The Problem With Jamaica’s “Grung Gads”

Yesterday I inar­tic­u­late­ly and crude­ly respond­ed out of anger and dis­gust to the news that Jamaica’s Chief Justice Zaila McCalla has launched a probe into the cir­cum­stances sur­round­ing how an attor­ney-at-law was arrest­ed inside the Supreme Court building.
Jamaica’s Criminal courts dock­ets are over­flow­ing with unre­solved cas­es this has been an ongo­ing sit­u­a­tion for decades , how­ev­er much of it has hap­pened on the watch of McCalla.
This is true despite the fact that the Police are lock­ing up a measly 7% of mur­der­ers con­trary to alter­na­tive arguments.

The sit­u­a­tion is so dire as it relates to dis­po­si­tion of cas­es in the crim­i­nal courts sys­tem that some have pro­posed that the Powers that be sim­ply throw out all of those cas­es and start afresh.
What those myopic com­men­ta­tors does not both­er to think about is the fact that if that path was to be fol­lowed the island would also simul­ta­ne­ous­ly dump a bunch of mass mur­der­ers in cus­tody back onto the streets in what would have amount­ed to a de fac­to Amnesty to mass murderers.

Much of the delay in resolv­ing cas­es rests not with inad­e­quate police inves­ti­ga­tions and case con­clu­sion as some want you to believe. As a for­mer offi­cer who spent many years in the sys­tem I must tell you they stem from defense lawyers ask­ing for adjourn­ments because they haven’t been paid.
Any Detective or uni­formed offi­cer will tell you they are as frus­trat­ed as any­one when Lawyers show up ask­ing the judge for an adjourn­ment because quote; “My client haven’t yet ful­filled cer­tain obligations” .
It’s impor­tant that the record be set straight on some of these lies which have gone unad­dressed for too long, in many cas­es where delays occur the police have noth­ing to do with it.

Judges nev­er say no when their crim­i­nal lawyer cohorts ask for these con­tin­ued adjourn­ments and rea­son­ably no one expects them to work with­out being paid.
It’s sim­ply a mat­ter of log­i­cal­ly plac­ing the root-caus­es of the delays where they appro­pri­ate­ly belong.

With all of the prob­lems in the Courts sys­tem I am real­ly miffed that McCalla would have time to even con­sid­er the non­sen­si­cal notion that a Lawyer arrest­ed with­in the con­fines of the courts con­sti­tutes some kind of threat to the author­i­ty of the court as the head of the Bar Association seem to think, or war­rants some kind of inves­ti­ga­tion of sorts.

What did McCalla do when Judith Pusey jammed up the sys­tem with ven­gance in an effort to ensure that Kern Spencer would not be found guilty of the crime for which he was charged ?
Pusey a sub­or­di­nate of McCalla mount­ed what could only be con­strued as a Johnnie L. Cochran, Jr. type defense on behalf of Spencer, con­trary to her role as hear­er and tri­er of the facts.

In an unprece­dent­ed move not seen in recent his­to­ry Resident Magistrate Judith Pusey fought with the pros­e­cu­tor to the Appeals Court as she attempt­ed to stymie the more plau­si­ble out­come of guilty for the accused.
It took the Appeals court to smack­down this affront to the dig­ni­ty of the process , of course it did not mat­ter in the end because Pusey end­ed up toss­ing the case at the request of Spencer’s attorneys.
This has been and still remain one of the most glar­ing and rep­re­hen­si­ble assault on our sys­tem of justice.
Judith Pusey still sits on the mag­is­trates bench in jamaica.
Such was the out­rage of Judith Pusey’s behav­ior dur­ing the course of the Kern Spencer’s cor­rup­tion tri­al that Senior Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Caroline Hay blamed the mag­is­trate’s pos­ture for the slow pace of the tri­al, argu­ing that it “effec­tive­ly caused stay of the pros­e­cu­tion’s case for a peri­od of sev­en months and pre­vent­ed it from proceeding”.

“Considering the con­duct of the tri­al judge, the fair-mind­ed and informed observ­er would have a rea­son­able appre­hen­sion or sus­pi­cion of bias, and as such, pub­lic trust in the judi­cial process is under threat,” the DPP stat­ed in the court document.

In light of all this and the host of oth­er prob­lems plagu­ing the equi­table and fair dis­pen­sa­tion of jus­tice in Jamaica Zaila McCalla did absolute­ly nothing .
Zero . Zilch. Nada.
Where was this Jackass (no offence to don­keys) Donovan Walker when the Integrity of the crim­i­nal Justice process and the entire sys­tem of our Parliamentary Democracy, which has at it’s core a fair judi­cia­ry was threat­ened on what clear­ly was an out­right case of Judicial obstruction?
On the basis of the Kern Spencer case alone the Jamaican peo­ple lost repeat­ed­ly. They were bilked out of mil­lions of dol­lars dur­ing the sup­posed dis­tri­b­u­tion of the light bulbs and they lost again when Judith Pusey decid­ed to waste pub­lic funds in her fight with the Prosecutor.
The great­est loss how­ev­er is the lack of faith that case gen­er­at­ed in the sys­tem. A com­po­nent which sure­ly impacts the tra­jec­to­ry of crime in general.

Despite this Zaila McCalla has report­ed­ly launched an inves­ti­ga­tion into the fact that a lawyer was appro­pri­ate­ly arrest­ed by the police some­where in the Supreme Court building.
The Investigation is sup­pos­ed­ly pre­cip­i­tat­ed because the President of the Bar Association Donovan Walker is offend­ed that one of his cronies was cor­ralled with­in the court precinct.
Earl Melhado, was arrest­ed on October 9 by inves­ti­ga­tors from the Major Organised Crime and Anti-Corruption Agency (MOCA) as he exit­ed a court­room at the Supreme Court. According to Walker, this was an unprece­dent­ed move. The Bar Association pres­i­dent argues that arrest­ing an offi­cer of the court with­in the precincts of the Supreme Court build­ing sends a bad sig­nal. According to him, the action may be seen as an act of con­tempt. President of the Jamaican Bar Association, Donovan Walker, Walker argues that the dig­ni­ty of the courts must be observed by all offi­cers of the court, includ­ing the police.

As one of my good friend con­fid­ed in me “Just who the hell do these lawyers think they are”?
Yes who the hell do they think they are that when they com­mit them­selves spe­cial accom­mo­da­tions should be made for them ?
Might I remind these lit­tle “grung gads” there should be no spe­cial accom­mo­da­tion made for any­one who run afoul of the law.
The law must be observed with fideli­ty fair­ness, it must be equi­tably dis­pensed with mal­ice or ill will toward none. No one should get spe­cial treat­ment , yes that includes Lawyers.

The notion that arrest­ing some­one in the precinct of the court bor­ders on con­tempt, is on the face of it utter bull-shit but a more indepth look reveals the hypocrisy and sense of enti­tle­ment these lit­tle “Sovereigns” feel they deserve.
It is the crim­i­nal act for which the accused is charged which demeans and brings con­tempt to the courts and the process, not the total­ly and com­plete­ly legal , law­ful and nec­es­sary act of arrest­ing the per­pe­tra­tor which is contemptuous.
What the lit­tle Emperors are object­ing to under the pre­text of con­trived and faux con­cern about con­tempt for the Courts, is every­thing to do with their con­tin­ued belief that the police should be seen but not heard.

The time has come for this neo-Colonial way of think­ing to be erased from the psy­che of the Nation.
It is impor­tant that the Bar and it’s President be remind­ed that Slavery was abol­ished long ago and that we are march­ing slow­ly toward a Nation of laws and yes the laws of the coun­try apply to everyone.
You are accused of break­ing the law you get arrest­ed wher­ev­er you are found period.
What bet­ter place for him to be arrest­ed than in the halls of Justice?
The laws of the coun­try can­not and will not be just for the “lit­tle dut­ty foot bway”, it applies to Criminal Lawyers ‚or Lawyers who are Criminals as well.
Is there even a dif­fer­ence in Jamaica anymore ?