'Cops are here to regulate'

Corey Robinson, Staff Reporter

A former policeman who used to work on the streets of Clarendon says there existed at the time a group of police officers called the Hit Squad.

They travelled in either a white or black Toyota Probox and were often masked. On many occasions, the reports on police shootings would have already been written, so they carried out their operations according to script, the ex-lawman claimed.

He told The Sunday Gleaner about the 'death tunnel', which is the first passage or doorway that the police team clears upon entering a targeted house.

Cringing, he recalled that anything could happen in those first few seconds, like a policeman walking into the path of an assault rifle and getting shot in the face.

This danger, coupled with the loss of fallen colleagues, is what fosters a hatred towards criminals in many policemen, the former cop said.

NECESSARY EVIL

A police officer currently operating from a government agency said extrajudicial killings are a type of evil that lawmen in Jamaica must live with.

"Such things are not professional, and even if they happen, they are not something that you want to put out there for people to know about because they paint no positive picture of the police, only negative," he said, before explaining how information is received about potential targets.

Most of the time, the men are known to both residents of their communities and divisional commanders, among other senior officers, the source explained.

"For example, you hear that John Tom is a troublemaker. People know it and they come out and talk. A policeman might be sleeping with a woman in the community and she mek him know that is John Tom doing the killing," the policeman explained. "Now, police is not idiot; the policeman is going to do him research and confirm that it is indeed John Tom doing the killing."

If that is the case, he said, "You catch John Tom and you 'knock' him. At the time, him don't have a gun on him, so you give him one."

He added: "Sometimes human rights and dem people there blame police for certain things, but they don't know the mentality of dem [criminal] bwoy here. Without regulation, there must be chaos, and that is what the police is here to do … regulate."

Both the police officer and former lawman said the guns or 'sweeties' placed on the dead men are often illegal weapons seized during police operations in which no one was arrested. These guns do not make their way into weapons-evidence storage - they end up on the street.

In Jamaica, it is common for official police reports to state that gunmen opened fire with a .38 revolver pistol. There is no mystery about that, said the former lawman, laughing. Those types of guns, he said, are older and will not stir much excitement in the media when seized.

Therefore, it is easier for them to go undocumented than the newer and more expensive handguns and rifles.