Editorial

A most wasteful witch-hunt

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

UNBELIEVABLE best describes our reaction to radio reports yesterday that the National Security Ministry is to open a probe to determine how Justice Paul Harrison’s report from the Armadale Commission of Enquiry was leaked to the media.

Unbelievable because we thought that the substance of Justice Harrison’s report would have been foremost on the minds of the ministry’s officials, rather than trying to find out who stole the Government’s thunder in having Nationwide Radio and the Sunday Observer bring to public attention last weekend, information that the administration had in its possession since January 15.

Given the ministry’s misdirected focus, the public could hardly be blamed if it came to the conclusion that the administration would have been more comfortable had the highly respected judge’s report remained secret. For his comments point to brutality of the worst kind meted out to children who, we maintain, are first and foremost deemed as ‘bad’ by the society.

Is not the National Security Ministry concerned that Justice Harrison, retired president of the Court of Appeal, found that Correctional Department staff, among them the present commissioner, Mrs June Spence-Jarrett, kept 23 young girls in the most dehumanising conditions at Armadale?

Is not the National Security Ministry concerned that Justice Harrison found that the fire that initially killed five of these wards of the state on the night of May 22, 2009 was sparked by a tear gas canister thrown into the locked dormitory by police constable Lawrence Burrell?

Is not the National Security Ministry concerned that an additional two girls died because of that fire and that Justice Harrison described the constable’s action as “harsh and unnecessary”… and “an unlawful use of force”?

Instead of going on a witch-hunt for the source of the leaked report, we would have thought that the ministry would have set the wheels in motion to punish those responsible for this travesty.

We would also have been encouraged had the National Security Ministry indicated that it was taking steps to clean up the country’s correctional system. For that is the larger issue unearthed by Justice Harrison’s report.

Pastor Mark Stewart’s comments

We had no doubt that Pastor Mark Stewart would have been the target of human rights advocates after his very frank comments on the death penalty were published in yesterday’s edition.

Rev Stewart, in his sermon at the funeral of Clarendon dentist, Dr Ricardo Patrick Fraser at the Blue Mountain United Church in Manchester, said that those who killed the dentist should not be allowed to live.

“It is easy to seek revenge for his murder, and my Bible tells me about the wages of sin is death and an eye for an eye,” Rev Stewart told hundreds of mourners.

“When you look on a man and stab him up like this, that man fi dead, man. A parson a say that, so oonu can say so... man fi hang, man,” Rev Stewart said to thunderous applause.

Dr Fraser could have stayed in the United States and made a good living, but chose to return to his country to serve the people of Clarendon. He did so for eight years and became known for his philantrophy as well before he was brutally murdered by callous beasts.

The applause that greeted Pastor Stewart’s comments in the church is not surprising to us, as most Jamaicans are sick and tired of the crime ravaging the country and the inability of successive governments to bring it under control. The upshot is that most people support the death penalty.

Pastor Stewart therefore makes a point that we have made in this space before — the death penalty is still the law, therefore the Government should apply it or change it.

But for God’s sake, do something!

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COMMENTS (8)

Ms. Lee B.
3/9/2010

When the Cat-o-nine was in use, incidents of rape and crimes punishable with the Cat were much less. My Mom could walk freely in rural St. Mary without fear of being raped and ravaged.
In states like Virginia people thread cautiously because Old Sparky (the Electric Chair) is there.
Antagonists keep saying that the youths need jobs and that Jamaica is too poor. But I have news for you - Jamaica was infinitely poorer in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s and the 'youths' were not half as vicious.

ESTEBAN AGOSTO REID
2/25/2010

The IDIOCRATS of the National Security Ministry are more concerned about who leaked Judge Harrison's report on the Armadale Commission Enquiry than the substance and content of the report.

Cee Dubya
2/23/2010

What else can we do? If we speak out and demand action whether by signing petitions or doing peaceful marches or writing to the media; if we demand that the legislation re Capital Punishment (recently voted to remain... en vogue?) be implemented and the demand is continuously ignored, what else is at our disposal? Yes, I too believe in prayer. I pray that those in the RPA will wake up! Wake up and implement Capital Punishment. I don't understand. Why keep it if you have no intention of using it? For decoration?
You know that saying, “Money won’t make you happy”? The come-back is, "Give me a chance to show that money won't make me happy". So, for all who say the death penalty is not a deterrent? Give us grieving, mourning, suffering, victimized, plundered, raped, robbed, dying, maimed, stabbed, dismembered, torched, law-abiding citizens a chance to show that the death penalty is not a deterrent. And not just the sentence, but carry it out! I don't want to hear that so-and-so has been sentenced to face the noose. I want to know that his neck is in it!!!

Hope Western
2/23/2010

When Trafigura's information was leaked, was there a call for an inquiry? I can't remember.

D Ranks
2/23/2010

I don't get this, on one hand you cheer on the pastor and encourage the use of the death penalty, and yet on the other hand you bemoan the threatment of people who have committed grave wrongs in our society.
It seems to me to be an example of some psychotic behaviour. And it also tells us of how violent our society is, so much so that even a pastor, the symbol of peace representing the ultimate symbol of love and forgiveness, preaches hate and revenge.
Yes "for god sakes" but something is terrible wrong with us. I wonder, though, if the reaction would be anything like this if the man who was murdered was one of those many in the crime stricken areas of Jamaica.
But here is a question, if Jamaica had excecuted ten murderers the very days leadign up to the dentist's murder, would it have stopped his death? There has to something else, and that pastor is surely not helping one bit, nor is this editorial. If I am to believe in the goodness of Jesus, should I not be out searching for ways to heal my society, and should I start by heedig to His preaching, violence begats violence and so on and so forth.
It is a terrible lost, the murder of this dentist, but the knee jerk reaction I have been reading about is certainly not going to help us. It has not been for so many years, and it clouds our insight of what is required. This newspaper has been a voice of reason in may cases for a long time but now we have it preaching revenge, and with a psychotic slant of rage against the threatment of muderers, thieves, and deliquent children, whom a lot people in Jamaica would like to see vanished.
If you think it is a lie, that they want these men and women to vanish read some of these comments and see the violence of their want.

Charles Anderson
2/23/2010

The Harrison report is very important and should be made public.
However. I do believe that the minister is correct in trying to find out who leak the info. Is there any indication that the government was doing a cover up? People should not leak info because they believe that the relevant authority is not doing it fast enough. What if this was something far more harmful to the society in terms of panic etc. Employee must be held responsible for breaking the rules. That is one reason for the indiscipline in Jamaica. Is it a witch hunt to find out who cannot be relied? The government is going to release the report, but the leaker should be found and appropriate disciplinary measure be handed down

JA Cynic
2/23/2010

The best way to cover up a leak that one has made is to launch an official investigation into the leak, knowing fully well that no one can accuse you of not trying to find the source.The JLP needs to look into the mirror.
After waiting over a month & not knowing what to do, then a "strategic release" of the information will achieve maximum publicity.
Are the conditions existing in the other places"safety" conducive to similar outcomes? Will anyone be held accountable-ciminally or administratively? Will the aggrieved relatives be compensated by the state? Will additional resources be provided to ensure care of the wards of the state? Is this report destined for file #13? Do we wait until foreigners come & tell us what we all already have known for a very long time befor we shamefully react?
JA Cynic

Jay Brown
2/23/2010

When we have a bunch of incompetent people leading the nation what can on we expect.
I once again posit that we set performance targets for our portfolio ministers.
I also posit that the laws be amended that so that be a referendum or some otherwise method, the of this country people can remove from office a leader who is failing in his responsibilities.
Mr Nelson is obviously clueless, and needs to be removed forthwith before he causes any further damage. Seem like "termites is eating out" someone's brain.

Did you watch American football's Super Bowl on Sunday?
	Yes, but just for the advertisements
	Yes, just for the game itself
	Yes, for both the game and advertisements
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