THE EDITOR, Sir:
JUSTICE HAS gone wrong, I listened to a police officer rightly condemn the men from Super Plus in Mandeville for beating the two men they claimed stole from the store.
They should have turned them over to the police and let the law take its course. The crowd was right to have condemned the beating.
ANALOGY
Let's draw an analogy. If two men break into a shop in a district, steal some goods and the people catch them and beat them, maybe to death, I am sure that policeman would say they should not beat or kill them, but turn them over to the police, and rightly so.
The people took their own justice; they were wrong, but because of the failings of the justice system, they took it into their own hands. Can you see a connection between this and the Super Plus incident?
Let us take it a little further. As the police officer in Mandeville said, "No one is above the law." If a man is accused of breaking and entering, rape or even murder, should he be killed by the police or taken in and let the law take its course?
We have some persons in our society that are happy when the police shoot and kill those they claim to be criminals and some police officers that seem all too willing to carry out these acts.
Is it that those policemen and those who support them believe that they will not get justice from the system currently in place, leading them to be willing and happy to go the route of vigilante justice?
Note that the streets are being blocked by those whose sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, relatives and friends are being killed because they too want justice. Can we see the thread that runs all the way through this issue? The lack of justice.
What a difference there would be if when they allegedly caught the men breaking the shop in the district, the matter would be dealt with promptly and justice handed down to the criminals. When Super Plus reported a break-in, it would be investigated, the criminals caught and justice handed down swiftly.
Most importantly, when the police apprehended a criminal, it would be good if they were dealt with quickly, proper sentences given and the accused did not get out through some simple loophole.
HYPOCRISY
That way I would not then have to put up with the hypocrisy that went on in the Senate on Friday, with them trying to make it look like the entire business sector is beating its employees like slaves on a plantation, when many of the Senate, in fact, the entire Government, over the years should have been working on a justice system that would make for a better Jamaica.
I am, etc.,
BINGROY C. ELLIOTT
elliotbc@cwjamaica.com
Mandeville
