Peter and EspeutONE YEAR ago last Monday, Michael Gayle received the beating of his life at the hands of agents of the Jamaican government. He died two days later one year ago today and until now, no one has been held responsible for his death.
At the Coroner's Inquest the police blamed the army; and the army blamed the police; and the stories from those sworn to protect us were so convincing that the Coroner's verdict was manslaughter, not murder. And not one name was called. And so another Jamaican bites the dust, and agents of the State have again got away with the killing of a Jamaican citizen they took a solemn oath to protect.
Michael Gayle was not a dangerous criminal. He was a mentally retarded youth, riding his bicycle, who did not give the right answer to the verbal challenge of the security forces. He who posed no physical threat was beaten mercilessly by cowardly men well-armed with high-powered weapons schooled in the law regarding the arrest of citizens, trained in the science of restraining persons who resist arrest, and drilled in the art of self-defence.
What sort of men with little brothers or sons at home would kick and brutalise a youth like that? What sort of honourable police officer would abuse his authority in that way? What sort of Minister of National Security would tolerate such abuse of state power? What sort of Prime Minister would sit by and allow ordinary citizens to be abused by officers of the state with impunity?
I am reminded that the Honourable Prime Minister has said that if he came off the platform and mingled with the crowd, he would be indistinguishable from them. Does he realise that he is saying that he and his family would be indistinguishable from Michael Gayle, and that the same thing could happen to one of them? Possibly he feels immune, but others of us are not, and we are at risk from brutal agents of the state.
Make no mistake: this is a human rights issue. The treatment Michael Gayle received was cruel, but it was not unusual; it is the habit of our security forces to treat poor black Jamaicans this way black-on-black violence. When government employees can regularly break the law with impunity, can regularly kill and get away with it, then we must ask whether the state and their backers are in support of their actions. By their inactivity, the state has allowed the rights of Jamaicans to be eroded, so that human rights abuses are a part of our police culture.
I applaud the human rights NGO, Jamaicans for Justice, for taking up the case of Michael Gayle, and firmly holding it up before the eyes of the public. Left to the agents of the state especially those sworn to ensure justice the killing of this young Jamaican would have gone unnoticed. Neither the police nor the military have so far given security or justice to Michael Gayle. They should be ashamed of themselves!
But then we have come to learn that our security forces and those from whom they take orders have no shame.
You would have thought that after the well-worn story of the police armed with M-16s or SLRs being attacked by men armed with cutlasses, they would have at least used different wording in their releases.
You would have thought that after shooting up a taxicab, they would have been careful about shooting up a minibus!
Why is it that Jamaicans for Justice had to invite a pathologist from outside Jamaica to perform the autopsy on Michael Gayle? Why is it so rare that government employees get evidence to convict other government employees? Why is it that after one full year, the Director of Public Prosecutions has yet to make any of these public servants in uniform face the courts? If only one link in the chain of Jamaican justice would hold tight, then maybe we would begin to have justice in this land!
I think that when this period of Jamaican history is written, with all the injustice, corruption, brutality and electoral fraud, those who now lead us (and the business leaders who fund them) will not come off so well. I don't believe that our business and political leaders have any sense of their role in history at all!
Peter Espeut is a sociologist and executive director of an environment and development NGO.
