'No retreat, no surrender' - Commissioner talks tough at slain cop's funeral

By Trudy Simpson, Staff Reporter

TOUGH TALK punctuated the emotionally charged thanksgiving service for the life and work of Sergeant Mark Anthony Henry, who was gunned down during an intense gun battle in western Kingston between members of the security forces and criminals on July 7.

Commissioner of Police Francis Forbes who was scheduled to read a scripture lesson at the service began by declaring that there would be "No retreat and no surrender" on the part of the police force in its fight against crime.

He said that it was critical for the police to keep up the fight

especially as videotapes and other evidence suggested that the violence, which claimed Sergeant Henry's life, was planned by persons who may not only have been provided with weapons and ammunition but also training and blueprints.

Citing a video which, he said, showed at least 10 armed criminals behind a wall, Commiss-ioner Forbes told the mourners at the Spanish Town Seventh-Day Adventist Church in St. Catherine that "there is no doubt in my mind that they, like many other criminals seen that day, were acting on instructions to kill as many of us as they possibly could.

"Perhaps rewards were being offered as in the video, one man is seen being congratulated while holding a rifle in his left hand. From body language seen, it can be interpreted that he was being congratulated for a job well done," he added. The police chief called on "Mr. and Mrs. Hear Nothing, See Nothing and Say Nothing" to break their silence and live.

"Maintain it and it is the criminals who will dictate whether you live or die. Make a friend before you need a friend," the Police Commissioner warned before reading the first lesson.

His comments come ahead of a Commission of Enquiry which the Prime Minister says will investigate all circumstances relating to an exchange of gunfire between the security forces and gunmen between July 7 and 10. Twenty five people were killed including a police corporal and a soldier.

Mourners sobbed quietly while others muttered their anger as National Security and Justice Minister K.D. Knight noted the absence of vocal human rights activists among the Sergeant's mourners while "they are so vocal on television.

"They will tell you about the human rights of every single criminal. Didn't Mark Henry have human rights?" he asked to strong applause and cries of "yeah" from mourners, among them Sgt. Henry's colleagues, grief-stricken relatives, friends and supporters, who crammed into the church and spilled into the church yard.

"It is hard when you hear people saying, 'Who fired first,' Since when does a gunman with his illegal M16 has a right to fire at all? It is being said that if the police fired first then the gunman had the right to fire back."

The Minister was followed by Steve Brown, representing the Jamaica Police Federation, who said that having peace talks was "rubbish" as long as the guns were on the streets. He blamed politicians working in the West Kingston police area for what he described as "attack against the police force".

"Put Jamaica first and divorce themselves from donmanism," he urged, stating that utterances from politicians in that area "gave credence to gunmen to attack the police".

He also blasted some talk show hosts and Father Richard Ho Lung for calling for the resignation of Senior Superintendent Reneto Adams, who was on hand to say farewell to Sgt. Henry, whose casket, draped in the Jamaican flag, was later escorted from the church by his colleagues.

"You never hear the ghetto priest calling for criminals to hand in their guns? You never hear the ghetto priest calling on politicians to use their influence and tell the gunmen, who they control to hand over their guns but all of a sudden, he is on the backs of the police," said the Police Federation representative.

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