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PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHKG #0228/01 0741150
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 141150Z MAR 08
FM AMEMBASSY KINGSTON
TO SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 6075

UNCLAS KINGSTON 000228 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR WHA/CAR (JOE TILGHMAN) 
INL/LP (BOZZOLO) 
 
E.O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: PHUM PREL ELAB SOCI KCRM JM XL
 
SUBJECT: JAMAICA: FATAL POLICE SHOOTINGS AND EXTRAJUDICIAL 
EXECUTIONS 
 
REF: (A) 07 KINGSTON 1301 
 
 (B) 07 KINGSTON 1462 
 (C) 07 KINGSTON 1805 
 (D) 08 KINGSTON 219 
 (E) 07 KINGSTON 1813 
 
Summary: 
--------- 
 
¶1. (U) Local Human Rights NGO Jamaicans for Justice (JFJ) released a 
joint study with George Washington University (GWU) law school on 
fatal police shootings in Jamaica. According to the report, there 
were over 270 victims of police killings in 2007, nearly a fifth of 
all murders committed last year.  The motives behind unlawful 
killings range from reckless or negligent homicides, to calculated 
vigilantism, to corruption and political polarization.  The report 
cites deeply deficient police investigations; a lack of effective 
independent oversight; and pervasive pro-police bias among 
investigators, prosecutors and judges as factors allowing this trend 
to continue.  End Summary. 
 
Background: Police shootings in Jamaica 
----------------------------------------- 
 
¶3. (U) Since 2004, over 700 people have been shot and killed by 
police under circumstances that, in a "substantial percentage" of 
cases, point to summary or arbitrary executions. In 2007 alone, a 
record year for the third year in a row, 272 people died violently 
at the hands of Jamaican police, the majority of them probable 
victims of extrajudicial executions. (Another 153 were shot and 
injured.) For years, national and international human rights 
organizations have denounced the longstanding practice of excessive 
use of lethal force by Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) officers. 
They also have echoed the popular sentiment that such police 
violence is generally directed at persons belonging to lower 
socio-economic sectors who reside in marginal or "inner-city" 
neighborhoods. 
 
¶4. (U) One of the principal factors motivating the surge of police 
killings is the persistence of impunity, which traditionally has 
protected perpetrators from prosecution in the vast majority of such 
cases. The miniscule number of police shooting cases involving 
fatalities or injuries that actually make it to the criminal courts 
-- less than 10 percent of the total since 1999 -- is testimony to 
the persistent obstacles to accountability. In all that time, there 
has been only one conviction for murder by a police officer, in 
¶2006.  In a seminal 2004 report on the subject, Jamaicans for 
Justice (JFJ), a non-profit, non-partisan citizens' rights action 
group, revealed not only that police killings continued, but also 
that there existed a parallel "pattern of impunity" flowing from the 
failure of the Jamaican justice system to respond adequately or 
effectively to this practice.  The JFJ report diagnosed a series of 
institutional deficiencies in the investigation and prosecution of 
police perpetrators that continue to be of critical importance to 
the present day. Without proper investigations or true 
accountability for arbitrary or unlawful police conduct, there is 
little incentive for agents to control it. 
 
Goals of the report 
-------------------- 
 
¶5. (U) The Report conducted by JFJ with assistance from the GWU law 
school seeks to update JFJ's study with respect to the escalating 
number of fatal police shootings and extrajudicial executions since 
2004, as well as the "pattern of impunity" that feeds it. In 
addition to providing the latest empirical evidence on police 
killings, it examines the recent functioning of the authorities, 
mechanisms, and procedures charged under Jamaican law with ensuring 
that police who exceed their legal mandate in the use of lethal 
force are held accountable. The initial objective of the report is 
to paint a comprehensive picture of the full-scale human rights 
crisis prevailing in Jamaica today in this regard. The second 
objective is to analyze this situation in light of Jamaica's legal 
obligations under the American Convention on Human Rights to 
determine precisely how and why the country is seriously out of 
compliance with prevailing standards of civilized conduct. 
 
Political will for change 
------------------------- 
 
¶6. (U) Despite the serious allegations of the report, JFJ does hold 
out hope for the current Government of Jamaica (GoJ) to address 
these issues.  Prime Minister Bruce Golding (PM Golding) and the 
ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) have made crime one of the pillars 
of their manifesto released at the start of the 2007 election 
campaign (Ref A).  The challenges facing the JLP-led government of 
PM Golding when he took office in September of 2007 were no less 
daunting than those faced by his predecessors. The problem of 
 
violent crime remains critical: Jamaica manifests a per capita 
homicide rate that is one of the highest in the world (Ref B). 
Well-armed gangs trafficking in narcotics and guns exercise control 
in many inner-city communities.  In 2007 19 police officers were 
killed in the line of duty; in 2006 10 officers were killed and 2005 
the number was 13. 
 
¶7. (U) The first major step to address the issue of crime and lack 
of professionalism in the JCF was the appointment of Rear Admiral 
Hardley Lewin, a 27 year veteran of the Jamaica Defense Force (JDF), 
as the Commissioner of Police in December 2007.  He brings a 
no-nonsense, strictly disciplined approach to managing the force of 
approximately 8,000 police officers.  He has already announced 
several organizational changes of the force, including combining 
existing sub-units and moving officers to different posts throughout 
the island. In his inaugural press conference in December, Lewin 
recognized that the JCF's hard-line approach had not worked. Violent 
crime and homicides have not been reduced significantly, he said, 
and "too much killing" had continued.  Stating that "you cannot 
fight fire with fire," Commissioner Lewin announced a comprehensive 
new strategy to shift the focus of law enforcement away from a 
"war-on-crime" model premised on concerted use of force, to one that 
stresses the role of a modern, professionalized police organization 
allied with civil society in communities throughout the country to 
address the root causes of crime, as well as its consequences. He 
acknowledged that there should be greater accountability for police 
abuses. In response to specific questions about the wave of apparent 
extrajudicial killings by police, he insisted that such cases would 
be "dealt with seriously and ruthlessly," and invited public 
scrutiny of the implementation of his new policies (Ref C). 
 
¶8. (SBU) As noted Ref (D), during a meeting with DAS Madison in late 
February, Commissioner Lewin advised that he plans to equip the 
police with mace (they will still carry side arms), as a non-lethal 
alternative in responding to enforcement situations.   He announced 
on March 10 that the JCF is doing away with the U.S.-made M-16 
assault rife in favor of the less deadly MP5 sub-machine gun from 
Heckler and Koch of Germany.  According to the announcement, only 
members of the Mobile Reserve, a special squad formed to deal with 
civil unrest and/or national emergencies, will be allowed to 
continue using the M-16.  The Commissioner has also moved to lighten 
the caseload of the Bureau of Special Investigations (BSI), the unit 
responsible for investigating all police shootings, by taking away 
over 400 cases which did not involve serious injury or death from 
BSI to divisional levels in an attempt to ease the workload. 
 
¶9. (U) Also encouraging are the actions of high ranking GoJ 
officials.  A few days after security forces shot five men to death 
in west Kingston on January 13, 2008, Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce 
Golding visited the house where the killings took place. He observed 
that the manner in which the men were slain "raises questions that 
must be answered," and called for an immediate coroner's inquest. 
The press similarly reported on the September 20, 2007 visit of two 
Cabinet Ministers, including Minister of National Security, Derrick 
Smith, to a community in Kingston where police had fatally shot two 
people two days before, one of them a 19 year-old pregnant woman 
killed by a stray police bullet.  The day after the shootings, 
Attorney General and Minister of Justice Dorothy Lightbourne issued 
a press release to express her concern over the incident. At the 
same time, she quoted the Prime Minister to reiterate the 
government's commitment to establishing a "single, independent 
authority to investigate instances of abuse by members of the 
security forces." 
 
Prosecuting Police 
------------------- 
 
¶10. (U) JFJ and other NGOs are very critical of the low percentage 
of police shootings that are prosecuted, and the even lower 
percentage of convictions.  Under the current system, after BSI 
completes its investigation a report is sent to the Commissioner's 
office and to the Police Public Complaints Authority (PPCA) which 
reviews the case and submits cases of possible police misconduct to 
the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Office.  The DPP makes the 
sole determination on whether to prosecute, and as the statistics 
reveal, prosecutions of police very seldom happen in Jamaica.  In 
2006, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or 
arbitrary executions reported that "From October 1999 to February 
2006, not a single police officer was found guilty on charges 
related to the fatal use of force, although more than 700 persons 
had been killed by the police during these six years." 
 
New DPP offers hope for improvement 
------------------------------------ 
 
¶11. (SBU) The DPP is appointed by the Public Service Commission and 
the position is authorized specifically by the Constitution, he/she 
thus can only be removed from office by way of retirement, 
 
resignation or impeachment by a  special tribunal if accused of 
misbehavior.  This office, like the commissioner, has a new 
no-nonsense boss, Paula Llewellyn, who replaces the retiring Ken 
Pantry.  Pantry was much criticized by human rights NGOs and the 
media for a lack of transparency and a tendency to take offence at 
any question or challenge of any action by his office.  Llewellyn 
previously served as Senior Deputy Prosecutor under Pantry, but had 
a reputation for taking on difficult and high profile cases, 
including some involving members of the JCF and use of force.  Thus, 
there is hope that she will bring reforms and increase the levels of 
professionalism and efficiency of the DPP. 
 
Judiciary Inefficiencies 
------------------------- 
 
¶12. (U) Another major factor contributing to the pervasive impunity 
surrounding extrajudicial killings by police has been the 
ineffectiveness of the judicial system.  A U.N Special Rapporteur in 
2003 found that the criminal justice system did not possess the 
institutional capacity to deal with difficult cases of extrajudicial 
killings by police because, among other things, its proper 
functioning was "marred by a number of institutional obstacles and 
by a lack of resources."   In particular, the Coroner's Court, the 
court of first instance which most often handles homicides including 
police shooting cases, was plagued by structural flaws including, 
among others, lack of resources, inadequate use of technology, 
failure to issue warrants for witnesses and failure of investigative 
bodies to send the evidence to Court. 
 
Only the names are changed 
---------------------------- 
 
¶13. (SBU) The local media is full of reports of police shootings, 
that when read in succession become a repeating record in which only 
the names of the victims change.  Jamaicans have grown weary of 
hearing the same, dubious "official story" repeated in case after 
case.  In almost all instances, the explanation given by police to 
deflect prosecution is that a "shoot-out" occurred in which police 
returned fire while defending themselves from armed individuals. 
Guns are repeatedly "found" at the scene of the shooting, 
purportedly belonging to the victim(s).  In a recent case police 
officers pursuing a run-away taxi shot and killed an 11 month old 
baby and then fled the scene to avoid vigilante justice by a quickly 
forming mob.  In this case, too, the police claim the taxi driver 
fired upon them first and that they were only returning fire in 
self-defense; a claim unsubstantiated by witnesses.  (Note: 
Commissioner Lewin has suspended the officer responsible for the 
shooting, and removed the other involved officers from front line 
duties pending further investigation.  End note.) 
 
USG assistance with firearms training 
-------------------------------------- 
 
¶14. (U) On January 9, Commissioner Lewin signed a Memorandum of 
Understanding with the Director of the Narcotics Affairs Section 
(NAS) which will result in repair and upgrades to the Fire Arms 
Training System (FATS) previously provided by NAS.  As part of the 
MOU, the Commissioner is committed to a rigorous training and 
retraining program that will improve marksmanship and try to prevent 
police from shooting innocent bystanders during enforcement 
operations. At least 20% of the police force will be retrained 
within the first year of the upgraded "shoot-don't shoot" system. 
 
Conclusion 
----------- 
 
¶15. (U) The UN Special Rapporteur in 2006 noted that, from October 
1999 to February 2006, not a single police officer was found guilty 
on charges related to the fatal use of force, although more than 700 
persons had been killed by the police during these six years. Not 
until later in 2006 was a police officer found guilty of murder. 
JFJ also notes that investigations of fatal police shootings by the 
JCF's Bureau of Special Investigations (BSI) were perfunctory and 
inadequate, thus failing to meet basic international standards. 
Their research confirms that there has been no progress in any of 
the critical areas related to police investigations, namely, 
preservation of crime scenes and collection of evidence; monitoring 
of weapons and munitions; ballistics and forensics; as well as 
witness protection. 
 
¶16. (SBU) This predicament has led to PM Golding's initiative to 
establish an independent civilian investigative commission. 
Efforts are well underway in Parliament to create a single, 
independent authority to investigate instances of abuse by members 
of the security forces.  The civilian inquiry commission proposed by 
the Government would have several characteristics designed to ensure 
its independence and address many of the issues discussed in the 
report by JFJ and GWU law school.  In general, crime scenes are 
 
rarely secured or controlled by police agents, who do not receive 
sufficient training for this purpose, thus leaving the scenes open 
to members of the public and relatives to disrupt (Ref E).  For this 
reason, the specially trained civilian investigators in the 
Government's proposed independent inquiry commission would have full 
authority to immediately take over the crime scene of a fatal police 
shooting from local police and the BSI, as well as to direct the 
initial investigation. 
 
¶17. (SBU) Coincidentally, Reneto Adams resigned/retired from the JCF 
effective in August.  Although hailed by many Jamaicans as an 
anti-crime hero, he was strongly implicated in more than one major 
extra-judicial killing since 2001.  Most recent was the Kraal case 
which was believed to have been politically motivated.  Three people 
were murdered by the police.  Before that, in July 2001, Senior 
Superintendent Adams led a raid in Denham Town (Kingston) in search 
of firearms.  Twenty five civilians were killed along with one 
police officer and one soldier. At no time was Adams convicted, and 
the previous Commissioner of Police did not have grounds to fire 
him.  So, he was given a desk job and essentially did nothing at JCF 
headquarters during the past two years. 
 
¶18. (SBU) Comment:  The release of JFJ/GWU law school study 
highlights a longstanding problem that needs serious attention. The 
study supports Commissioner Lewin's efforts to transform the face of 
policing in Jamaica. Hopefully it will help spur legislative action 
that will facilitate planned changes.  End Comment. 
 
JOHNSON