Police to students: ‘Don’t take law into your own hands!’

The shocking photo ahead consists of the large number of weapons found and confiscated from St. Lucian secondary students during the present school term and others collected between 2010 and 2011. In some cases discoveries were made on school compounds and in others, incidences where police intercepted and searched students walking through the streets before and after school. “ It is out of hand,” police press relations officer Trevor Constantine said. “It’s a major concern for us now. It’s scary and frightening as well with students going either to or from school arming themselves with what you see, from machetes and ice picks to knives and guns.”

Police units like Patrol and Probation and specifically the Community Relations Branch (CRB) commonly intervene with matters involving students.

The CRB’s functions include going Weapons confiscated from schools into schools to conduct lectures and searches on school compounds.

“The CRB patrols schools and conducts random searches,” the police press officer said. “During those searches all those weapons were found and other items included one spent shell, a crack pipe and a bottle of Chairman’s Reserve! I must say they’re very innovative and very skillful in the ways they conceal those weapons on their person but the police were able to recover those weapons.” Mixed up in the finds of the police were imitation firearms that officers say are often used in robberies, and even a block of wood, fitted with sharp nails on both sides for maximum impact and injury.

“I’m making an appeal to parents to please help us,” Constantine said. “Assist the police; we can’t do everything. Search your children’s bags when they’re leaving and especially when they’re coming home from school. It’s your responsibility they’re your children. See what’s in there and you’ll be helping the police and helping society as well by doing that.” The press officer says police are now seeing a trend of students arming themselves in order to launch what they call “retaliatory attacks.”

“Some of those students are arming themselves to seek vengeance because someone has interfered with them before. They’d arm themselves to cause some kind of injury to the person. Some are trying to protect themselves but we want to remind them that is not the way to go. You cannot afford to take the law into your own hands. Either report it to parents, teachers at school or come to the police station—we welcome them there with open arms to make their report against the person, the student or whoever may have assaulted or robbed them before. Don’t arm yourself with a weapon to take the law into your own hands. Police will investigate the matter for you. Leave the knives and cutlasses at home; go to school with your bag and school supplies.”

The police press relations officer spoke of stiffer penalties for students found with weapons and would be charged depending on what they were found with and the nature of their offence.

Cops, bandits in highway shootout

Motorists proceeding along the east and west-bound lanes of the Beetham Highway were forced to stop their vehicles and pull aside to safety as Cpl Thompson and PC Gomez of the Besson Street CID traded bullets with two bandits on the highway.

Police, on Monday September 19, launched a manhunt for the two bandits.

The incident, police said, caused a massive traffic pile-up as scores of police vehicles later raced into the area in search of the two armed bandits who managed to escape in the mangrove.

Around 11 a.m., police said, Richard Thomas and Elijah Daly, two employees of a solid waste company, were at the Beetham landfill when they were approached by two armed men who robbed them of cash and jewelry totalling $6,620.

The men made their way to the Besson Street CID where a report was made to detectives and then later accompanied Cpl Thompson and PC Gomez to the scene.

They immediately pointed out the two suspects who were in the vicinity of Hell Yard.

Police said they called on the suspects to surrender but the men ran across the highway and began shooting at the officers who had decided to pursue them on foot.

Officers reported they were forced to stop at the centre of the highway and engage the suspects in a shootout.

Police radioed for backup and a contingent of officers led by Insp Sahadeo Singh quickly arrived at the scene and went in search of the suspects but they could not be found. Police said one of the suspects is known to them and that an arrest was imminent.

Some comments on this incident made by citizens were:

“These criminals have no kind of respect for authority and also no regard for human life firing shots while innocent drivers passing by. The TTPS has really stepped to the plate after the SoE was declared by the PM and their efforts are duly noted by members of the public.”

“TTPS response time to crime sincethe SoE has been really amazing. The SoE should have been declared a long time ago. Just to note if those road saying they were good boys." guys were shot by police some people would have been blocking the

20 persons murdered in one week

Twenty persons have been murdered within a one-week period, but the police are attempting to keep a lid on the figures at a time when four of the victims were decapitated.

“Have we lost our heads?” seems to be the collective thought of outraged and frightened Jamaicans, as sharp bladed instruments are chosen to inflict dastardly deeds.

Gary Emanuel Smith, a 37-year-old father of two, took his last breath - early Saturday morning, as a precursor to the mourning of members of the August Town community.

He was the fourth person to be beheaded last week.

The Police High Command and the political directorate have jumped at every opportunity to reel off figures showing that crime has dipped by more than 40 per cent for the first half of 2011 when compared with 2010. However, statistics and data are cold comfort to those recoiling in fear and terror from a revolting trend.

Signs are emerging that many inclined to commit murder are going back to the old days of sharp bladed instruments, but with a brand new level of venom and brutality.

The nation was shocked into silence when a man by the name of Scott Shane Thomas, 18, a labourer of Lauriston, was decapitated Tuesday of last week.

The shock had hardly worn off less than 48 hours later when the nation was horror-struck by news that two more persons had been beheaded.

The sensibilities of most law-abiding Jamaicans were jolted further, when it was revealed that the victims were women – a mother and daughter - Charmaine Couver-Rattray, 40, and her 19-year old daughter, Joeith Lynch otherwise called “Crystal”.

In the midst of the turmoil, sparked by the goriness of the slaughters, new information emerged that another Kingston College student was murdered.

The murder happened less than a month after another student, Khajeel Mais’ untimely death elicited thunderous reactions from Jamaicans.

The police say 15-year-old Timon Thompson, a resident of Bull Retreat in Gordon Town in St. Andrew was walking along the Mavis Bank main road about 5 a.m. last week Tuesday, when he was approached by a relative and stabbed with a sharp instrument. Blood continued to be shed senselessly, when a 13-year-old girl fatally stabbed a 21-year-old mother, who was in a state of pregnancy.

The alleged offending child is in a place of safety.

As Jamaicans recoiled in horror at the wretchedness of it all, almost unbelievably, news surfaced that yet another man was decapitated.

August Town residents woke to the news that one of their own had been taken out of his house brought to another section of the community where the gruesome act was performed.

Boy, 14, in court for murder

A 14 year old boy appeared before a magistrate in San Fernando on Monday July 25 to answer a charge of murder.

The boy was arrested last Tuesday in connection with the murder of O’Brien George, 49, who was beaten to death on March 3.

On that day, George was accosted by four persons as he walked to his home at Springvale Avenue, Taradale, Ste Madeleine, according to police reports. He was beaten to death. Police reported the motive for the attack was robbery.

The boy is one of several persons arrested and charged for the killing, but only the 14-year-old appeared in court yesterday.

The boy was kept at the homicide office in the San Fernando Police Station, before he was taken to the San Fernando Magistrates’ Court. A policeman then escorted the boy before Chief Magistrate Marcia Ayers-Caesar.

The magistrate then read the charge against the boy that on March 3, 2011, at Taradale Gardens, Ste Madeleine, he murdered O’Brien George. The charge was laid indictably.

Ayers-Caesar asked the boy’s mother whether she was seeking the services of an attorney, and she replied: “Yes ma’am.”

The magistrate remanded the accused to the St Michael’s Home for Boys in Diego Martin to reappear on August 2. Another person has been charged with George’s murder.

Cops killed 3 innocent people

The relatives of three people—a man and two women—shot dead by police on Friday July 22 are demanding
an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the deaths.

Abigail Johnson, 20, her best friend, Allana Duncan, 28, and construction worker, Kerron Eccles, 26, were shot and killed when police intercepted their car in Barrackpore around 9 p.m.

Police said officers were responding to a report that a man wanted for murder was seen in a car heading into
Barrackpore. There was a chase and the occupants opened fire on the officers, police said.

The officers responded wounding the three. They were pronounced dead at the Princes Town District Hospital. But their relatives believe it was a case of mistaken identity and are crying out for justice.

The suspect was not found in the vehicle, police said.

“My brother was innocent. There are people who saw what happened. The police said it was a roadblock, but they never stopped the car. They just started shooting. They kill the driver first. My brother walk out of the car alive. I don’t know how he ended up dead. People said my brother walk into the police car and by the time we reach the hospital he had a bullet to his chest,” Junior Eccles said.

The families were seeking legal advice and intend to lodge a complaint with the Police Complaints Authority.

“We need justice for this, it is not right. We are talking to people about it because the police cannot just go around killing innocent people. We now understand that the car in which they were travelling was a marked car by police, but that is not how police supposed to operate. They supposed to stop the car,” Eccles said.

Johnson, of Burton Trace, St Mary’s Village, Moruga, was the driving the car which she had borrowed from a friend. Duncan was the front seat passenger, while Eccles, a father of two, was the lone back seat passenger.Johnson’s aunt, Melissa Charles, said her family was also seeking legal advice.

“We want to know what happened and why they were killed. The police are killing innocent people,” she said. The bodies were removed to the Forensic Science Centre in St James, where autopsies were performed Monday morning.

137 held in police raid

An anti-crime exercise throughout the Southern district resulted in the arrest of 137 people on various offences and 227 motorists were issues tickets for traffic offences.

A team of officers spearheaded by Senior Superintendent, Deodat Dulalchan, and including ASP Mohammed, Inspector Parson and Corporal Vijay Ramdhanie were involved in the 12-hour-long raid conducted by the Southern Division Task Force.

Police said five people were arrested for drunk driving, six for illegal gambling, eleven for housebreaking,
16 for larceny, 38 for narcotics and 61 on outstanding warrants for various offences.

Police said 80 motorists were issued tickets for failure to wear their seatbelt.

The suspects were charged at the San Fernando Police Station and are expected to appear before a magistrate this morning.