Shoot to Kill

By anthony sylvestre

Maybe it’s just me, but didn’t the Commissioner of Police Crispin Jeffries last Thursday at his pre-Easter Crime Press Conference along with the Prime Minister, gave the order for Belizean policemen to shoot and kill criminals on the spot? Well, he didn’t use those exact words, but that’s the essence of what he said. And more importantly, the Prime Minister did not rein in the Commissioner from his bravado, Mavado like talk.

The Commissioner’s exact words [thanks to channel 5] were: “The criminal element is very brazen, very aggressive and we will have none of that without us having similar and proportionate response and the proportionality will be that if we are confronted we will have to speak to people in the court system because they will be shot and killed when they are caught. There is no doubt in my mind that if they can operate this way with impunity we will have respond in a similar manner.”

So it is, after the tumultuous unceasing killings, jacking, robbing, raping, extortions, violence linked to drug trade and total disregard for law and authority, the top cop (endorsed by the top man) has finally found the answer to all this crime and violence: kill ‘dem criminals on the spot.’

Let it not be said that this is in defense of criminals. But surely, it cannot that the new edict/policy of the police department is to shoot and kill criminals on the spot. Surely, more brainpower must exist in the Police Department and indeed the Ministry of National Security to offer a more realistic and doable crime fighting strategy. Of course, those who live in these communities dubbed “special police area” will tell you that the police department has had an unwritten policy of shoot to kill for some time and indeed over the years several young men have died in consequence of this policy.

This then makes this decree by the Commissioner so outrageously insane. Now, of all times, how can the police top brass and the Prime Minister be seen to be endorsing vigilante justice? One would have thought that with all that has been happening, now more than ever there is a need to convince the citizenry of the need to respect law and authority, not to disrespect it or take the law in your own hand. One would have thought that at a time like this, when the police (by the Commissioner’s and the Prime Minister’s own admission) is infested with criminals who use misguided young men to carry out contract murders, such a policy is absolutely insane. One would have thought, that at a time like this, when confidence in the police department is, understandably low, such a policy will only breed civil war between badmen and police.

And besides, there is posted on the walls of police stations an extract from the Police Standing Order, which is supposed to guide police officers in the use of firearms. It states:

“When a Police firearm is used in any way whatever against another person and as a result that person or another was injured or assaulted or alleges that he was assaulted, the firearm will be surrendered to a supervising officer at the first available moment and treated thereafter as an exhibit. The weapon should be preserved for ballistics and forensic examination in every case.

“It must be clearly understood that the use of firearms unless in self-defense or in defense of another, is a use of excessive force and punishable under the criminal code and the discipline regulations.

“Supervising officers are to ensure that when issuing firearms to police they are reminded of the limitation as to their use in public work and are to report on irregularities or improper handling of firearms whether or not there is a complaint by the public.

So then, the existing police standing orders as well reveal the folly of this new policy of shoot to kill; not to mention the egregious unlawfulness of such a policy.

It will be said that the criminals don’t respect law and authority, that they take the law into their own hands, that they unleash mayhem on the general citizenry and that therefore they should not be afforded the rights and protection of law abiding citizens. The argument is a very persuasive one, especially in times like these. And indeed, when a society gets sick of violence and gets desperate, police death squads usually pop up. The trend has been shown globally, whether it be in Brazil, the Congo, United States, Spain or Guatemala. It has been shown too that extra-judicial killings (for that is what the Commissioner wittingly or unwittingly has called for) does not cure the problem.

Nearer to home, in the land of Harold Crooks (of Crooks Report infamy) the police have and continue to operate with “impunity” when they carry out raids in garrison communities in Jamaica with the upshot oftentimes of sustained gun-battle with the police and the gunmen in the communities. Far from abating crime, or fostering police community relationship, this policy has had a regressive effect with respect to fighting crime. Violence, murder and mayhem continue to rule.

No one will deny the need or urgency to act on part of the police to get crime under control. But really, do we want to be creating another breeding ground for murderers who will kill with impunity and who will answer to no one? That is the state of affairs this new shoot to kill policy will create.

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