Dear Editor,
It is indeed welcome news that the Government will introduce legislation to expunge the criminal records of national heroes as discussed in ‘Of national heroes and freedom fighters,’ by Lance Neita in The Agenda, Jamaica Observer, October 16, 2016.
This would presumably apply to those who were convicted in Jamaica — Paul Bogle, George William Gordon, Sam Sharpe and Marcus Garvey. Apparently, Nanny eluded capture, charges, trial, conviction, and execution.
The Jamaican Government’s future legislation would have no legal effect in the United States, where he was convicted and sentenced and there still exists a criminal record.
We should not wish to rewrite history to implant what we now believe. To do so would diminish the mood of and the happenings in the society then. The current and future generations need to know the truth of what happened and the machinations of the ruling class in those times.
Many of our present laws date from those times; our heroes were tried under those laws and found guilty, as the law took its course. Don’t we believe in the rule of law?
Now, if in today’s times we deem that those verdicts were unjust because of the activities they engaged in then, and we are now to retrospectively deem laudable and morally right, the proper thing to do is to grant them a pardon; not expunge.
The Government must remember that the general perception of a hero is one who has fought the oppressors, struggled and paid the ultimate sacrifice by injustice of the governance system. That should not be modified!
Norman Lee
Brampton, ON
namronlee@rogers.com
It is indeed welcome news that the Government will introduce legislation to expunge the criminal records of national heroes as discussed in ‘Of national heroes and freedom fighters,’ by Lance Neita in The Agenda, Jamaica Observer, October 16, 2016.
This would presumably apply to those who were convicted in Jamaica — Paul Bogle, George William Gordon, Sam Sharpe and Marcus Garvey. Apparently, Nanny eluded capture, charges, trial, conviction, and execution.
The Jamaican Government’s future legislation would have no legal effect in the United States, where he was convicted and sentenced and there still exists a criminal record.
We should not wish to rewrite history to implant what we now believe. To do so would diminish the mood of and the happenings in the society then. The current and future generations need to know the truth of what happened and the machinations of the ruling class in those times.
Many of our present laws date from those times; our heroes were tried under those laws and found guilty, as the law took its course. Don’t we believe in the rule of law?
Now, if in today’s times we deem that those verdicts were unjust because of the activities they engaged in then, and we are now to retrospectively deem laudable and morally right, the proper thing to do is to grant them a pardon; not expunge.
The Government must remember that the general perception of a hero is one who has fought the oppressors, struggled and paid the ultimate sacrifice by injustice of the governance system. That should not be modified!
Norman Lee
Brampton, ON
namronlee@rogers.com