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DEATH SQUADs Published: Sunday | January 19, 2014

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  • DEATH SQUADs Published: Sunday | January 19, 2014

    DEATH SQUADs
    Published: Sunday | January 19, 2014 0 Comments
    Hinds
    Hinds
    Ex-cop claims extrajudicial killings are planned, ordered by senior officers

    Corey Robinson, Staff Reporter

    A RETIRED cop and a serving police officer have broken the unwritten vow of silence within the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) to reveal how, they claim, cold-blooded killings are ordered by senior officers.
    But Deputy Commissioner of Police Glenmore Hinds has rebuffed the claims relayed to The Sunday Gleaner, arguing that police personnel are sworn to uphold the law and that there are appropriate avenues for them to take if they are ordered to operate contrary to their duties.

    “They (police) know their obligations. They know what the law is, and one would want to believe that if they get something that is contrary to the law, then they have recourses,” Hinds insisted, as he noted he was hearing the allegations for the first time. “There are a number of independent bodies set up to investigate the police.”

    Due to the sensitivity of their claims, the sources – one of whom spent four years in the JCF patrolling the streets of Clarendon before joining the Mobile Reserve; and the other now performs his police duties at a government agency after helping to maintain order in downtown Kingston for more than two years – asked that their identities not be revealed. Theirs are dark stories about condemned 'criminals', who they claim to know were killed at the order of senior police officers. These senior lawmen, they told The Sunday Gleaner, assign illegal guns - dubbed 'sweeties' in some circles - to the policemen, who place them on the dead men's bodies in order to corroborate pre-written reports of shoot-outs with the lawmen.

    "That (police executions) cannot be done by any likkle policeman at any likkle rank. That has to be ordered [at a higher level]," explained the ex-policeman, who told stories of how he saw alleged gangsters executed in a rural area prone to migrating gangsters from Spanish Town, St Catherine, and its environs.

    "If any likkle police try that, he is on his own when INDECOM (the Independent Commission of Investigations) and dem people deh start come down on him. If the (senior officer) order it, him know how him will take care of the report on the incident already," continued the ex-policeman, who asked that details of the actual events be kept off the record for fear that he would be identified and targeted by his former colleagues.

    Such orders are passed down from the senior officers to squad leaders who plan the operations, usually carried out around 4 o'clock in the morning. That time is ideal, the ex-policeman said, as it allows police officers to report to duty around 11 p.m. and get some rest before suiting up for briefing.

    Four o'clock is also the best time to surprise the criminals as they would have already retired to bed after a night of 'bleaching' and would have let their guard down, explained the former lawman. The briefing, he said, ends with about four or six policemen passing around a photograph of the targeted 'criminal'. After that, a triggerman is selected.

    "The triggerman is somebody more experienced in it. Somebody who has gone on more than one operation. New people have to get their baptism still. But nobody 'licks out' on them if they don't want to do the shooting," said the ex-policeman.

    INFORMATION PASSED ON TO INDECOM

    Assistant Commissioner of Police Selvin Hay, who is in charge of the Anti-Corruption Branch, said while his office does hear such allegations, they are normally passed on to INDECOM because fatal shootings are more in the commission's remit.

    "Although it can be considered corruption, INDECOM deals with fatal shootings and human rights. So most of the times those issues will be dealt with by them. We don't step into that," Hay said.

    Horace Levy, a member of the Peace Management Initiative (PMI), was less hesitant to discuss the claims about police killings.

    "I know that what [the police officer and ex-lawman] are suggesting happens," said Levy, noting that the matter of extrajudicial killings was a topic of discussion at the PMI's latest board meeting.

    Unlike the ex-policeman, however, Levy said he believed many extrajudicial killings are carried out by teams of policemen who don't necessarily need the orders of their seniors.

    "We know it happens. I know it happens. I have attributed some of it to death squads. There are groups of police who are unofficially doing the same thing on their own without any official direction, but what you are talking about is much worse," he said.
    THERE IS ONLY ONE ONANDI LOWE!

    "Good things come out of the garrisons" after his daughter won the 100m Gold For Jamaica.


    "It therefore is useless and pointless, unless it is for share malice and victimisation to arrest and charge a 92-year-old man for such a simple offence. There is nothing morally wrong with this man smoking a spliff; the only thing wrong is that it is still on the law books," said Chevannes.

  • #2
    'Cops Are Here To Regulate'
    Published: Sunday | January 19, 2014 0 Comments
    ACP SELVIN HAY (left)
    ACP SELVIN HAY (left)
    Corey Robinson, Staff Reporter

    A former policeman who used to work on the streets of Clarendon says there existed at the time a group of police officers called the Hit Squad.

    They travelled in either a white or black Toyota Probox and were often masked. On many occasions, the reports on police shootings would have already been written, so they carried out their operations according to script, the ex-lawman claimed.

    He told The Sunday Gleaner about the 'death tunnel', which is the first passage or doorway that the police team clears upon entering a targeted house.

    Cringing, he recalled that anything could happen in those first few seconds, like a policeman walking into the path of an assault rifle and getting shot in the face.

    This danger, coupled with the loss of fallen colleagues, is what fosters a hatred towards criminals in many policemen, the former cop said.

    NECESSARY EVIL

    A police officer currently operating from a government agency said extrajudicial killings are a type of evil that lawmen in Jamaica must live with.

    "Such things are not professional, and even if they happen, they are not something that you want to put out there for people to know about because they paint no positive picture of the police, only negative," he said, before explaining how information is received about potential targets.

    Most of the time, the men are known to both residents of their communities and divisional commanders, among other senior officers, the source explained.

    "For example, you hear that John Tom is a troublemaker. People know it and they come out and talk. A policeman might be sleeping with a woman in the community and she mek him know that is John Tom doing the killing," the policeman explained. "Now, police is not idiot; the policeman is going to do him research and confirm that it is indeed John Tom doing the killing."

    If that is the case, he said, "You catch John Tom and you 'knock' him. At the time, him don't have a gun on him, so you give him one."

    He added: "Sometimes human rights and dem people there blame police for certain things, but they don't know the mentality of dem [criminal] bwoy here. Without regulation, there must be chaos, and that is what the police is here to do … regulate."

    Both the police officer and former lawman said the guns or 'sweeties' placed on the dead men are often illegal weapons seized during police operations in which no one was arrested. These guns do not make their way into weapons-evidence storage - they end up on the street.

    In Jamaica, it is common for official police reports to state that gunmen opened fire with a .38 revolver pistol. There is no mystery about that, said the former lawman, laughing. Those types of guns, he said, are older and will not stir much excitement in the media when seized.

    Therefore, it is easier for them to go undocumented than the newer and more expensive handguns and rifles.
    THERE IS ONLY ONE ONANDI LOWE!

    "Good things come out of the garrisons" after his daughter won the 100m Gold For Jamaica.


    "It therefore is useless and pointless, unless it is for share malice and victimisation to arrest and charge a 92-year-old man for such a simple offence. There is nothing morally wrong with this man smoking a spliff; the only thing wrong is that it is still on the law books," said Chevannes.

    Comment


    • #3
      Deputy Commissioner Hinds is hearing that for the first time.He does not believe the claims because officers can simply refuse to carry out the orders and report their superior officer.
      Some investigator he is.
      We have to offer amnesty to senior officers in order to establish facts through a truth commission , then deal with the ongoing problem.

      Comment


      • #4
        Maybe INDECOM can provide a job to the retired officer.
        Gleaner is a newspaper, it acted accordingly but it is a missed opportunity....

        Comment


        • #5
          They are bombing T.G as we type, where is the JFJ ?....thats my issue ,for one man ?..where are the search warrants ? ...where are the human rights lawyers ,filing suit against the state ?

          No doubt ganja checks are the probable cause to assasinate those in the community,along with searching for wanted men.
          THERE IS ONLY ONE ONANDI LOWE!

          "Good things come out of the garrisons" after his daughter won the 100m Gold For Jamaica.


          "It therefore is useless and pointless, unless it is for share malice and victimisation to arrest and charge a 92-year-old man for such a simple offence. There is nothing morally wrong with this man smoking a spliff; the only thing wrong is that it is still on the law books," said Chevannes.

          Comment


          • #6
            Bombing TG?????

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by Rockman View Post
              Deputy Commissioner Hinds is hearing that for the first time.He does not believe the claims because officers can simply refuse to carry out the orders and report their superior officer.
              The corruption in the JCF goes all the way up to the very top! Not saying anyting more!


              BLACK LIVES MATTER

              Comment


              • #8
                A few observations:
                • Hit squad in the JCF - is this really news?!?
                • Police executions - yes, I believe they get the right person most of the time, but that is no reason to support extra-judicial behaviour! We must improve investigative techniques and the overall justice system. Laws need more bite sometimes, and witnesses need more protection.
                • .38 revolver - never seen one in the "wild". Badman nuh use dem ole ting deh!
                • human rights and dem people - we are not eediats! We do understand the mentality of the criminals out there. Police should not take their jobs personal or it will get out of hand. That does not mean that they should be friends with criminals or not light them up if their lives are in danger.


                BLACK LIVES MATTER

                Comment


                • #9
                  Mo & his group, JFJ have mentioned this corruption for years! Keep the pressure on. Killing criminal suspects is common practice for many police officers, and this is not hearsay info.
                  Winning means you're willing to go longer, work harder, and give more than anyone else - Vince Lombardi

                  Comment

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