FALMOUTH, Trelawny

Police Superintendent Linnette Williams Martin says that mob members who beat a cross-dresser in this north coast town last Friday will be arrested soon.

“We have collected statements and we hope to make arrests early,” said Superintendent Williams Martin who is in charge of the Trelawny police division.

She said she couldn’t say which specific charge would be brought against the gathering that perpetrated the beating until the medical report was available.

” The charges depend on what the medical report states. He was beaten, I don’t know if he got any wounds or just abrasions and swellings. I am not seeing the medical reports but most likely they will be charged for whatever offence comes out of the statements supported by the medical reports. Most likely it will be assault occasioning actual bodily harm,” she noted.

The victim of last week’s attack by the mob, was rescued by the police and taken to the Falmouth hospital. The sentiment expressed by the mob was that it wouldn’t allow homosexuals to infiltrate the usually quiet town.

However, Superintendent Williams-Martin made it clear that the police would not be taking the matter lightly.

“If you beat them and kill them it is murder. Mob killing is murder and we don’t want to send up the statistics (murder) in the parish… all of us are entitled to our lifestyles and it is their choice in life that they want to operate that way, so police can’t do anything otherwise than be professionals and if you break the law, well, we just simply have to deal with it,” she said.

In the meantime, Dr Carolyn Gomes, executive director for human rights watchdog, Jamaicans For Justice (JFJ), has

lashed out against last week’s mobbing.

“We hope there are arrests shortly for the perpetrators of that horrific violence captured on cell and broadcast nationally. And we are urging any citizen who know anything about who was doing the beating to come forward and work with the police. Because we cannot continue to violate people’s rights this way. And use violence to express whatever, it is illegal. I want the church to clearly state it is also immoral,” said Gomes.

Added Gomes: “Freedom of expression is a right under the Jamaican constitution and we need to remember that. It is not only an international human rights it is a right under the Jamaican constitution and it is not illegal to dress in any particular way, to walk in any particular way, to talk in any way or to look any particular way.”