Web pages about "Jamaica"

Gangs and police cripple Jamaica's inner cities

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 15:07:01 +0100

Poor inner city Jamaicans are left at the mercy of gangs and abusive police officers who are rarely, if ever, brought to justice for human rights abuses.

A new Amnesty International report exposes how the Jamaican authorities are wilfully neglecting the poorest communities by failing to tackle the violence - and its causes - that is shattering inner cities. This particularly includes abusive policing methods that lead to hundreds of fatal shootings and extrajudicial executions.

"Poor inner city Jamaicans are paying the price of this public security crisis with their lives. They are being held hostage in an endless confrontation between gangs and police officers who kill with impunity," said Kerrie Howard, Deputy Director of Amnesty International's Americas programme.

Jamaica has one of the highest murder rates and police killings in the Americas with around 1,500 homicides and 272 police killings in 2007. Gang leaders use the vacuum left by the absence of the state to control huge aspects of inner city people's lives -- including the collection of "taxes", allocation of jobs, distribution of food and the punishment of those who transgress gang rules.

"Criminal gangs make up a small proportion of the community population but their actions are devastating: they keep thousands of people living in constant fear and provide an excuse for government officials and the society in general to label all community members as criminals," said Kerrie Howard.

Despite the violence, community members are reluctant to report abuses due to fear of reprisals by gang leaders, lack of confidence in the judicial system and mistrust of police officers working in their communities.

18-year-old Ravin Thompson was shot by police and soldiers in July 2007, while talking to his aunt at her house. The officers had been pursuing another young man who ran into the home.

Ravin's aunt insisted on accompanying him to the hospital in the officers' jeep but, while on route, she claims a soldier pushed her out. When she finally arrived, Ravin was dead. The autopsy later revealed that he had four gunshot wounds. Yet Ravin's aunt and others present at the shooting were certain he had only been injured in the arm and shoulder. They claim he was murdered in the jeep, before arriving at the hospital.

The police recorded the incident as a "shoot-out". They initiated investigations but, to Amnesty International’s knowledge, no officer has been charged in connection with Ravin’s death.

"There are many good serving police officers in Jamaica who risk their lives every day to help improve security for Jamaican citizens. However, until human rights abusers are brought to justice and corruption purged they won’t be able to make a change," said Kerrie Howard.

Amnesty International has called on the Jamaican authorities to take urgent and effective measures to tackle the underlying causes of this public security and human rights crisis – including the reduction of homicide rates in inner cities, the introduction of human rights-based policing and the reform of the judicial system to improve access to justice.

"The conversation that needs to take place in Jamaica is no longer about 'ifs' or 'hows' but about when will the urgent changes be made in order to stop the crisis taking any more lives - and the answer must be today," said Kerrie Howard.

Jamaica: Poor communities held hostage to gang violence and government neglect

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 18:00:48 +0100

(Kingston) Amnesty International today criticized the Jamaican authorities for wilfully neglecting poor Jamaicans by failing to tackle the corruption and violence that is shattering their inner-city communities.

“Poor inner-city Jamaicans are paying the price of this public security crisis with their lives. They are being held hostage in an endless confrontation between criminal gangs, police officers who kill with impunity and authorities who are failing to protect their human rights,” said Fernanda Doz Costa, Amnesty International’s researcher on Jamaica.

In a new report released today at a press conference in Kingston, the organization revealed the reality of the hundreds of thousands of Jamaicans condemned to live with violent criminal gangs and abusive policing, and stigmatized by the authorities.

Jamaica has one of the highest rates of violence and police killings in the Americas with around 1,500 homicides and 272 police killings in 2007 – an average of three homicides a day and three police killings every four days. Most of the victims of violent crime live in deprived communities – where they also suffer from unemployment, poor access to health and education services, limited supplies of drinking water and poor sanitation.

People living in inner-city communities are left at the mercy of gang leaders who use the vacuum left by the state to control huge aspects of their lives -- including the collection of “taxes”, allocation of jobs, distribution of food and “scholarships”, and the punishment of those who transgress gang rules.

Criminal gangs were created in the 1960’s by the two main political parties – People's National Party (PNP) and Jamaica Labour Party (JLP). Jamaican governments and political leaders have actively helped create and maintain the environment in which gang violence could flourish.

Violence in these communities is particularly high when rival gangs are “at war” over territorial control. Entire populations are shut down by barricades and unable to leave their homes after 5pm. As a result, children don’t go to school out of fear and adults don't go to work because transport is suspended.

As one woman from an inner-city community told Amnesty International, “At night we had to sleep on the floor, all of us, the children, the grandma, all of us; covered by the mattress because sometimes the shots can go through the house and kill us.”

“Criminal gangs make up a small proportion of the community population but their actions are devastating: they keep thousands of people living in constant fear and provide an excuse for government officials to label all community members as criminals,” said Fernanda Doz Costa.

Despite the violence they experience daily, community members are reluctant to report abuses due to fear of reprisals by gang leaders, lack of confidence in the judicial system and mistrust of police officers working in their communities.

“There are many good serving police officers in Jamaica who risk their lives every day to help improve security for Jamaican citizens. However, the political determination to bring human rights abusers to justice and purge corruption is still lacking,” said Fernanda Doz Costa.

Amnesty International calls on the Jamaican authorities to take urgent and effective measures to tackle the underlying causes of this public security and human rights crisis – including the reduction of homicide rates in inner-cities, the introduction of human rights-based policing, and the reform of the judicial system to improve access to justice.

“The conversation that needs to take place in Jamaica is no longer about ‘ifs’ or ‘hows’ but about when to make the changes needed to stop the crisis taking any more lives and the answer is today.”)

A copy of the report “’Let them kill each other’ – Public Security in Jamaica’s inner cities” is available on: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR38/001/2008/en

Video: Gangs and police cripple Jamaica's inner cities

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 16:10:33 +0100

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Poor inner city Jamaicans are left at the mercy of gangs and abusive police officers who are rarely, if ever, brought to justice for human rights abuses. Watch Amnesty International's exclusive interviews and footage.

Jamaica: Public Security in inner cities - Facts and Figures

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 18:34:40 +0000

Killings
Jamaica has one of the highest rates of homicide and police killings in the Americas.

In 2007, around 1,500 people were victims of criminal murder and 272 were killed by the police – a record high representing more than 15 per cent of the total of killings in that year (Jamaican Constabulary Police).

In 2006, 1,355 people were victims of criminal murder and 229 were killed by the police (Office of the Commissioner of Police and Bureau of Special Investigations).

In 2005, 1,674 people were victims of criminal murder and 202 were killed by the police (Jamaican Constabulary Police).

In the 1990s 50 per cent of homicides were committed with guns. This rose to 61 per cent in 2000 and around 75 per cent and in 2005 (Office of the Police Commissioner).

The main victims of homicide and police killings in Jamaica are people living in extremely poor overcrowded inner-cities. Between 30% and 45% of the population of Kingston Metropolitan Region (KMR) live in these communities

Policing
The main body responsible for policing in Jamaica is the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF).

Given that the police are required to minimize damage and injury and preserve human life, it is expected that more people would be injured than killed during policing operations. However, between 2000 and 2007, the Jamaican Constabulary Force killed 1,422 people and injured 1,115.

Police officers trying to make improvements in respect for human rights and to support reform face numerous obstacles, even threats to their life.

Impunity for police killings
There are two government bodies in charge of investigations of killings by the police in Jamaica, the Bureau of Special Investigations (BSI) and the Police Public Complaints Authority (PPCA).

The number of murders investigated and solved by the police is extremely low. Prosecution and conviction rates are also extremely poor. According to official data, during 2005 the 36.5 per cent of recorded murders were investigated and resulted in a suspect being named and referred to Director of Public Prosecutions. For drug-related murders this percentage fell to an astonishing 0 per cent and for gang-related murders the clear-up rate was 27.2 per cent.
Investigations into cases of fatal shootings in disputed circumstances by members of the police are wholly inadequate. They are compromised by a number of flaws and obstacles, including destruction or damage to evidence at the scene of the crime, a lack of resources (especially forensic and ballistic expertise), a lack of transparency, inadequate powers to investigate and to implement recommendations, and serious delays and inefficiencies.

Life in the inner-city communities
Gang members represent no more than 5 per cent of the population of inner-city communities in Jamaica.

In 2001, more than 60 per cent of those living in inner-city communities did not have an indoor tap providing safe drinking water. A fifth of residents of Western Kingston ghettos still had to use pit latrines and 23.7 per cent had to share toilet facilities with other families (University of West Indies).

In 2007, unemployment in Jamaica was running at 35% In some inner-city areas, however, unemployment was as high as 57 per cent.

Among Caribbean countries, Jamaica ranks second from the bottom in terms of the UN Human Development Index. Only Haiti has a lower score.

STORIES
On the evening of Friday, 27 July 2007, 18-year-old Ravin Thompson was talking to his aunt Pinky at her house in inner-city Kingston when two jeeps with four soldiers and one police officer in each arrived. The officers opened fire while chasing a young man who was running away and then ran into Pinky’s house. The young man escaped unharmed but Ravin was shot in the shoulder and arm by the officers.

Pinky asked the officers to take Ravin to the hospital and insisted in going with him in the jeep. Pinky said that while on the road to the hospital, a soldier pushed her out of the jeep. When she managed to get to the hospital, Ravin was dead. The autopsy later revealed that Ravin had four gunshot wounds.

Pinky and others present at the shooting stated that they were certain Ravin had only been injured in the arm and shoulder and that he was murdered in the jeep, before arriving at the hospital. The police recorded the incident as a “shoot-out”. The Police Public Complaints Authority and the Bureau of Special Investigations initiated investigations but to Amnesty International’s knowledge no officer has been charged in connection to Ravin’s death.

“If you have a gun you are not safe because bad men attack men who they know have a gun. If you don’t have a gun you are still not safe, because anyone can come and kill you, including the police. And even if you didn’t do anything you are not safe, because if someone close to you did something to the gangs and they can not find him they will come and find you.” Woman from garrison community, Kingston

“When the ‘war’ was happening we couldn’t drink clean water because we needed to go to the next community to pick up the clean water from the tanks, but we couldn’t cross to that section because it was too dangerous, the gang there saw anyone coming from this community as a threat to them… At night we had to sleep on the floor, all of us, the children the granma, all of us; covered by the mattress because sometimes the shots can go through the house and kill us.”
Woman from inner-city community, Kingston, October 2007.

“The person that the gang wanted lived over to the side and they wanted him to take side with them and he denied because we wanted the community to be one. So because he didn’t take side they burnt down his house, destroyed everything he had, he backed off and they came back and murdered his son and his mother.”
Young men from inner-city community in Kingston, October 2007

Jamaica: Poor communities held hostage to gang violence and government neglect

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 18:43:35 +0000

For a copy of the report “’Let them kill each other’ – Public Security in Jamaica’s inner cities”, please click here

Jamaica - Amnesty International Report 2007

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 01:23:39 +0100

Widespread sexual violence, including rape, continued during 2006, posing severe health risks for women and girls. Murder rates declined but were still among the highest in the world. Already high levels of killings by the police rose over the previous year's total. Impunity continued to be the norm for such abuses.

Background

In February Portia Simpson Miller was elected as president of the ruling People's National Party (PNP) and in March she became the country's first female Prime Minister. Corruption allegations emerged in October when the opposition revealed that the PNP had received a donation of 31 million Jamaican dollars from a company selling Nigerian crude oil to the international market for Jamaica.

Sexual violence against women and girls

Sexual violence continued throughout the country, resulting in severe health risks for women and girls. Sexual harassment and assault by strangers, friends, family, acquaintances and lovers was widespread but the authorities failed adequately to investigate and punish the perpetrators. Rates of HIV infection among women and girls continued to rise and people living with HIV faced systematic discrimination.

The discussions aimed at reforming the Offences Against the Person Act and the Incest Punishment Act, ongoing since 1995 and 2000 respectively, re-started in a parliamentarian joint committee on 6 December. Proposed amendments to both acts would offer greater legal protection to women and children, including making marital rape a criminal offence and increasing punishments for perpetrators of sexual violence. The Centre for Investigations of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse was improved and given further powers to investigate these crimes.

Early in 2006 a 13-year-old girl was repeatedly sexually assaulted by three teenagers in the back of a van. The assault was allegedly supervised and tape-recorded by a 46-year-old former deacon of a local church. The teenagers and the former deacon were charged with indecent assault and carnal abuse, but in November the charges were dropped by the public prosecutor's office and replaced with trafficking in human beings. The accused were released on bail pending trial, which had not started by the end of the year.

Enid Gordon was raped by two men when she was 15 years old. Two men were arrested, charged and released on bail. In October 2005, a week before she was due to testify against the men, Enid Gordon was found strangled in the place where she had been raped a year earlier. Two suspects were arrested and forensic evidence taken, but the results of the investigation were still pending.

Crime and insecurity

Homicide rates in Jamaica remained high, although numbers decreased in 2006. A total of 1,355 murders were committed during the year according to official figures, a decrease since 2005 of more than 20 per cent.

Small arms were widely available, exacerbating already high levels of violence. In October Jamaica voted in favour of a UN resolution to start working towards an Arms Trade Treaty.

Gang warfare was prevalent. Gangs were sometimes the perpetrators of violence in communities, although were sometimes perceived as the protectors of those communities due to distrust of the police. Gang leaders were known to demand adolescent girls from their families for sexual exploitation and assault.

Unlawful killings

Reports of police brutality continued. At least 138 people were allegedly killed by police during the year. Impunity for police abuses and a complete lack of accountability in the security and justice systems remained the norm.

Glenroy McDermoth, a police officer from the Jamaican Constabulary Force, was sentenced to life imprisonment in February for shooting in the back and killing Michael Dorsett in 2000. This was the first conviction of a police officer for murder committed while on duty since October 1999.

Death penalty

No executions took place during 2006. The last was in 1988. The 1993 Privy Council ruling that sentences on death row prisoners must be carried out within five years or be commuted remained in force. Some calls were made by high-ranking government officials to renew hangings. Seven prisoners were held on death row.

AI country reports/visits

Report

Jamaica: Sexual violence against women and girls in Jamaica - "Just a little sex" (AI Index: AMR 38/002/2006)

Visit

AI delegates visited Jamaica in December to meet government officials and non-governmental organizations concerning violence against women.

Jamaica - Amnesty International Report 2008

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 01:38:16 +0100

Murder rates and police killings in socially excluded inner-city communities remained at a high level. Police officers were largely unaccountable and rarely brought to justice for human rights violations. Discrimination and violence against women and gay men were widespread.

Background

In September the leader of the Jamaica Labour Party, Bruce Golding, was elected Prime Minister after18 years of People’s National Party government. He pledged to tackle crime and corruption, draft a new charter of fundamental rights and create an independent commission into human rights violations by members of the security forces. At least nine people were killed and many others injured in confrontations between supporters of opposing parties in the run-up to the September elections.Homicide rates in Jamaica reached another record high; more than 1,500 people were murdered during the year. Firearms were widely available. Victims were mainly young men from marginalized inner-city communities. Perpetrators were usually gang members. At least 20 police officers were killed, many while on duty.In May, the Jamaican Justice System Reform Task Force launched its preliminary report, with comprehensive reform recommendations. However, no clear plan for their implementation had been devised by the end of the year.The review of the Jamaica Constabulary Force, initiated by the previous administration, continued. However, there was concern about the lack of consultation with human rights organizations.

Police and security forces

Reports of police brutality increased. According to the Bureau of Special Investigations, 203 people were killed by police between January and September, a significant increase compared with 2006. Victims were mainly from socially excluded inner-city communities. Although the police routinely claimed that these killings occurred during shoot-outs with criminal gangs, eyewitness accounts often alleged that police had extrajudicially executed victims. Corruption and distrust of the police remained the norm.The pattern of impunity for police abuses and lack of accountability in the security and justice systems continued.

Eighteen-year-old Ravin Thomas was wounded by police while visiting his aunt in an inner-city neighbourhood in Kingston in July. Eight soldiers and two police officers chasing a suspect passed next to him and opened fire. Ravin Thomas’ injuries when he was put in the police jeep to be taken to hospital were confined to his shoulder and his arm. When his aunt arrived at the hospital, Ravin Thomas was dead. According to the autopsy, he had four gunshot wounds, one in his face and another in his chin. The police recorded the incident as a shoot-out. The case was being investigated by the Police Public Complaints Authority and the Bureau of Special Investigations at the end of the year.
Eighteen- year-old André Thomas was shot by police in the arm and leg in Grants Pen in September. He was still conscious when he was put into the police car to be taken to hospital. When his father arrived at the hospital, André Thomas was dead. He had gunshot wounds all over his body, including a fatal shot in the stomach. The father of the victim reported being threatened by local police officers days after the incident. The officers did not reappear or return their vehicle until four days after the shooting. They were charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice and with murder in December. Their trial was scheduled for 2008.

Violence against women and girls

Sexual violence against women and girls was prevalent throughout the country, but the authorities failed to bring those responsible to justice. Rates of HIV infection among women and girls continued to rise and people living with HIV faced discrimination.A draft bill which would offer greater legal protection to women and children, including making marital rape a criminal offence and increasing punishments for perpetrators of sexual violence, was pending final approval by parliament at the end of the year.

Discrimination

There were several episodes of violence, including mob violence, against people perceived to be gay.

On 8 April, a crowd surrounded a church in Mandeville and hurled objects through a window at the back of the church. The attacks were directed at those attending a funeral whom the crowd believed were gay.

Death penalty

No one was executed in 2007; the last execution in Jamaica took place in 1988.The new government announced there would be a free vote, allowing representatives to vote according to personal conscience, in parliament on the resumption of hangings.

Amnesty International visits/reports

Amnesty International delegates visited Jamaica in March and in September/October.
Jamaica: Opportunity to include the highest standards of international criminal law into national legislation to stop violence against women (AMR 38/001/2007)
Jamaica: Open letter to the Prime Minister of Jamaica, Mrs Portia Simpson Miller, welcoming improvements to stop violence against women and encouraging new steps forward (AMR 38/002/2007)
Jamaica: Amnesty International condemns homophobic violence (AMR 38/004/2007)