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Nine police personnel accused of violating prison regulations by accepting money and other gifts to give special privileges to popular dancehall entertainer Vybz Kartel, as well as another high-profile inmate at the Gun Court Remand Centre in St Andrew, have been slapped with internal charges that could lead to their dismissal from the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF).

This comes at the end of a probe conducted by the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) of the JCF, which recommended that disciplinary action be brought against them.

Head of the ACB, Assistant Commissioner of Police Justin Felice, said all the evidence has already been sent to Commissioner of Police Owen Ellington and plans are being put in place to start the disciplinary process “as soon as possible”.

“He (Ellington) will in turn send it (the evidence) to a disciplinary hearing and then, hopefully, we will be making timely decisions as to whether these individuals are suitable to remain within the Jamaica Constabulary Force,” Felice told The Gleaner.

He acknowledged that the nine police personnel are entitled to a disciplinary hearing, but added: “We are trying to expedite the decision about their future within the organisation.”

Felice made it clear that dismissals were among several options that would be considered, but said that was a decision for the Police Service Commission.

The ACB head, when asked why criminal charges were not filed against the police, said the legislation governing police lock-ups are “very complex”.

“Because it’s a police lock-up and not a correctional facility, the offences are not quite the same, so it’s a complex legal issue,” he explained.

Felice refused to divulge details of the probe conducted by the ACB, but said the police have video recordings and other evidence to show that a “full range of corruption” was taking place at the Gun Court Remand Centre, which is located on South Camp Road.

“All sorts of things were taking place there in relation to visits. People were being taken outside of the lock-up, people were being given mobile phones and money was passing hands for favours,” he revealed.

Allowed a visitor

Police investigators say Vybz Kartel, whose real name is Adidja Palmer, was not the inmate who was taken outside the lock-up, but said on one occasion he was allowed a visitor in a restricted section of the lock-up and given the use of a mobile phone.

The allegations led to the nine police personnel being transferred from the lock-up and placed at other police formations.

Felice said while these kinds of breaches are not widespread, his division has concerns about other police lock-ups.

Palmer has been in custody since October 1 last year, and is facing charges of murder, conspiracy and attempting to pervert the course of justice.

In the meantime, Police Constable Franz Morrison, chairman of the Police Federation, told The Gleaner yesterday that the organisation did not have a case before it to determine whether due process was taking place.

“In this specific matter nothing has been brought to us as a police federation for us to intervene or to advise members on,” Morrison toldThe Gleaner.

“If there is an investigation in train, we know that the members will be, and would be given a opportunity to answer. Until that is done, we wait to see where the investigation goes,” Morrison said.

He told The Gleaner that based on the police internal disciplinary procedure if the matter is taken before the court of enquiry and the members are found guilty, they could be dismissed from the force.

Reverend Leroy James Wilson was 21 years old when he became a Christian. Fresh from rural Jamaica and being a quiet individual, his decision to start following God was not a difficulty when he arrived in Kingston over 35 years ago.

“My decision to surrender my life to God was not planned. I was downtown (Kingston) one day at a service in the St William Grant Park. I stopped and enjoyed the service; and after that some of the members present had a talk with me and invited me to church. That was where it started,” reminisced Reverend Wilson.

very challenging

Like many young Christians, Reverend Wilson reported that his early years as a young believer were very challenging. He added that, that was so because he never knew what to expect in the new life, despite him being told some of the things to expect.

“Although as young converts we were told some of the things, it was still challenging. However, as I went from day to day I learnt how to trust the Lord because Christianity is all about your faith. As I got into His word, I trusted Him; because I knew that whatever His words say, it would have come through in my life,” said Reverend Wilson.

He added that when he just started his Christian journey it was not very difficult to put his trust and faith in God. The church leader pointed out that because he was not enjoying the pleasures of the world, there was nothing he had a difficulty giving up for God.

Now that all those days are behind him, Reverend Wilson, who is now at the Life Line Church of God at Bending Close in Kingston, said life as a pastor can be very challenging. However, in order to minimise the challenges, he has recommended that individuals who serve God in such capacities ensure that their lives are completely surrendered in the hands of God.

“You have to surrender your life first in the hands of God, and then trust the Lord because you will be leading a congregation with persons from different backgrounds. Everybody is different; but as you grow in wisdom the Lord gives you knowledge and you get the understanding as to how to deal with people; and as you go from day to day, it gets easier and easier,” remarked the church leader.

full-time pastor

Reverend Wilson, who started out in leadership in the church first as a Sunday school teacher, then youth president, evangelist, assistant pastor and now a full-time pastor, said the day that the church chooses to gather as a congregation to worship does not matter to him. All he wants is that all who worship God do so in spirit and in truth.

Of all the positions held by him in the church over the years, he made it clear that he preferred his work as an evangelist because, according to him, it is an easier job. He added that evangelists just go and minister the word of God to people and leave those who get saved, thereafter, in the care of pastors.

“Now, it is different. As a pastor, I have to be taking care of the sheep when they get saved; so an evangelist’s job is much easier,” said Wilson.

Wilson’s favourite Bible verse can be found in Psalms 75 verse 1, which says, ‘Unto Thee, oh God, do we give thanks: for that thy name is near thy wondrous works declare’. He also likes Psalms 91.

I’m so concern about our youths; they are very bold, not to mention the rude behaviors they exercise in public. Just take the time to reflect while traveling on public transportation, such as the bus, trolley, or train; suddenly there’s that particular stop where a large amount of students board. Then imagine after a long day of working and running errands, the mass of students carrying on with profanity as if it is okay. The constant outburst of profanity becomes so overbearing between the students. Where are the parents of these rude behaving children? To ask such question we have to also look at the generation of today.  It is said that “children are having children so this is why the youths are so out of control”; however, I cannot agree with this statement because discipline and morals is something that is a chain of reaction for yesterdays youth, today and forever. 

This generation doesn’t even acknowledge the elder such as our (grandparents) when they are on the bus train, or in public gathering; what ever happened to passengers giving up their seats to the elders. Maybe I’m a little old school, but then again moral ethics has nothing to do with age. Please keep in mind, this is just something 2 think about.

In addition, we are living in a society where even watching Television is one of the main source of our youths out-law behaviors. It’s almost impossible to watch a movie/ TV show that does not use profanity as part of their script. Shows such as Boondocks, Family Guide, etc. have strong influences on our children. Once again, this is just something to think about.

I remember as a child families could sit and watch Television together, parents didn’t have to worry about indecent language being used; I remember we would watch Carol Brunett, The Ropers, Uncle Martin, Gilligan’s Island, Different Strokes, and Good-Times. I guess my age is obvious bringing-up shows such as The Jefferson, lassie, and how can I forget Little House and the Pairie. Please post your comments, and remember this is just something to think about.  

What in the world is going on in the Island of Jamaica? Jamaican citizens cannot trust their officers to follow rules and regulations which are required of them; however, the people are not convinced that having their backs turned with their hand up to comply with the law is not a guarantee that the Jamaican officers will not conspire to shoot them in the back (something to talk about).

 Recent reports stated that a resident called for assistance from the Jamaican police. The South Police Division who showed up in the St Catherine home, were not only there to enforce the law. It was reported that one of the officers took matters into his hands, if you get what I mean.  After the two officers left the St Catherine home the homeowners noticed their electronic device also took a stroll with one of the men.

The officer later confessed that he was guilty of stealing the laptop after an investigation was launched. I wonder what pressed him to take the laptop. Maybe the cop is a part of the money laundering, and he need to mobilize his business as to oppose having a desktop. Please give us your opinion after all it just something to talk about.

Days after the earthquake killed his little girl and destroyed much of his house, Meristin Florival moved his family into a makeshift tent on a hill in the Haitian capital and called it home. Two years later, they are still there, living without drains, running water or electricity.

A few kilometres (miles) away, Jean Rony Alexis has left the camp where he spent the months after the quake and moved into a shed-like shelter built on a concrete slab by the Red Cross. But he’s not much better off. The annual rent charged by a landlord who lives in a nearby camp jumped from US$312 to US$375, and he, too, has no running water.

“This is misery,” said Florival, whose four-month-old daughter was crushed to death in the quake-stricken family home. “I don’t see any benefits,” said Alexis, whose shed is flooded with noise at night from a saloon next door that’s appropriately named the Frustration Bar.

The two men are among hundreds of thousands of Haitians whose lives have barely improved since those first days of devastation, when the death toll climbed toward 300,000 and the world opened its wallets in response.

While United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, former United States President Bill Clinton and others vowed that the world would help Haiti “build back better”, and US$2.38 billion has been spent, Haitians have hardly seen any building at all.

Grand ambitions unfulfilled

At the time, grand ambitions were voiced for a Haiti rebuilt on modern lines. New housing would replace shantytowns and job-generating industry would be spread out to ease the human crush of Port-au-Prince, the sprawling capital with its three million people.

But now the government seems to be going back to basics, nurturing small, community-based projects designed to bring the homeless back to their old neighbourhoods to build, renovate and find jobs through friends.

The reasons for the slow progress are many. Beyond being among the world’s poorest nations and a frequent victim of destructive weather, Haiti’s land registry is in chaos – a drag on reconstruction because it’s not always clear who owns what land. Then there’s a political stand-off that went on for more than a year and still hobbles decision making.

After the quake, a disputed presidential election triggered tire-burning riots that shut down Port-au-Prince for three days. The international airport was forced to close and foreign-aid workers had to hunker down in their compounds.

Even after the vote was resolved and Michel Martelly was installed as president in May 2011, there were further snags. The former pop star, new to politics, took six months to install a prime minister, whose job is to oversee reconstruction projects. He infuriated opposition politicians because his administration jailed a deputy without following the law and named a prime minister without consulting them first. They retaliated by trying to thwart him at every turn.

For six months, Martelly was running a government with ministers of the outgoing administration. “It created a situation where it was difficult to take off,” the new foreign affairs minister, Laurent Lamothe, told The Associated Press.

No home-building

Another victim of the impasse was a reconstruction panel co-chaired by Clinton, the UN special envoy to Haiti. Lawmakers refused to renew its mandate, complaining it contained too few Haitians, though they may have been using it as a pretext to punish Martelly. But it meant that for the next six months there was no agency in place to coordinate home-building.

Meanwhile, government employees could be found napping at their desks while awaiting orders from their bosses that never came.

The government and international partners say there has been some progress – 600 classrooms for 60,000 children to return to school, more than half of the 10 million cubic metres of rubble cleared, and roads newly paved in the capital and countryside.

New housing is still the most critical objective, yet the biggest official housing effort targets just five per cent of those in need, and the encampments of cardboard, tarps and bed sheets that went up to cope with 1.5 million homeless people have morphed into shantytowns that increasingly look permanent.

More than 550,000 people are still living in the grim and densely packed camps that are squeezed into the capital’s alleyways and pitched on the side of rural roads. And many of those who left the camps, often being evicted or paid to go, say their new conditions are little better, and sometimes much worse.

“I certainly wouldn’t call (reconstruction) a success,” said Alex Dupuy, who has written books about Haiti and teaches at Wesleyan University in Connecticut. “Other than putting a government in place …, I haven’t seen any concrete evidence of recovery under way.”

In the first year after the quake, the previous government never set up a housing agency or a clear housing strategy, and meanwhile the camps swelled because foreign-aid groups were delivering what the government didn’t: water, latrines and electricity. Former President Rene Preval identified five plots of land for new housing but only obtained one, through eminent domain.

Of the 10 best-funded projects approved by a reconstruction panel, not one focuses exclusively on housing. A US-financed US$225-million industrial park includes housing for 5,000 workers. But it’s on the northern coast of Haiti, 240 kilometres (150 miles) outside the quake zone.

Abandoned in Corail-Cesselesse

The highest-profile effort to house the displaced came three months after the quake, on the eve of the rainy season. The US military and actor Sean Penn bused 5,000 people from a flood-prone golf course to a cleared field in Corail-Cesselesse, north of Port-au-Prince. It was supposed to be the country’s first planned community, with factories and houses for 300,000 people.

That never happened.

Today, the people of Corail-Cesselesse are ravaged by floods or bake in the heat in their timber-frame shelters. They are far from the jobs that sustained them before the quake. They speak of abandonment and lack of services.

“It looks like there’s no government,” said Stanley Xavier, a 30-year-old former cabbie, now unemployed. “Before they moved us out of the golf club, they made a lot of promises like they’ll create cash-for-work.”

“They said they’d give us jobs,” said neighbour Jocelin Belzince, 39. Instead, he says he has had to become an extortionist, charging newcomers US$250 for a scrap of land he doesn’t own.

“It’s an opportunity for us to survive; I have kids to feed,” Belzince said with a smile. “It’s not only us doing this. There are a lot of people doing the same thing.”

Martelly’s new administration has begun building two housing projects: 400 homes by the bay and another 3,000 at the foot of a deforested mountain. And Lamothe, the foreign affairs minister, says US$40 million in Venezuelan aid will be used to develop the southern coastal town of Jacmel in hopes of decongesting the capital.

But the government’s overall strategy now is to move quake survivors back into their old neighborhoods, even if many of those were slums even before the quake. That skirts the land title issue, makes infrastructure cheaper and puts people closer to old friends who might help them find work.

The 6/16 project

This comes in the form of a housing project in Port-au-Prince called ’6/16′. The government and aid groups are moving residents of six camps into 16 neighbourhoods to be redeveloped. Several thousand people have already left three settlements, one in a stadium parking lot, the others in two middle-class town squares ringed by amenities such as restaurants, a church and a hotel.

The programme seeks to house only five per cent of the displaced population, but government officials say it’s a pilot project that they hope to replicate elsewhere.

Residents can pay the landlord a subsidised annual rent of US$500, or accept money to build or rebuild their own homes. They also get US$150 in moving costs.

“Staying in a tent is not an option any more, two years after the earthquake,” said Nicole Widder-sheim of the US Agency for International Development.

Although it’s more modest than the old ambition of dispersing population to new areas, ’6/16′ is getting some US$125 million in aid, mostly from the World Bank and the World Bank-run Haiti Reconstruction Fund.

Many former camp dwellers have moved into old, boxy apartments in the vast mountainside shantytown called Jalousie. Here, young people hum Rihanna hits and fist-bump each other, saying, “respect – Jalousie,” a sign that a sense of neighbourhood is taking hold.

Marise Nelson, a pregnant mother of one who received US$500 from aid groups to pay a year’s rent, doesn’t miss the camp in the town square which she left after two years.

“You couldn’t find food. You couldn’t find water. You couldn’t find a community,” said Nelson, a 26-year-old homemaker.

She likes her new one-bedroom house, the neighbours, the water well and the little boutiques.

“The big difference here is that I can keep the place clean,” she said as she stirred a pot of white rice and her daughter peered behind her.

Meristin Florival wishes he could too. Instead, he says, he must put up with neighbours in a camp who use plastic bags for their bodily waste and toss them on to shanty roofs.

Jean Rony Alexis and his wife, Darlene Claircin, are glad to have shade from the sun and room for a table and bed, but say life is no better in the crowded Delmas section of the capital than it was in the camp.

“It’s the same thing,” Alexis said. “I was suffering there. I’m suffering here.”

Two Police Constables from the Port Kaituma Police Station are under close arrest for allegedly raping a 12-year-old girl while she was in custody.
The incident reportedly occurred late in December 2011

Kaieteur News understands that the child was arrested for simple larceny and was reportedly placed in a cell.
The girl alleged that while she was in custody, two of the police ranks had sexual intercourse with her against her will.
After she was released on station bail, the girl confided in an aunt and a cousin. They brought the alleged victim back to the police station where she gave a statement to a senior rank.  A source said that she also identified one of the alleged culprits, whom she had known when he was posted at another location.

A medical examination revealed that the girl was sexually active.
Kaieteur News was told that the policemen were subsequently placed under close arrest and the one the girl had identified and escorted to Georgetown for further questioning.
It is unclear whether the matter has been sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).

As the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) continues introspection following its heavy defeat in the December 29 general election, one of its affiliates, Generation 2000 (G2K) – which has received much blame for the loss – has posited several reasons for the party’s poor showing.

G2K President Delano Seiveright, in an article published in The Sunday Gleaner yesterday, offered several possible reasons for the party’s 21-42 loss to the People’s National Party (PNP), among which was the failure of several candidates to sufficiently organise and build their political machinery.

“Some, in fact, were detached from the base and are guilty of neglect and arrogance,” Seiveright claimed.

‘I was not arrogant’

However, one losing JLP candidate has rejected the view, stating he was neither “detached from his base, neglectful nor arrogant” but that the party made “error after error” in the lead-up to Andrew Holness’ takeover and after.

Franklyn Witter, losing JLP candidate in St Elizabeth South West, said the Manatt-Dudus affair was a disaster for the party and the resulting commission of enquiry was another massive blow.

“(St Elizabeth South West) is a very strong PNP seat. The PNP has always been winning by 2,000 and 3,000 margins. Even when the JLP was winning in the 1960s, we were not able to win this seat,” Witter said. “I am not surprised that I lost. Once you have a national swing towards the PNP, you are never going to win it.”

He added however that in last month’s election, there were “neglectful and arrogant JLP politicians who lost, and neglectful and arrogant PNP politicians who won”.

ONE man is dead and another seriously injured following a shooting incident at the Caroni North Bank Road, Kelly Village on Saturday night.

The dead man has been identified as Allan “Bobby” Harry, 28, of Herrera Street, Kelly Village; while Ken Mathias, 40, of La Solita Road, Kelly Village, has been identified as the injured victim.

Harry, the father of one-year-old Hannah Harry, was shot once in the head while standing at the corner of Church Street and the Caroni North Bank Road.

His father, Ralph said, he (Harry) had just left his parents home in the area and was waiting transportation at the side of the roadway to head to his nearby home when he was shot by what appeared to be a stray bullet.

Ralph said his son was not known to be involved in criminal activities but was friendly with almost everyone in the community.

Relatives believe Mathias may have been the intended target given the amount of times he was shot about the body and Harry was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

At Harry’s parents home yesterday, his mother Susan, wife Ria Winth and other relatives wept quietly as they consoled each other, trying to come to terms with his death.

“I believe he was at the wrong place at the wrong time because if he pick up one (bullet) and the next man (Mathias) pick up four then common sense tells me that the next man was the target,” Ralph said.

“Long time when you have a death it was a big thing, now it’s like nothing. It’s only when it hits home you say, ‘what is really taking place,’” The victim’s father said.

When the Express visited the area yesterday residents remained tight-lipped on the incident only saying they heard the shots but saw nothing.

Mathias’s father Kelvin Mathias, during an interview with the Express at this home yesterday said he wasn’t certain why his son is wanted dead by unknown persons.

Admitting that his son had a drug trafficking matter before the court, Kelvin added that Saturday night’s incident was not the first time his son was shot.

Several years ago, Mathias was shot and wounded while working as a security guard at Grand Bazaar, his father said.

Not much information about the incident has been forthcoming from persons who may have witnessed it, Kelvin added. He said he was notified that his son was shot shortly after he (Kelvin) left his nearby home.

He said he placed his son in the back of his Toyota station wagon and took him to the Mt Hope hospital where he was treated and listed in critical condition.

Asked if his son was recently threatened by anyone who associated himself in criminal activities, Kelvin said, “Well he outside there. He around so anything could happen. I can’t tell you about no real threat that I am aware of,” he said.

Police said three men drove by in a vehicle and opened fire on Mathias hitting Harry in the process before quickly making their escape.

In March 2010, Mathias was one of five persons who appeared before a Port of Spain Magistrate on charges of allegedly being in possession of more than $3 million worth of drugs.

Mathias was jointly charged with Colombians Alfredo Mendoza and Freddy Alexander Rueda and Trinidadians Keith Williams, 49, and Keaton Smith, 30, both of Beach Road, Erin.

The accused are alleged to have in possession for the purpose of trafficking 148.4 kilogrammes of compressed marijuana, 5.2 kilogrammes of cocaine and three iguanas.

The accused were arrested on board the vessel Levi Chariot, off Chacachacare, on March 12, 2010. That matter is still before the court.

AT the beginning of the 2011 season, few, if any, pundit would have hazarded a wager that young martial artists could have displaced their senior and more experienced counterparts from prized spots on Jamaica’s combined martial arts’ 10-man team.

However, three teens, Adrian King, Ackeem Lawrence and Adrian Moore, replaced 30 per cent of the old guard by earning more points than their seniors on the local and international tournament circuit in 2011 to become members of the 2012 squad.

Moore, Lawrence and King displaced Shiah Shukura, Dwayne Vascianne and Shaun Barnes. Shamar Morgan joins the trio as the team’s fourth teenager, qualifying as the 2012 invitee after ending 2011 in 11th spot, based on points earned throughout 2011.

competitions

Jamaica’s combined martial arts team is the only national team whose composition is based on a tally of points earned by its members, or prospective members, in local and international competitions.

Points standings at the end of 2011 showed Nicholas Dussard with 52 points followed closely by Kenneth Edwards on 46. Olympic-qualification duties prevented Edwards from competing in the national black-belt invitational, which cost him top spot in the table.

Oshane Murray held down third points with 36 points even though he missed out on the team’s season-ending Tri-Asian Championship tour.

King was the top-performing teenager with 27 points, securing fourth ahead of Kevin McDowell on 24, Alrick Wanliss 16 and captain Jason McKay on 13.

Wanliss hardly competed in 2011 but his powerful bronze medal from the International Taekwondo Federation’s world championships in New Zealand carried enough weight to put him sixth in the standings.

Scott Wright ended 2011 with 13 points, the same as McKay, to fill eighth spot whereas a pair of teens, Moore and Lawrence, tied with 10 points apiece, to round out ninth and 10th places, respectively.

Morgan’s seven points won him 11th spot and invitee of 2012, transforming the once-ageing unit into a squad with four members under the age of 20, four under 25s, two under 30s and one member past 30.

Captain McKay said the rise of the teens was a rapid one.

“They are international fighters with most of them touring from age 11,” he said. “Maybe we should have expected this in their first year of adult competition,” he pointed out.

However, the captain was quick to add that unavailability of some senior fighters, due to studies and professional commitments, definitely affected their ability to participate in international competitions.

He specifically pointed to the likes of Barnes and Shukura.

“Barnes is also a member of the national shooting team, so we lost him for a lot of the season and Shukura is working on new business ventures and so on, he remarked.

“The youngsters have all the time in the world. Training time determines whether you are entered in competitions. It’s simple, you don’t train, you don’t fight,” McKay added.