Ken Chaplin

Prime Minister PJ Patterson and Kingston's Mayor Desmond McKenzie were jointly selected as Person of the Year for 2004 by this column which was published in the Observer on January 5. The column pointed out that Patterson would have been a clear choice for the honour were it not for human rights abuses by agents of the state for which he, as head of the government, must be held accountable ultimately.

Responding to the column that the government presided over the worst period of human rights abuses by agents of the state in 50 years, Sandra Graham, the prime minister's press secretary quoted statistics on fatal shootings in an attempt to show that human rights abuses related mainly to controversial police shootings. She posited that there were more fatal shootings by the police during the Jamaica Labour Party administration from l982-1988, than under the People's National Party since 1989. It would have been helpful for her to have given a breakdown of just how many cases of human rights abuse were related to controversial police shootings, because the abuses were not confined to police shootings.

However, this information is hard to come by.
Figures released by the press secretary showed that there were 534 fatal shootings by the police for the four-year period 2000-2003, and 96 in 2004 - most of them justifiable homicide. There is no doubt that fatal shootings by the police have declined, but we should not underestimate the widespread practice of human rights abuse by the police in other action against the poor. For example, figures obtained from the human rights advocate group, Jamaicans for Justice (JFJ), for year 2000 to September 2003 showed that the organisation received 107 complaints against fatal shootings and 41 against non-fatal shootings by the police. But there were also 282 complaints of human rights abuse for the period. These include assaults, beatings, illegal detention, false arrests, harassment and deaths in lock-ups which had nothing to do with fatal shootings. So the number of complaints of human rights abuse over the period totalled 430, of which 148 were fatal shootings.

However, as Yvonne Sobers, convenor of the rights group, Family Against State Terrorism (FAST), rightly pointed out in response to the statement by Jamaica House on the falling number of shootings (emphasised by the Office of the Prime Minister in its statement), numbers provide little comfort when viewed in the context of the people behind the figures. Incidentally, up to recently, the Police Public Complaints Authority's investigators could not travel because there was no money for this purpose. They had to do their investigations by telephone from their offices.

Widespread complaints against human rights abuses by the police are not new. Some years ago there were complaints that police investigation of human rights abuse was too slow. With the permission of the then commissioner of police Francis Forbes, I perused the files of the Complaints Division for an article and found that most of the complaints were about human rights abuses outside of shootings, and indeed the division was doing its best given its limited resources. One complaint that struck me then was the intimidation of witnesses in court cases against the police, and this is still occurring.

Respect for human rights

The commissioner of police Lucius Thomas should insist that members of the force respect the rights of all citizens. I have received a report of an incident involving Kingfish, the new anti-crime task force led by Assistant Commissioner of Police Glenmore Hinds, one of the finest officers I have known.

Kingfish has been performing comparatively well and it is in the interest of every law-abiding citizen that it meets success upon success. However, the task force must respect the rights of citizens. The report alleges that a young man was detained during a raid by Kingfish in Mud Town, Papine, recently. He was taken along with others to the Matilda's Corner Police Station where he was photographed by the police. He was afterwards released without any charge. If this happened, it is a violation of the constitutional and human rights of the individual as there is no law to allow it.

Legislation is now being considered by Parliament which would give the police the authority to take such photographs of detainees. I have forwarded the report on this matter to the assistant commissioner and he promised to investigate it. I am certain he will, because I know he is keen on enhancing human rights. Until the law has been passed, the police should desist from this action. In the meantime, if any person or persons have been photographed or fingerprinted illegally, the material should be handed over to them or destroyed by the police.

The police have to depend on the public for information in the fight against crime, but they will not get the cooperation if they continue to abuse the rights of citizens. Every citizen should be treated as innocent until proven guilty. Also, tough, rough and crude policing has not worked, and is inimical to the gathering of information about criminals. Human rights abuse by agents of the state has not got us anywhere. One of the most profound statements by Dr Peter Phillips since he became minister of national security was made at the launch of his bid for the leadership of the People's National Party recently. He said every Jamaican must be able to trust the police as their protectors and not fear them as a potential adversary. Jamaicans must have confidence that they can get justice in their own country. The way police relate to the people on a day-to-day basis will go a long way in determining the extent to which they can have that confidence. I am recommending that members of the force read my colleague Claude Robinson's article in the Sunday Observer of January 23.

The fear factor

Feeding the multitude

DANGEROUS PETS