OVER THE past five or so years, the civic action watchdog group, Jamaicans for Justice, has emerged as a consistent critic of police actions in controversial shootings and alleged abuses. Despite sometimes hostile reaction from sections of the society who see them more as defendants of the rights of criminals than being on the side of the law, the group's mantra against police excess and extra-judicial killings has found significant pockets of support among other Jamaicans grounded in the reality of their experience.
JFJ has often pointed to significant inefficiency and ineptitude on the part of the local security and judicial officials. The group has since prepared and presented a lengthy report to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, detailing what it sees as systemic failings and inertia on the part of public officials in relation to the management of crime scenes and instances of police abuses. Notwithstanding efforts by the Government to investigate controversial police killings, we do believe that more can and should be done to correct the faults in the system.
JFJ, however, runs the risk of being itself guilty of a kind of excess similar to the charge it often levels at the police. The statement by Dr. Carolyn Gomes on Thursday at a press conference effectively accusing the Government of being in collusion with corrupt or inept members of the security forces goes beyond the pale.
It is one thing to point to ineptitude in the security forces; it is another to provide evidence of collusion on the part of the Government. It is an unfortunate charge that should be answered by whatever ministry or government agency is being accused of illegal or fraudulent action, for that is what 'collusion' means.
The JFJ as a lobby group, particularly in matters concerned with the administration of justice, has done admirable work in the past few years that it has been an unofficial public watchdog. To the extent that it has pointed to failures in the investigation of police killings or post-mortem procedures, for example, it has assumed a role that ought to have been pursued by the official watchdogs, i.e. the parliamentary Opposition.
It is in Parliament, the premier Central Government forum, where matters of public resources and their allocation are determined; and where the root cause of many of the inadequacies of the justice system and other public systems ought to be addressed.
To suggest therefore that collusion between the Government and the security forces is involved is a grave allegation that should be answered promptly by the administration.
