Police Shootings - "Mash down that lie"
On Wednesday evening, January 18, 2006, I listened to the TVJ news with interest and found something very troubling. The first three news items where about two incidents of police shootings that had occurred on that day and the other about the controversial Flankers killings of over two years ago.
In the first case, in Brown's Town St. Ann, a man was shot because the police said he attacked them with a knife and that he had a ganja 'spliff'. Well the residents' response was to burn a garbage truck and hit a policewoman with a stone and of course to say nothing like that or in other terms in the Seaga coined phrase, "mash down that lie".
In the other case, in Hannah Town Kingston, we not sure what the police said as I only heard the resident's side that he was shot dead in cold-blood. The police version would anyhow be the standard refrain. To the people in the community, he was known to all as the car-washer and also an easy going 'youth' that would run errands for people. Again the people view of the police story, "mash down that lie". According to the people you can't send out "bad man".
In the Flankers incident, October 25, 2003, the police killed two senior citizens and injured another in what they said was a shootout or sorry as they later said a cross-fire between them and gunmen. The people of Flankers then demonstrated for days to protest the senior citizen killings and again their response to the police story, "mash down that lie".
The good thing is the police involved are before the courts now. We await the outcome of that case.
Our police need to act smarter and stop being trigger happy. They need to aim to arrest not annihilate. It seems the police are resolved to shoot people at the minutest alleged provocation. I hear people saying the police have gotten wild since SSP Adam's acquittal but I have no quantitative or comparative evidence support the claim.
The frequency of the questionable police shootings since the start of the year however worries me. Who are we to believe? Hopefully the police will respond in manner to help to "mash down that lie".
Related
Gleaner story
In the first case, in Brown's Town St. Ann, a man was shot because the police said he attacked them with a knife and that he had a ganja 'spliff'. Well the residents' response was to burn a garbage truck and hit a policewoman with a stone and of course to say nothing like that or in other terms in the Seaga coined phrase, "mash down that lie".
In the other case, in Hannah Town Kingston, we not sure what the police said as I only heard the resident's side that he was shot dead in cold-blood. The police version would anyhow be the standard refrain. To the people in the community, he was known to all as the car-washer and also an easy going 'youth' that would run errands for people. Again the people view of the police story, "mash down that lie". According to the people you can't send out "bad man".
In the Flankers incident, October 25, 2003, the police killed two senior citizens and injured another in what they said was a shootout or sorry as they later said a cross-fire between them and gunmen. The people of Flankers then demonstrated for days to protest the senior citizen killings and again their response to the police story, "mash down that lie".
The good thing is the police involved are before the courts now. We await the outcome of that case.
Our police need to act smarter and stop being trigger happy. They need to aim to arrest not annihilate. It seems the police are resolved to shoot people at the minutest alleged provocation. I hear people saying the police have gotten wild since SSP Adam's acquittal but I have no quantitative or comparative evidence support the claim.
The frequency of the questionable police shootings since the start of the year however worries me. Who are we to believe? Hopefully the police will respond in manner to help to "mash down that lie".
Related
Gleaner story
Comments
Also are they "trigger happy" or are they just human beings afraid for their own lives and so they are quick to defend it by any means necessary. We should not forget that police officers are one of the most targeted people in Jamaica and as such they ought rightly to feel fear. People who fear very rarely act or think rationally.