SOME days ago, the senior resident magistrate for the parish of St Ann, Andrea Thomas, assigned to the Brown’s Town court, ordered the arrest of a female police corporal for contempt of court and, thereafter, the police corporal was placed in a holding area for prisoners, where three men were allegedly being held as well. Media reports indicate that, after a period of time, the police corporal was then brought back to the courtroom and was instructed to formally apologise to RM Thomas for her allegedly rude, contemptuous and obnoxious behaviour in court.

Since the despicable behaviour allegedly committed by that woman corporal from the Brown’s Town Police Station, the Police Federation and its chairman, Raymond Wilson, has lashed out vehemently at the senior resident magistrate and has also simultaneously written to the National Security Minister Peter Bunting, and the Chief Justice Zaila McCalla, concerning the matter which has been widely ventilated across the media landscape. While speaking on Radio Jamaica’s evening current affairs programme, Beyond the Headlines, on Thursday, February 5, 2015, with host Dionne Jackson-Miller, guests namely, prominent Barrister-at-Law Ernest Smith and Jamaica Labour Party Senator and former Resident Magistrate Marlene Malahoo-Forte, Smith made the point that the senior resident magistrate in question cannot and must not be blamed in any way for the police placing that police woman corporal in the court’s holding area where three males were also being held. It is the police who must be solely blamed for locking up that woman police corporal in that holding cell where those three men were being held. The senior resident magistrate did not at all take that police corporal personally to that detention cell and holding area; it is the police who did so, and the Police Federation needs to acknowledge that incontrovertible fact. Chairman Sergeant Raymond Wilson is way off the mark, and he is rude to be blaming Senior RM Thomas for the detention of that police corporal in a holding cell with three other men therein. The blame must be placed solely on the police.

Senator Malahoo-Forte, who is a former president of the Resident Magistrates’ Association of Jamaica, speaking generally on that RJR discussion programme stated that judges in the courts have a lawful authority to have arrested any police officer who disrespects the court or the presiding judge, and they will be arrested and charged for contempt of court as believed fit by the presiding judge. In this case, if the police corporal broke the rules of the court, and in any way, shape or form disrespected the judge, she will have to face the legal consequence as prescribed by the court. Generally speaking, no police officer is above the law, and if they breach the rules of the court and conduct themselves in a rude and unlawful manner against any judge they must be arrested and charged for the related offence as any citizen would have to face as well.

According to Smith, who has over 30 years of experience in the nation’s courts and is based in the parish of St Ann, he has known Senior RM Andrea Thomas to be a judge of the highest integrity, character and standards, and additionally a very hard worker, and he is fully supporting the judge to charge any officer with contempt of court if warranted. Clearly, the Police Federation is wanting the police corporal to be treated as a special officer, above the law, and that cannot be tolerated in any way.

I, myself, while speaking on a radio talk show on February 5, 2015 made the point to the host that the police have a profound duty and responsibility to abide by the rules of the court like any other citizen of this country, and if they flout the rules of the court and are found in contempt they must face the penalties for the breach. The police are certainly not beyond the scope of the law and they must be firmly made to understand this broad, important and cardinal fact.

I am sure that if a female Jamaican citizen was taken and placed in that court’s holding area with three other men, the police would not have said one single word on that breach. However, whenever, it happens to one of their own they misguidedly and preposterously blame the presiding judge for the situation which reflects rather poorly on them. The Police Federation seems to have lost its way.

As a citizen, I am of the view that the judge was well within her legal and constitutional right to have ordered the arrest of that woman police corporal for contempt of court in her sagacious wisdom, and in her determination of the matter surrounding the comments which were attributed to the corporal on Monday, February 2, 2015. It is scandalous and reprehensible that many officers assigned to the St Ann Police Division did not turn up to work and reported sick on two days in what many believe to be a protest against RM Andrea Thomas for her decision to have arrested and charged that police corporal. Judges in this country have to be respected, and no one has the right to be abusive, rude and contemptuous in their behaviour towards them. They have a very difficult job in this country, where the majority of Jamaicans are somewhat vicious, crude and disrespectful in their day-to-day behaviour and quite arrogant towards the rule of law, order and discipline. Just recently the Government had to withdraw a new policy regarding the assignment of bodyguards to judges. Due to the outcry from the judges, including from the Court of Appeal President Justice Panton, judges will continue to have assigned to them close protection officers from the VIP’s Protection Division.

The fact is judges in this country have a legal duty to enforce the law in their courtrooms, and no form of disrespectful behaviour must be tolerated by any judge. Judges have rights also.

Robert Dalley is a business strategist based in Montego Bay. Comments: robertdalley1@hotmail.com