Police’s roughhouse tactics not to be condoned, says senior judge
A SENIOR court judge is warning police officers that they are not to abuse their authority by harassing or assaulting members of the public and that the issue of alleged police brutality must be stopped because it destroys the public’s trust in the police force.
High Court Justice Bertram Morrison gave the stern admonition while giving his summation to the jury in the trial of Gregory Roberts, the man accused of the 2017 murder of 15-year-old schoolgirl Shineka Gray, in which he was instructing them on how they should review the trial’s evidence in delivering their eventual verdict.
“I need to comment here because the police, in conducting their investigations, cannot abuse a person’s human rights. You are to treat people civilly. This sort of rough tactic, roughhouse tactics, is not condoned by civil society, ought not to be condoned by civil society,” Morrison said in a disapproving tone.
“These are my comments because how do you win over the cooperation of the citizens of this country if you are using brute-force tactics? It simply does not work,” Morrison added. “I am not saying all police officers do it, but this is a problem which exists and it is not right.”
The judge made the comment while reviewing the evidence of a civilian witness in the trial who had been directly summoned by the court to testify after the close of the prosecution’s case and before the start of the defence’s case. A warrant had been issued for that witness after she failed to obey an earlier summons, which had been issued for her court appearance.
“‘The police came to Dumfries and beat me up. The police are not investigating. They are beating me up. ’Could this be the cause of her change in attitude?” Morrison asked while quoting the witness’ evidence.
“She says here, the police came to Dumfries and beat her up. ‘The police are not investigating, they are beating me up.’ Nevertheless, she didn’t make a report to INDECOM [Independent Commission of Investigations], and this is the oversight body of the police force and the Jamaica Defence Force.”
Morrison’s observation came one day after the court was told that Roberts had not been given his lunch in a timely manner during Monday’s lunch break. At that time, the judge asserted that he had had to speak about the same complaint on three different occasions since the trial’s start on November 23, 2023.
On a more national scale, the issue of alleged police misconduct against citizens has been a recurring problem for years, with INDECOM receiving frequent complaints from residents about being abused by officers or accusations of extrajudicial killings by the police.
In a recent example, last November, INDECOM’s assistant commissioner, Hamish Campbell, urged members of the public to come forward with information following the publication of a viral video that depicted police officers allegedly pepper-spraying and restraining an 11-year-old boy in Oracabessa, St Mary.
“When we see these videos of such behaviour, we don’t have the location, names of people involved, or the full account. We are observing just a snapshot in time of the incident, which is almost always after the confrontation has started. So we can’t just initiate inquiries without the support of the citizens and complainants,” Campbell said at the time.