Seal Way + 10

My wife, Velia, was born on March 14, and for the last 10 years our celebration of her birthday has been overshadowed by what took place on March 14, 2001. Reports are that early that morning, more than 40 policemen surrounded a house on Seal Way in Braeton, Newtown Phase III, looking for the murderers of a policeman and a school principal. The official police version reported on the front page of The Gleaner the following day was that although the lawmen identified themselves and asked the occupants to open the door, they were greeted with heavy gunfire. They returned the fire, and after the shooting subsided, seven young men were found dead and four firearms seized.

Also on The Gleaner's front page that day was a report of a press conference called by then Police Commissioner Francis Forbes defending the action of the police, claiming they had "little choice but to use deadly force". He said the policemen were unable to capture the men without putting their own lives in danger.

But the evidence was inconsistent with the claims of a shoot-out, and more in line with extrajudicial killings. No policemen were injured, and no bullet holes were found that came out of the house on Seal Way. The dead youths had head wounds, and most were found in a room at the back of the house not easily reached by bullets coming from outside. Several neighbours alleged they heard the boys crying out for mercy, and the gut-wrenching pleas ceased following bursts of gunfire.

Policemen set free

Six policemen were charged with murder, but the judge upheld a no-case submission and directed that the jury return not-guilty verdicts, as no evidence was presented linking a specific policeman to firing a specific shot which killed a specific young man.

Since then, more than 1,400 people have been shot dead by the police in a country whose population is only 2.7 million. In 2009, 301 persons died at the hands of the police; last year, the number killed by police bullets increased to at least 309 persons (not counting the 73 killed during the Tivoli incursion in May). Jamaicans for Justice says if this is taken into account, it would mean that "more than one in five Jamaicans who died violently last year died at the hands of the State".

This, as we know, is nothing new. In 1986 - 25 years ago - an Americas Watch report, 'Human Rights in Jamaica', concluded, inter alia, that there existed in Jamaica "a practice of summary executions by the police; a practice of unlawful detentions by the police, at times accompanied by police assaults on detainees".

Not much has changed over the last 25 years, and not much has changed since the Braeton Seven were massacred 10 years ago - not with K.D. Knight as the honourable minister of national security, not with Peter Phillips as the honourable minister of national security, and not with Dwight Nelson as the honourable minister of national security. So much for defending constitutional rights.

Unanswered questions

The Braeton massacre affected me personally, not just because it happened on Velia's birthday, but also because, at the time, I was stationed at the Good Shepherd Roman Catholic Church in Braeton, and assisted at the funeral for three of the Braeton Seven. I can still see one of the boys in his coffin, with half his face shot off.

There are still a lot of unanswered questions about what really happened at Seal Way. At the time, there were rumours that the boys had information linking top-ranking policemen with drug dealing. It was reported that the policemen took someone out of the Constant Spring lock-up with them to Braeton; afterwards, they took him back; shortly afterwards, he 'escaped' from the Constant Spring lock-up and has never been heard of again. Very mysterious!

The police killings continue, and the police force - encouraged that the system finds it difficult to convict any of them for murder - continues the atrocities. Even if a policeman should kill in front of a video camera, it would make no difference.

So many people I know were not appalled at the Braeton massacre. "Dem fe dead" was the common feeling. Many Jamaicans want the police to be judge, jury, and executioner - as long as it is lower-class black people being killed. Jamaica's police force was created not to protect and serve, but to ensure that people with property are safe, even if they have to 'kill all those niggers down there'.

Jamaica suffers from moral deficit disorder.

Peter Espeut is a sociologist and a Roman Catholic deacon. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.