Give the police better equipment, pleads stepdad of slain cop

Questions are again being raised about the quality of the bulletproof vests which were being worn by policemen involved in the ill-fated Horizon Park operation on June 12. 

Speaking today at the funeral for Constable Decardo Hylton, one of the three policemen killed in the operation, Churchill Hamilton questioned how a bullet could have pierced the vest and killed his stepson, Hylton. 

"They say a man who asks questions is a fool for a minute, but a man who does not ask a question is a fool for life, and I do not want to be a fool for the rest of my life," he said as he proceeded to raise his concerns. 

"How comes the bullet still pierced his heart? Is it that the equipment of our brave men and women of the police force is, in Jamaican terms, 'shabby equipment'?" he questioned. 

"Our police officers, they are the front line between chaos and anarchy in this country, keeping the peace. They should be given the best equipment. Just as the army have proper bulletproof gear that [is] able to stop a rifle bullet, our policemen and women should likewise, their lives matter. And I say to the powers that be: this needs to be fixed," Hamilton advocated, as he received applause from the congregation. 

 "If that [is] not fixed, Decardo, our son, will have died in vain," he said. 

Federation demands better for police

Chairman of the Jamaica Police Federation, Patrae Rowe, similarly demanded more for the police, as he heaped criticism on the State, human-rights groups and other sectors of  the society for their treatment of lawmen.

"The Government must demonstrate to the Hylton [and Hamilton] family that their son's death was worth it," he said.

"The people of Jamaica are indebted to Mr and Mrs Hamilton and Mr Hylton for the loss of their child in fighting against crime," he said. 

He said the police, including Hylton, have for too long endured a state of "unease". 

"He (Hylton) left the comfort of his family home to endure the unease of policing. Unease, because he joined the police force, which pays a salary of $840,000 per year, or a meagre $70,000 per month. Unease, because he chose to serve the people of Jamaica, who showed disrespect and disregard for the service of police officers. Unease, because he served an ungrateful country that cannot appreciate that it is out of love and sheer commitment why anyone would leave the safety of their home, sleep deprived and work long hours to make someone else safe," Rowe said. 

He went on to criticise the poor conditions under which the police work and the dangers they face in carrying out their duties, as well as the State's lack of support for police who face criminal allegations, while acting as agents of the State.   

"Unease, because if he was charged while exercising an honest function with alleged miscalculated judgement, he would have been faced with legal fees of upward of $3 million, suspended from work and pay, at the risk of losing his house and family and placed in a position of destitution with no support from Government," Rowe argued. 

He also blasted human-rights lobby groups, whom he described as anti-police.

"Unease, because there are groups in this country that profess to be human-rights groups, who are not Jamaicans interested in justice, but Jamaicans against the police, interested in status and international funding; who have never spoken out against any injustice against the police, but provide a platform for criminals to profess their mendacious accounts," he said. 

Twenty-six-year-old Hylton, who served the Jamaica Constabulary Force for four years, was killed on June 12, along with 32-year-old Detective Corporal Dane Biggs, during a predawn operation in Horizon Park, St Catherine. Superintendent Leon Clunis, who led the operation, was also shot, but died weeks later in hospital, on June 30.

Another cop was also injured during the attack. 

Their alleged attacker, 39-year-old Damion Hamilton, a deportee, was shot and killed by police in Cooreville Gardens, St Andrew, in another exchange of bullets a few hours after the initial attack. At least two officers were injured in that incident. 

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