FUNERAL FOR SLAIN POLICE

POLICE Federation Chairman Sergeant Raymond Wilson, yesterday, spared no punches as he slammed rights groups and the Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM), the system of garrison politics, and the financiers of criminals, whom he said were all responsible for the death of Woman Constable Crystal Thomas, who was murdered in Kingston while heading home on a bus, last month.

Wilson appeared to slight security minister Peter Bunting during his scathing address at the funeral service for Thomas, which was held at Ebenezer Fellowship Church of God Seventh-day in Spanish Town, St Catherine.

Bunting — who sat between Commissioner of Police Dr Carl Williams and Opposition spokesman on security Derrick Smith — appeared uneasy as Wilson delivered the barbs to the encouragement of mourners inside the crammed church.

A hush fell as Wilson recounted a conversation with Bunting prior to Thomas’s death about the provision of transportation for Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) members who work late at nights.

Wilson said he asked Bunting, during a negotiation, if he was waiting for a police officer to be murdered while using the public transportation system before a bus is made available to take them home after work.

He said the minister’s response was that no money was available to fulfil that request.

“That is what the value of the life of a police officer is,” Wilson told mourners in his no-holds-barred address.

The outspoken Wilson said that for too long administrators have been giving police “basket to carry water” and it should now stop as he called for the support of the wider society.

Prior to Wilson’s address, Smith called on Bunting to make the provision of transportation for police officers who work late — especially female cops — a reality.

However, Bunting, who spoke after Smith, but before Wilson, stayed clear of the transportation issue.

To wild cheers, Wilson made a spirited call for Thomas to be posthumously awarded the medal of gallantry, saying she died fighting for her life and the lives of the passengers on the bus she was on.

Thomas was gunned down on Spanish Town Road, in Kingston, on July 14, while making her way home.

Twenty-nine-year-old Marlon Cherrington, otherwise called Kemar Anderson, of Kidd Lane, Kingston 11, was held a day after the murder. He, however, died two Fridays ago, days after being assaulted at the Hunts Bay police lock-up, where he was being held. The police commissioner has ordered a probe into Cherrington’s death.

Twenty-four-year-old Thomas had been a member of the constabulary for four years.

Yesterday, the large church couldn’t contain the huge crowd that turned out to bid farewell to Thomas. A dry eye was difficult to spot among mourners, many of whom had to settle for standing on the outside.

As the flag-draped casket was carried in, Thomas’s mother, Jacqueline Brown, broke out in uncontrollable wailing, and repeatedly called out her deceased daughter’s name. Attempts by a member of the JCF and relatives to comfort her seemed futile.

During a tribute by Thomas’s 119 batchmates, a male member had to be escorted from the podium as he buckled under the weight of his grief and sat heavy on the floor, weeping.

Wilson too appeared to have been crying and had to be comforted by a member of the Police Federation following his address.

During his presentation, Wilson asked what right does a gunman have to determine that a police officer or a law-abiding civilian should die. He asked what gave criminals “more right to life” than a police officer or “law-abiding citizens of this country”.

Thomas, he said, was killed by gunmen who knew that the laws were in their favour as opposed to police officers conducting their lawful duties. He noted that the policewoman was killed by criminals who knew that special interest groups would lobby on their behalf, while police officers had to finance their legal defence.

Bunting had said earlier the outpouring of grief since the tragic killing was an indication that a “true hero had been struck down”.