By Lynford Simpson, Staff Reporter
JAMAICA HAS one of the highest per capita incidence of lethal police shootings in the world, according to a report presented yesterday by the human rights watchdog group, Amnesty International.
Pierre Sane, the group's general secretary who presented the report at a press conference at the Courtleigh Hotel in Kingston, said Jamaica's average of 140 police killings a year was five times that of South Africa, a country experiencing similar problems with crime and with a population 16 times larger.
A damning picture of Jamaica's security forces was presented from the first paragraph of the 84-page report titled, 'Killings and violence by police: How many more victims?'. It noted that despite numerous assurances to the contrary, the authorities in Jamaica are "failing to prevent serious and systematic human rights violations at the hands of the police and other members of the security forces, including the use of excessive lethal force; extrajudicial executions; torture and other cruel inhuman and degrading treatment".
The report dealt extensively with the controversial Crime Management Unit (CMU) created by Prime Minister P.J. Patterson last year and which is linked to the killings of seven young men in Braeton, St. Catherine, on March 14.
It was compiled before the Braeton incident but other controversial shootings involving the CMU were mentioned. These include the killing of 42-year-old Paul Harvey of Spicy Hill, Trelawny, last October; William Richards of West Kingston, who was killed in September; and Sylvester "Punky" Wink, who was shot dead in Mountain View last April. In all instances, the police report claimed a shoot-out and Amnesty noted "the practice of using firearms as a first, rather than a last resort continues, with predictably deadly results".
Mr. Sane described Jamaica as a country deeply divided. He said it was a country where the streets were not safe and one where citizens in their homes do not feel secure.
"Some people even emigrate because of the fear of crime," he said.
The Amnesty boss said there was a need for the Government to "develop and implement a crime prevention strategy so Jamaicans can live without fear".
To achieve this would necessitate an efficient and competent police force, devoid of corruption and respectful of the law, Mr. Sane said. It was also necessary that its members treat all citizens with dignity, he said.
Mr. Sane said the level of co-operation needed by the police in their fight against crime would only come if they could develop the confidence and trust of the community. The lack of this trust, he claimed, was the biggest hindrance to stamping out crime locally.
The report argued that while it was indisputable that the policing of Jamaica is a "complex, dangerous and difficult task", such conditions fail to explain the unacceptably high number of killings by the police. "Amnesty International considers that the manner in which deadly force is frequently employed and the absence of prompt, thorough and effective investigations are consistent in many instances with a pattern of extrajudicial executions," it declared.
The human rights watchdog group was scathing in its criticism of the Government which it said "consistently failed to hold those guilty of human rights violations accountable". It pointed out the vast majority of incidents were not investigated promptly, thoroughly and impartially, in accordance with international standards.
Amnesty acknowledged that laws and institutions were put in place to ensure the police were accountable. These included the Bureau of Special Investigations, and the Police Public Complaints Authority. However, a "major gap" between the laws, the institutions, the mechanism and what is happening on the ground in reality, was cited.
"In reality what is happening is impunity for police officers who break the law. Impunity for police officers who engage in criminal acts," Mr. Sane charged. "What we ask the Government to do is to strengthen the mechanisms of investigation and prosecution."
This, he suggested, should bring greater accountability to the actions of the police.
