Vindicated/​Now Lets Repeal This Criminal Supporting Law And Pass A Law Which Protects Everyone

We knew the INDECOM act was flawed, we knew it’s exe­cu­tion was flawed and we said so. Today this writer was vin­di­cat­ed in the Jamaican high court.
We have con­sis­tent­ly main­tained that though over­sight of our law enforce­ment agen­cies is crit­i­cal there has to be a bal­ance in its appli­ca­tions as we must be def­er­en­tial to the chal­lenges law enforce­ment offi­cers face.

It is not a blank check as some detrac­tors are wont to accuse because they are unable to defend their point of view, but rather an under­stand­ing that unless we have first-hand knowl­edge of an issue we must give cre­dence to the views of those who do.
It is against that back­drop that I per­son­al­ly opposed the INDECOM bill even before it became law and have writ­ten dozens of arti­cles explain­ing in depth why it would cre­ate a chill to law enforce­ment and would do pre­cious lit­tle in a pos­i­tive way over and above what the oth­er sev­en over­sight agen­cies were already doing.

For eight years (8) I argued that this law is dri­ving crime, for eight years INDECOM argued crime was high before it’s creation.
For eight years INDECOM crowed that police fatal shoot­ings have gone down because of its vig­i­lance. For eight years I have argued that police fatal shoot­ings have gone down not because crim­i­nals are any less lethal but because police offi­cers are stand­ing down.
For eight years I have tak­en the abuse of the crim­i­nal rights fra­ter­ni­ty in the coun­try for dar­ing to call for the repeal of the INDECOM act.
Neither polit­i­cal par­ty in Government has done any­thing to revis­it the law despite the glar­ing incon­sis­ten­cies in it and their own obser­va­tions that it is indeed flawed.

See rul­ing here: http://www.courtofappeal.gov.jm/sites/default/files/judgments/Police%20Federation%20%28The%29%20et%20al%20v%20Commissioner%20of%20Indecom%20%28The%29%20and%20anor_0.pdf

We are proud of the many long hours of hard work and research we have put into bring­ing aware­ness to the Jamaican pub­lic and peo­ple across the Globe about what is hap­pen­ing in Jamaica.
We are proud that in the face of a near blan­ket smear cam­paign against the police offi­cers who risk their lives dai­ly to cre­ate a mod­icum of peace and safe­ty to the indoc­tri­nat­ed anti-police vio­lence we decid­ed to speak truth to power.
With the jux­ta­po­si­tion of the author­i­ties vio­la­tion of mem­bers right to free speech rights which effec­tive­ly sanc­tions them for speak­ing out against the injus­tice met­ed out to them any advo­ca­cy on their behalf is incred­i­bly valu­able to their morale.

It is with that thought in mind that this medi­um was born in 2011. (1)Out of a sense of help­less­ness, I felt for the nations police offi­cers who do so much under hor­ri­ble work­ing con­di­tions, with less than appro­pri­ate tools of the trade and with their hands tied behind their backs.
(2) Out of an under­stand­ing that the vast major­i­ty of the une­d­u­cat­ed peo­ple in our coun­try deserve a life, a life free from crime and ter­ror. Out of an under­stand­ing that it is those same peo­ple who sur­ren­der their chil­dren to become police officers.
Out of an under­stand­ing that with­out the rule of law we don’t have a country.
Out of an under­stand­ing that despite its flaws (which we have to fix) it is the police who are called when we need help.

It is that sense of duty why I made this per­son­al call to arms so that those of us who walked away do not sim­ply sit on the side­lines because we may be doing bet­ter with our lives. We owe a debt of grat­i­tude to that beau­ti­ful lit­tle coun­try we all love so very much.