Dear Editor,
We are issuing a challenge to Commissioner of Police Owen Ellington and a call to minister of national security Peter Bunting.
We are challenging CP Ellington to deny the following:
1. That police posts are increasingly being established as a long-lasting crime-control instrument rather than a stopgap;
2. That police practice of street barricades and police posts in a resident's vacated house or community centre turn communities into virtual detention zones and threaten people's legitimate freedom of movement;
3. That in the first seven months of 2013 (to August 3) police killed 146 civilians, that they killed similar numbers in 2010 (in addition to the 73 in Tivoli Gardens), 2011 and 2012, and that a high percentage of them occurred in very questionable circumstances suggesting extrajudicial killings;
4. That the police high command has given promotions to senior officers with a notable record of such killings under their supervision;
5. That only recently has the same high command required the authorisation of field commanders for the use of masks after, for years, denying their usage by some police, especially in cases of questionable fatalities;
6. That senior police are also known to follow up the execution of a community crew leader with death threats to other leaders, as is currently occurring in the East Kingston division and provoking counter-threats;
7. That, notwithstanding these steps and other repressive measures, for the past three years police have not been able to reduce the rate of murder from the three per day average to which it fell after Christopher Coke left Tivoli in late May 2010;
8. That five police organisations appealing the Supreme Court ruling that INDECOM has the power to arrest and charge police officers clearly reveals their desire to have their conduct, some of it outside the law, be exempt from any independent supervision.
We are pressing Minister Bunting to acknowledge:
1. That, as the above facts show, current policing strategy has failed in respect of murder, serious crimes, and that this is most apparent in the 10-a-month murders in Clarendon and St Catherine North so far this year, and the 12-a-month in St James;
2. That the 'clear-hold-build' strategy touted by the JCF has failed also in the West Kingston division, as the monthly murder rate of almost six (eight in South St Andrew, according to JCF statistics) and daily recent events in Denham Town make clear;
3. That the media messages delivered from his ministry, although a good idea, are simply not enough to change engrained practice and culture;
4. That police posts that merely keep gangs or crews from shooting at one another will not solve their and our problem;
5. That executions, death threats, death squads and other repressive tactics simply do not address the roots of the conflicts, the antagonistic traditions and the criminalising process, which is why they are not succeeding in stemming the violence and the murder;
6. That contrary to his promise made in early 2012 of a new paradigm, the course now being pursued is very much the old paradigm and that his 19-month trial of it should have shown his business mind its deficiency;
7. That there is a crisis of violence and murder in this land and that a truly new paradigm of crime prevention, is desperately needed; that the suffering of our people cries out for the staunching of their pain, for the better life too that an economy not hurt by violent crime would bring, in sum for justice;
8. That, for example, an out-of-the-box request to the Ministry of Finance to shift $2 billion from his security ministry's $40 billion allocation to the Ministry of Justice, which receives only $4 billion, would shorten the length of time court cases take, and end both the frustration tempting some police into gross extrajudicial executions and the impunity encouraging and allowing many delinquents and criminals to literally get away with murder and robbery;
9. That an out-of-the-box alternative strategy respectful of firm community policing and the central authority of the state, but focused on community people development, rather than community gang suppression, exists in Jamaica in small pockets. It is illustrated in the work of under-resourced agencies such as Children First and Peace Management Initiative. Their humane and creative strategies deserve to be closely studied and heard.
It is time for Mr Bunting and Mr Ellington to give public response to the facts, points and proposals made above. It is high time for them to knock heads with civil society and the private sector in order to come up with an effective preventive strategy to replace the failure of repression. Can they, will they, rise to the challenge?
Horace Levy
For Messrs Ellington and Bunting
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We are issuing a challenge to Commissioner of Police Owen Ellington and a call to minister of national security Peter Bunting.
We are challenging CP Ellington to deny the following:
1. That police posts are increasingly being established as a long-lasting crime-control instrument rather than a stopgap;
2. That police practice of street barricades and police posts in a resident's vacated house or community centre turn communities into virtual detention zones and threaten people's legitimate freedom of movement;
3. That in the first seven months of 2013 (to August 3) police killed 146 civilians, that they killed similar numbers in 2010 (in addition to the 73 in Tivoli Gardens), 2011 and 2012, and that a high percentage of them occurred in very questionable circumstances suggesting extrajudicial killings;
4. That the police high command has given promotions to senior officers with a notable record of such killings under their supervision;
5. That only recently has the same high command required the authorisation of field commanders for the use of masks after, for years, denying their usage by some police, especially in cases of questionable fatalities;
6. That senior police are also known to follow up the execution of a community crew leader with death threats to other leaders, as is currently occurring in the East Kingston division and provoking counter-threats;
7. That, notwithstanding these steps and other repressive measures, for the past three years police have not been able to reduce the rate of murder from the three per day average to which it fell after Christopher Coke left Tivoli in late May 2010;
8. That five police organisations appealing the Supreme Court ruling that INDECOM has the power to arrest and charge police officers clearly reveals their desire to have their conduct, some of it outside the law, be exempt from any independent supervision.
We are pressing Minister Bunting to acknowledge:
1. That, as the above facts show, current policing strategy has failed in respect of murder, serious crimes, and that this is most apparent in the 10-a-month murders in Clarendon and St Catherine North so far this year, and the 12-a-month in St James;
2. That the 'clear-hold-build' strategy touted by the JCF has failed also in the West Kingston division, as the monthly murder rate of almost six (eight in South St Andrew, according to JCF statistics) and daily recent events in Denham Town make clear;
3. That the media messages delivered from his ministry, although a good idea, are simply not enough to change engrained practice and culture;
4. That police posts that merely keep gangs or crews from shooting at one another will not solve their and our problem;
5. That executions, death threats, death squads and other repressive tactics simply do not address the roots of the conflicts, the antagonistic traditions and the criminalising process, which is why they are not succeeding in stemming the violence and the murder;
6. That contrary to his promise made in early 2012 of a new paradigm, the course now being pursued is very much the old paradigm and that his 19-month trial of it should have shown his business mind its deficiency;
7. That there is a crisis of violence and murder in this land and that a truly new paradigm of crime prevention, is desperately needed; that the suffering of our people cries out for the staunching of their pain, for the better life too that an economy not hurt by violent crime would bring, in sum for justice;
8. That, for example, an out-of-the-box request to the Ministry of Finance to shift $2 billion from his security ministry's $40 billion allocation to the Ministry of Justice, which receives only $4 billion, would shorten the length of time court cases take, and end both the frustration tempting some police into gross extrajudicial executions and the impunity encouraging and allowing many delinquents and criminals to literally get away with murder and robbery;
9. That an out-of-the-box alternative strategy respectful of firm community policing and the central authority of the state, but focused on community people development, rather than community gang suppression, exists in Jamaica in small pockets. It is illustrated in the work of under-resourced agencies such as Children First and Peace Management Initiative. Their humane and creative strategies deserve to be closely studied and heard.
It is time for Mr Bunting and Mr Ellington to give public response to the facts, points and proposals made above. It is high time for them to knock heads with civil society and the private sector in order to come up with an effective preventive strategy to replace the failure of repression. Can they, will they, rise to the challenge?
Horace Levy
For Messrs Ellington and Bunting
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