Caribbean Times 12.02.2016

NEWS
3
Extrajudicial
killings in Jamaica
Report reinforces calls for police reform
KINGSTON, Jamaica -- It’s really nothing
new. Extrajudicial killings by members of
the Jamaica Constabulary Force have been
a persistent human rights concern over decades,
highlighted in numerous local and
international reports, including the US State
Department’s Human Rights Report.
Now, add Amnesty International to that
list. At a press conference in Kingston on
November 23, 2016, Amnesty International
unveiled its latest report on Jamaica: “Waiting
in Vain: Unlawful Police Killings and
Relatives’ Long Struggle for Justice”.
Amnesty’s Americas Director, Erika
Guevara-Rosas, noted in a press release:
“If authorities in Jamaica are serious about
tackling the country’s shocking levels of police
killings and violence they must urgently
promote a deep police and justice reform to
address not only the number of police murders
but the root causes of the problem.”
The report goes beyond the basic, egregious
injustice of the deprivation of citizens’
right to life by agents of the state; it also
explores what Rodje Malcolm, advocacy
manager with the human rights lobby group
Jamaicans for Justice (JFJ), called a “web of
human rights abuses” associated with the
killings themselves that affect the victims’
families, friends and the wider community.
These include various forms of harassment,
threats and intimidation -- at home,
at funerals and wakes, at hospitals and even
in court.
Malcolm was speaking at a small, informal
evening event with family members
and the human rights community following
Amnesty International’s press conference.
Shackelia Jackson (left) and Simone Grant at a community meeting following the release of Amnesty
International’s report on extrajudicial killings in Jamaica. Jackson’s brother Nakeia was
cooking in his kitchen on Orange Street, Kingston in January 2014, when he was killed by police;
Grant’s brother, Matthew Lee, and two other young men were shot dead by the police while
driving in Arcadia, Kingston, in January 2013.
The gathering also put on an art exhibition
and film screenings to highlight the problem.
Malcolm pointed to a “culture of fear”
that pervades impoverished neighborhoods
and “does not even have a perpetrator”. The
culture of “informer fi dead”, which dancehall
deejay Buju Banton sang about back in
1991, means that citizens refuse to report
crimes or come forward as witnesses, for fear
of either criminal gangs or the police -- or
both.
Photo by the author, used with permission
Caribbean Times | December 1-14, 2016
FRANTZ DANIEL JEAN
FUNERAL SERVICES
Dignified Service / Reasonable Price
FLEXIBLE TO THE NEEDS OF THE FAMILIES WE SERVE
SPACIOUS CHAPELS / PARKING / BURIALS / ENTOMBMENTS
PRE ARRANGEMENTS / CREMATION
5020 Foster Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11203 (718) 613-0228