JAMAICA – Police Commissioner Dr Kevin Blake has scoffed at claims that members of the constabulary are trigger-happy, resulting in 13 fatal shootings by cops since the start of this year. According to Blake, people who are urging the police to show restraint should direct their attention at the gunmen who confront cops, as the men and women under his command will not back down from criminals. “We will pursue criminals, no matter where they are. It doesn’t matter what firepower they have or how tough they think they are; we are coming. This call for the police to reduce fatal shootings is wrongly directed. It should be directed at criminals who raise their guns [at the police], because you will not get me to tell my police not to pursue criminals. We are going [to],” Blake said Thursday night on the police force’s JCF Now programme aired on Radio Jamaica.
He argued that millions of dollars were invested last year to train police and the results must be reflected when they are confronted by criminals. “I don’t spend millions of dollars — millions each month — training my OSD (Operational Support Division) and my fighting force. I don’t train them and invest so much money just for criminals to take them out,” said Blake. Data from the Independent Commission of Investigations (Indecom) show that up to January 17 the number of people fatally shot by security forces in Jamaica stood at 13. (Jamaicaobserver)