
Where is the supervision, in this a major case that made international news? How could this be possible?
These are the kinds of things that these stupid police officers do because there is no leadership. One would have imagined that in a situation like this, the suspect would have been transported immediately to Kingston, away from the pervasive corruption that has plagued the Area One Police and Montego Bay police in particular for decades.
The principal agency in the country responsible for security has zero ideas on how to secure a single murder suspect; I am trying to imagine The scenario under which a junior officer transporting a high-profile murder accused cross-country could be killed in an accident along with the high profile subject?
The failings of this department are so egregious that I am now calling for its disbandment.
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Mike Beckles is a former Police Detective, businessman, freelance writer, black achiever honoree, and creator of the blog mikebeckles.com.